Department of English Language and Literature
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Browsing Department of English Language and Literature by Author "ATİLA, Oğuzhan"
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Item CLASS, IDEOLOGY AND HEGEMONY IN LIONEL BRITTON’S HUNGER AND LOVE, ROBERT TRESSELL’S THE RAGGED TROUSERED PHILANTHROPISTS, AND WALTER GREENWOOD’S LOVE ON THE DOLE(2022-01-25) ATİLA, Oğuzhan; GÜLTEKİN, Azade LerzanThis thesis explores themes of class, ideology and hegemony in line with novelistic form and style in selected proletarian novels written in the early decades of twentieth century England. The approach adopted in the analyses of the novels is that of Marxist Literary theory, including both classical and post-Marxist point of view. The writers studied in this dissertation are distinguished in that they all belonged to the intellectual layer of proletariat and wrote their novels relying on their own experiences. In Hunger and Love, Lionel Britton deals with the problems in the capitalist society through an experimental style. Different from Walter Greenwood and Robert Tressell, Britton abundantly uses scientific, psychological and historical terms as well as a large number of references to literary figures. Rather than picturing working-class life through a large working community, Britton takes a few individual characters as the microcosm in his novel and uncovers universal truth about working-class culture and life in the capitalist world. While attacking the hegemonic class, he reveals class discrimination and ideological practices in the society. Walter Greenwood and Robert Tressell deal with miserable working and living conditions of a working-class community, with a particular attention to unemployment and poverty. While the setting in Greenwood’s novel is an industrial town, Tressell uses a non-industrial, Edwardian setting, the characters being artisans rather than factory workers. Both writers reveal how capitalism makes slaves out of workers through ideological and repressive state apparatuses. Tressell’s novel abounds in religious and political references that help the reader to understand the context of narration. Greenwood’s novel is treated as a social documentary; less explicit in its attack to the system and more psychological in dealing with the characters. Overall, the ultimate aim of this study is to reveal that the literary works in question need to take their places among canonized literature and further research is to be encouraged.