Community of youth culture

Youth culture generally refers to the ways young people (adolescents and teenagers) differentiate themselves from the general culture of their community.

Speaking about Fashion in 2003 it was quite cool to keep one's most important things – keys, wallet, and mobile phone, on the end of a long chain that hangs down your leg. Though the person should have to be young to do this. I don’t think any of the followers of this fashion realise that it comes from the Britain about fifty years ago. In those days, that long chain was one component of the “Edwardian” style. It went together with a big jacket and very narrow trousers - a mixture of aristocratic fashion from before the first world war and the clothes of Mississippi gamblers. The people who dressed like this were the “Teddy Boys”, the original youth culture, and, first of all, they were just the young who dressed in a particular style, but youth culture isn’t only about the clothes you wear. In Britain, youth culture is much more than fashion. Put on the clothes, you start to move in a different way. If you don’t dress and move like other young people, then you get older, and more respectable, people nervous. People didn’t like the Teddy Boys, they thought they were stupid or criminals.

In the 1950’s, in Britain the young thought that “more beautiful” world was in America somewhere. The next subculture probably thought it was in Italy. Maybe it began with the opening of cafes with Italian coffee machines. In those days there were the best places for the young to meet. The Mods also loved Italian suits and, most of all, the scooters made by Vespa and Lambretta. The philosophy was aesthetic. Mods were very serious about their appearance and the appearance of their scooters. They listened to a variety of music: American and British, anything “pop” that wasn’t rock’n’roll – the teds’ music was already old-fashioned, and definitely not “mod”. Mod means something like “modern” or “modernist”.

In the 1970’s there were revivals of “ted” and “mod” style. Around the same time, punk appeared. The early days of punk were controlled by people who understood how  youth cultures start and grow. They knew that the style had to symbolise a point of view with clothes and movement, and that there had to be music and star performers to make it popular. The Sex Pistols were created for this purpose. Punk had democratic principles - the new and interesting element was the idea that the cool and beautiful people were not foreign or exotic stars, but the young audience itself. They told everyone to start their own rock group, organise their own night clubs and magazines, and a lot of them did.

British youth cultures (or subcultures) seem to travel around the world too. It’s surprising because they are so strange and extreme even in Britain, that it seems impossible for youngsters in other countries to understand and like them. The three subcultures I have mentioned are only the biggest and most important examples. All mix together and have revivals and make new combinations. But if you look closely at any teenager on the planet you will see a little bit of Elvis somewhere. Or maybe you will see a punk-mod-teddy boy.

So we can see that communities is one of possible of expression youth culture.

Lasarenko Y.

“The Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian”: Reality and Fiction

Marina Lewycka is a British writer of Ukrainian origin, whose first published novel “The Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian” is based predominantly on her autobiographical experience. The main characters of her book, the Mayevskis, went through exactly the same events her family did: the occupation of the land by Nazi, the labour camp, immigration.

Just like M.Lewycka’s family, the Mayevskis have problems with adaptation, they never completely adjust to the way of life, thinking and behavior in Great Britain. It’s not by chance that reflecting on her family’s past Nadezhda says: “We spoke a different language from our neighbours and ate different food, and worked hard and kept out of everybody’s way” [p.48]. She characterizes her family as the family in exile. The word suggests that they never felt at ease and at home where they lived. Revealing the story of the Mayevskis’ life, the tragic events which led to the execution of Ocheretko by the Soviets, the expel of L.Mayevska from the university as the daughter of the public enemy, the famine of 1933, the World War II, the labour camp and finally immigration to Great Britain as an attempt to lead life without fear, in peace and security, M.Lewycka is practically revealing the story of her own family. Nadezhda, on behalf of whom the narration is held, is the reflection of M.Lewycka herself to some extent. Just like Nadezhda as a teenager she was a rebel, a left-wing activist and lived in a commune. Just like her she had “to endure traditional recipes and home-baking” and being a daughter of Ukrainian refugees she seemed to be one person with her friends and quite another with her family. They both find their fathers who had written books about tractors eccentric, but are still very fond of them.

Such a particular point of view (not being completely British and yet already not Ukrainian) allows M.Lewycka to observe Great Britain as an insider and as an outsider. It enables her to grasp the most relevant things about British and Ukrainian cultures and to show how an individual grows up and develops in such a mixed surroundings of cultures.

Lysiuk Tetiana