Angry Young Men: Difference between revisions
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It quickly spread to become an overall term for his fellow writers whose plays centered around expressing anger towards society and the coherent aversion against upper classes, usually featuring a male protagonist. But contrary to what one might think, the writers did not share a feeling of fraternity according to publisher Tom Maschler: "They do not belong to a united movement. Far from it; they attack one another directly or indirectly in these pages. Some were even reluctant to appear between the same covers with others whose views they violently oppose." [source??] | It quickly spread to become an overall term for his fellow writers whose plays centered around expressing anger towards society and the coherent aversion against upper classes, usually featuring a male protagonist. But contrary to what one might think, the writers did not share a feeling of fraternity according to publisher Tom Maschler: "They do not belong to a united movement. Far from it; they attack one another directly or indirectly in these pages. Some were even reluctant to appear between the same covers with others whose views they violently oppose." [source??] | ||
Which leads to the question - did their obviously blind anger go so far that they even neglected the likeminded? Though some female writers like [[Shelagh Delaney]] or [[Doris May Lessing]] were counted to this movement, John Osborne once wrote in an newspaper article concerning the Suez Crisis: "What's gone wrong with WOMEN?" [source?? But then: much of the anger of the angry young men was directed against women. Best example again: Jimmy Porter] | Which leads to the question - did their obviously blind anger go so far that they even neglected the likeminded? Though some female writers like [[Shelagh Delaney]] or [[Doris Lessing|Doris May Lessing]] were counted to this movement, John Osborne once wrote in an newspaper article concerning the Suez Crisis: "What's gone wrong with WOMEN?" [source?? But then: much of the anger of the angry young men was directed against women. Best example again: Jimmy Porter] | ||
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Considering the fact that the term Angry Young Man is widely spread, you hardly find a female equivalent. The women’s role in the 1950s was mostly reduced to being a good housewife, raising the family, being a “homemaker” with the husband as the breadwinner. This role consolidated with the formation of suburbs, when middle-class families moved from the city to suburban estates. | Considering the fact that the term Angry Young Man is widely spread, you hardly find a female equivalent. The women’s role in the 1950s was mostly reduced to being a good housewife, raising the family, being a “homemaker” with the husband as the breadwinner. This role consolidated with the formation of suburbs, when middle-class families moved from the city to suburban estates. | ||
== Sources == | |||
*http://www.abouthumanrights.co.uk/human-rights-gender-equality.html | |||
http://www.abouthumanrights.co.uk/human-rights-gender-equality.html | *http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/25251/Angry-Young-Men | ||
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/25251/Angry-Young-Men | *http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7633432/Alan-Sillitoe-Who-are-you-calling-angry.html | ||
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7633432/Alan-Sillitoe-Who-are-you-calling-angry.html | |||
Revision as of 07:29, 14 May 2012
Literary phenomenon around the middle of the 1950s. Novels, plays and movies started to feature young men who bore grudges, behaved strangely and could be called "angry". Best example probably Jimmy Porter, the protagonist of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956). Soon scholars found a new label for this phenomenon: Angry Young Men.
Whether it was really a group, and whether the writing of this 'group' is really pertinent and relevant in the bigger framework of post-modernism might be doubted. Yet, they still feature in the British collective memory.
Origin
Coined in the 1950s, the term Angry Young Men was not exactly chosen by the bearers themselves. British authors like John Osborne, Alan Sillitoe, John Braine or Kingsley Amis were held responsible for bringing the term to life through their works – being fed up with society and expressing their anger towards their country. They were mostly members of the working or (lower) middle class and shared an animosity against Britain’s class system:
"They showed an equally uninhibited disdain for the drabness of the postwar welfare state and their writings frequently expressed raw anger and frustration as the postwar reforms failed to meet exalted aspirations for genuine change." [source??]
Following the publication of Look Back In Anger it was set as the prime example of this literary movement, after the Royal Court Theatre’s press agent at that time gave the term to John Osborne, commenting after disliking the play: "I suppose you're really an angry young man" [source??].
It quickly spread to become an overall term for his fellow writers whose plays centered around expressing anger towards society and the coherent aversion against upper classes, usually featuring a male protagonist. But contrary to what one might think, the writers did not share a feeling of fraternity according to publisher Tom Maschler: "They do not belong to a united movement. Far from it; they attack one another directly or indirectly in these pages. Some were even reluctant to appear between the same covers with others whose views they violently oppose." [source??]
Which leads to the question - did their obviously blind anger go so far that they even neglected the likeminded? Though some female writers like Shelagh Delaney or Doris May Lessing were counted to this movement, John Osborne once wrote in an newspaper article concerning the Suez Crisis: "What's gone wrong with WOMEN?" [source?? But then: much of the anger of the angry young men was directed against women. Best example again: Jimmy Porter]
Angry Young Women?
Considering the fact that the term Angry Young Man is widely spread, you hardly find a female equivalent. The women’s role in the 1950s was mostly reduced to being a good housewife, raising the family, being a “homemaker” with the husband as the breadwinner. This role consolidated with the formation of suburbs, when middle-class families moved from the city to suburban estates.