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Teresa [email protected]
University of Southern Mississippi
April 26, 2009
Often considered “radical” authors and playwrights between the1940’s and 1950’s
Prevalent in Post World War II Britain
Men who were unsatisfied with new social programs
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Post WWII life◦“Quality” as well as quantity of life
(Heyck 234)◦Promotion of the arts◦New opportunities for education◦New Housing◦National Health Service◦Social Insurance
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◦Meant to decrease the ever-present gap between social classes, but only seemed
to accentuate it
◦New social reforms and institutions not sufficient according to the Angry Young Men
◦Old problems remained: class division, monarchy, and the old church still
prevalent
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“According to him, it’s not even red brick, but white tile” (Osborne, 42)
Remaining class division based on education.
Less prestigious than Oxford, Cambridge, etc.
Failure of Welfare State’s education goals
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•Born 1922
•Lucky Jim, 1954Satire of academic life
•Satire and Comedy
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http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/03/books/scot190.jpg
• Born 1922
• Themes of aggressive determination to break through class barriers
• Room at the Top 1957Analyzes the struggle for corporate power
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thetelegraphandargus.co.uk
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• Born 1928
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning 1958
• Personal rebellion
http://www.london-books.co.uk/images/BOOKS/WRITERS/alan_sillitoe.jpg
Born 1929 A Better Class of
Person 1981 Look Back in Anger
1957 Said to be an Angry
Young Man himself Used emotionally
charged exchanges in everyday life to express anger
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http://www.creativecow.co.uk/images/josborne.jpg
• Coined the phrase “Angry Young Men”
• Jim, detestable and strangely pitiable
• Alison, representative of oppressive society
• Church, Money, Education• Resulting feelings of guilt for
“oppressing” Jimmy
• Jim’s misfortune and frustration• White brick university• Watching his father die• Distrust of his own wife• Marriage as either attempt to
gain class or as revenge10
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Thank you.
Questions?
Heyck, William. The Peoples of the British Isles, a New History. 3rd ed. Chicago: Lyceum Books, Inc., 2008. Print.
Osborne, John. Look Back in Anger. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1957. Print
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