Stan barstow

(b. 1928)

Stan Barstow is another novelist whose name is connected with the development of the working-class novel. Like Sid Chaplin he comes from a miner's family, knows wor­ king-class liie and understands it perfectly. A Kind of Lou­ ing ( 1960) won immediate acknowledgement and was una­ nimously labelled by critics as a working-class novel.

It is a story about a young lad working at the office of a small factory. Vic Brown is not a worker like the charac­ ters of Sillitoe and Chaplin, he is a clerk. But his working­ class origin (Vic's father is a miner) brings him very near to the workers. The writer traces the process through which a working-class family becomes bourgeois. This, in the author's opinion, is one of the problems facing the modern English working class.

Vic Brown thinks neither of the future, nor of the ways to make it better He lives in the present, and the problems which worry him concern, mostly, his private life. We feel that Vic is not always happy, he is bored and lonely, his

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dream of a great love is gone, he is dissatisfied both with his private life and with his work.

The main character of Barstow's next novel Asll me Tomorrow ( 1962) is Wilf Cotton, a writer He comes from a mining village which he soon leaves for a nearby city where he hopes to better understand man's nature and

develop his artistic talent.

He cannot yet find an answer to all the life-problems

but he is sure that "next year will be better than to-day, if

only you can get to the centre of it and find what you want", as he says to his friend. If Vic Brown takes every­

thing for granted, believes in all the official propaganda, Wilf Cotton very often feels doubts and tries to think for himself. His division of all writers into "creators" and "caterers" speaks of a serious and thoughtful approach to literature. "There are two kinds of writers broadly speak­ ing: the caterers and the creators, and they can be found at all levels... The caterers work to satisfy a ready-made market... The creators work to make their own market.

Some of them have a hard time at the beginning and a lot of them never make much money all their lives. But at least the people who know them and read them can trust them to give them a square deal"

We cannot say, however, that Wili Cotton found an­

swers to all the problems he faced but he is eager to find them.

In 1965 Stan Barstow wrote the novel The Watchers on

the Shore, which is a sequel to A Kind of Loving. The final

novel of the frilogy, with Vic Brown as the main character, is The Right True End (1976).

The novel The Watchers on the Shore, is considerably

weaker than A Kind of Loving. It does not raise the im­

portant social problems of the English working class,

neither does it touch on the problem of the search for per­

sonal happiness. This book is an example of a "well-made" novel without particular depth of thought.

The Right True End is, unfortunately, as weak as the second novel. Vic has become an engineer and has achieved personal happiness and financial security. The son of a miner joins the middle class, which he so longed to do.

Barstow has lost interest in the working-class theme, which was so important for him in his youth.

The working-class novel of the 50-GOs in England

united many writers besides those mentioned above. Here belong Raymond Williams whose novels Border-country

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( 1960) and Second Generation ( 1964) help to understand the development of the working-class novel to a greater extent; David Storey (This Sporting Life, 1960), David Stuart Leslie (In my Solitude, 1960) and others.

The rise of the working-class novel, which came about in the 60s, was followed by a period of relative decline in the 70s. The number of novels dedicated to the workers' theme grew smaller. Most of the writers turned their at­ tention to the past. One of the most interesting works of the decade is Saville ( 1976) by David Storey. The novel gives a detailed description of the life of a Yorkshire miner's family and draws true-to-life portr'aits of the workers. It also shows the conflict between the miners and the local bourgeoisie. Yet Saville can hardly be called a working­ class novel. The main character, Colin Saville, breaks his ties with the workers' community and goes in search of ideals which, however, are very vague and uncertain. The author also fails to depict the class conflict which has always been an essential element of a truly realistic social work.

The early 80s in England were marked by a sharpening

of class contradictions brought about by the economic policy of Margaret Thatcher's conservative government. The great strike of the miners (1984-1985) demonstrated their resolution to defend their rights as well as the sol­ idarity of the proletariat and the progressives of the whole world.

I. When did the working-class novel appear in English literature? Who was its initiator? 2. What is Sillitoe's novel Key to the Door about?

3. What is the main problem of S. Chaplin's novel The Dau of the Sar­

dine? 4. What process does Barstow trace in his novel A l(ind of Luuing?

_{5. Why c<Jnnot we call Saville a working-class novcP}

I

THE PHILOSOPHICAL NOVEL

The political and social developments in the second half of the 20th century Jed the literary men of England to serious meditations on the future of mankind, the aim of

'llan's life, man's place in society. These problems are the

essence of the philosophical novel which came into ex­ istence in the early 50s. The most prominent represent­ atives of the genre are William Golding, Iris Murdoch, Colin Wilson and, to a certain extent, John Fowles.

_{Much of their work is influenced by the existentialist}

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philosophy of the French modernists Sartre, Camus and others. Subjective idealism lies at the basis of it. It dis­ regards the social preconditions of man's life. Human existence is considered by existentialism purposeless and absurd. According to the existentialists, society is a mere combin< tion of isolated individu< ls and each of them is free to act as he chooses. "Free choice" is one of the key moral concepts of existentialist philosophy.

None of the English writers followed the ide<Js of the French existentialists completely, yet existentialist moWs permeate their works. Their novels are marked by pes­ simism and fear Most of their heroes are lonely despairing individuals, powerless in a hostile and chaotic world. The

relations between people are usually characterized by indifference and alienation. Symbolism and allegory are the chief literary devices in the philosophical novel.