The Resurrection of the «Spectre»

Sercan Hamza Bağlama

The Resurrection of the Spectre

A Marxist Analysis of Race, Class and Alienation
in the Post-war British Novel

Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available online at http://dnb.d‐nb.de.

Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

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Cover image: © Sercan Hamza Bağlama

ISBN 978‐3‐631‐76750‐4 (Print) ∙

E‐ISBN 978‐3‐631‐76789‐4 (E‐PDF)

E‐ISBN 978‐3‐631‐76790‐0 (EPUB) ∙

E‐ISBN 978‐3‐631‐76791‐7 (MOBI)

DOI 10.3726/ b14714

© Peter Lang GmbH

Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften

Berlin 2018

All rights reserved.

Peter Lang – Berlin ∙ Bern ∙ Bruxelles ∙ New York ∙ Oxford ∙ Warszawa ∙ Wien

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About the author

Sercan Hamza Bağlama graduated from the department of English Language and Literature at Hacettepe University, Turkey. He, then, completed his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Patricia Waugh at Durham University, UK. He visited the University of California, Berkeley as a research scholar. He now works in the department of English Literature at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey. His research interests lie in post-war British literature, literary theories and political philosophy.

About the book

This book analyses the literary works of Alan Sillitoe, Sam Selvon, Doris Lessing and James Kelman since each of them is a representative of a different class or colour or gender or region in post-war Britain. The overall aim of the book is to reconceptualise the broader economic, cultural and social framework of the processes of alienation and of escape mechanisms employed by the individual as defence mechanisms in capitalist cultures. Suggesting that postmodern identity politics is unable to give a materialistic articulation of poverty and subordination, the book develops an anti-establishment, egalitarian and emancipatory framework in reading its authors: one which might also be implemented as part of a movement that aims to critique, resist and overthrow injustice and oppression.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter I: Marxism and Class

1. In Defence of Marxism

2. The Concept of Class from Capitalism to Neo-Capitalism

2.1. What is Class?

2.2. Different Class Models After Marx

Chapter II: Alienation

1. Introduction

1.1. Hegelian Alienation

1.2. Feuerbach and Alienation

1.3. Karl Marx and The Concept of Alienation

1.3.1.The Conception of Human Nature

1.3.2.Marxist Alienation

1.3.3.Division of Labour

1.3.4.Commodity Fetishism

1.4. Melvin Seeman and The Theory of Alienation

Chapter III: Alan Sillitoe

1. The Dichotomy of ‘Them’ and ‘Us’

2. Alienation and Escape Mechanisms

Chapter IV: Sam Selvon

1. Form and Language

2. Class and Race

3. Racism, Alienation and Victimisation

Chapter V: Doris Lessing

1. The Role of the Left-Wing Writer in a Mid-Fifties Communist Milieu ←5 | 6→

2. Left-Wing Activism in The Golden Notebook

3. The Critique of Socialism or Stalinism?

4. Reading Apartheid in The Golden Notebook and The Grass is Singing