Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
British Liturature Since 1798, Natalie faces an identity collapse and…
British Liturature Since 1798
Industrialization + Modernity
Charles Dickens
"Hard Times"
Modernity erases individuality and the students and workers in Coketown are seen as interchangeable units.
The working class of Coketown is seen as nothing more than "the Hands"
"I am Josiah Bounderby of Coketown. I know the bricks of this town, and I know the works of this town, and I know the chimneys of this town, and I know the smoke of this town, and I know the Hands of this town. I know ' em all pretty well. They're real."
pg 286
Coketown represented the dark side of the Industrial Revolution showing its monotony, dullness pollution, and grinding factory labor
"It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it ; but as matters stood it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever," pg 26
Though the factories and industrial technology physically brought the working class in Coketown together, they were still emotionally isolated and stripped of individuality
Gradgrind's "facts only" philosophy shows the utilitarian mindset of modern industrial society.
Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts : nothing else will ever be of any service to them. pg.2
Dickens uses
Hard Times
to condemn and deeply criticize Victorian Industrial society and homing in on the materialistic utilitarianism that treats human beings like machines.
We discussed Dickens's real life political stance on industrial conflicts around the time of the Preston Strike of 1853-1854
In 1854 Charles Dickens wrote an essay titled
On Strike
that also highlighted Dickens's argument that political economy without humanity is damaging.
He writes: "political economy is a mere skeleton unless it has a little human covering and filling out, a little human bloom upon it, and a little human warmth in it"
Both the novel and the essay reinforces Dickens's theme that mechanization and profit driven modernity have to be balanced with compassion, immagination, and human connection
Virginia Woolf "
Mrs. Dalloway"
London is shown as a rapidly modernizing city after WW1 with planes, cars, busses, and crowded streets
Septimus's trauma represents the psychological costs of a modern war that was made possible by modern industrial technology
Clarissa's walks throughout London show how modern urban spaces shape thought, memory and identity
Woolf uses the sound of Big Ben chimes to symbolized mechanized time measured by machines rather than personal experience or nature
Big Ben becomes a symbol of the rigid structure forced on the people living in modern London
Londons urban crowds and constant noise create proximity but also emotional isolation
Zadie Smith "
NW
Gentrification reveals modernity's unequal distribution of opportunity
Technology gives the characters more
contact
but less
closeness
fragmentation of identities, neighborhoods, and social mobility pathways
Leah prioritizes 'morals', and Michel doesn't. His desire to be rich comes from a desire for social mobility.
"Privately she thinks: you want to be rich like them but you can’t be bothered with their morals, whereas I am more interested in their morals than their money, and this thought, this opposition, makes her feel good" pg 80
Hanif Kureishi
The Buddah of Suburbia
modernity in the novel is tied to multiculturalism as Britain evolves due to immigration and global culture changes
J.G. Ballard
"The Drowned World"
Humans psychologically regressing as if modern behavior and identity was a thin layer over primal instincts
The novel depicts a post-modernity version of the future and rather than glorifying modernity Ballard imagines its aftermath
Modern infrastructures became useless
Class, Inequality, and Social Hierarchies
Hanif Kureishi
The Buddah of Suburbia
Karim wanting to transcend suburban stagnation
Karims usage of performance, sexuality and art to try out different identities
Class eventually becomes a costume for both Karim and his father
Karim struggles with authenticity
The novel is set in transitional Britain where there are strikes, economic decline, and racial tensions
Kureshi shows everyday encounters including slurs and exoticization
Zadie Smith "
NW
social mobility adn its limits in council estates
Natalie, Felix, and Leah all grew up in Caldwell but experience class mobility differently
Natalie "succeeds" through education and a rebrand from Keisha to Natalie
Mobility is constrained by race, postal code, and inequality
Mobility was possible through cultural capital, reinvention and performance
You can perform a new identity but others may still see your origin
Virginia Woolf "
Mrs. Dalloway"
upper-class social preservation is portrayed through Clarissa's whole day revolving around throwing the perfect party
Septimus, a traumatized veteran is ignored by the upper-class society
The elite medical class refuses to recognize his trauma ultimately leading to his suicide
Charles Dickens
"Hard Times"
Coketown is an industrial class trap
Stephen Blackpool symbolizing the working class moral suffering
Victorian society traps and punishes those at the bottom
Stephen Blackpool was punished facing false accusations, isolation, and death
Escaping their class led to consequences
Empire and Post-colonial Britain
Smith portrays London to be diverse and vibrant but still segragated by class, race, and opportunity
Ballard imagines the opposite of an empire where instead of Britain colonizing the tropics, the tropics are colonizing Britain
Gender, Sexuality, and Identity
Leah struggles with autonomy, resisting motherhood as it's a gender expectation.
Mind, Memory, and Inner Life
trauma, memory, and fragmented conciousness
Charles Dickens
"Hard Times"
Sissy Jupe symbolizes emotional richness highlights what is lost in their society
Louisa not being able to articulate her emotions and eventually having an emotional breakdown represents the psychological cost of this mindset
Repression of emotion under utilitarian thinking
Lousisa is a symbol of female suffocation under utilitarian logic due to Victorian gender roles
Her marriage to Bounderby also symbolized how women in Victorian society were treated as economic attachments
Virginia Woolf "
Mrs. Dalloway"
Woolf uses inner monologue to portray non-linear, emotionally charged thoughts.
Septimus's trauma interrupts time and reality as his mind replays Evan's gruesome death
Modern London is full of interruptions that barge into the characters thoughts redirecting them
Big ben, traffic, crowds, planes writing in the sky
J.G. Ballard
"The Drowned World"
Ballard emphasizes psychoanalysis and dream symbolism
The unconcious mind resurfaces as civilization collapses
environmental determinism
climate catastrophe reshapes human psychology
Leahs inner life is full of avoidance, doubt, and decision paralysis
Environment, and Place
Coketown mirros social and mental dehumanization as it's depicted to be an industrial space that degrades workers and limits freedom
Time, History, and Narrative Form
Hard Times,
follows linear Victorian realism and the events unfold in chronological order
Time is mechanical and associated with industrial regularity
Mrs. Dalloway
unfolds one day by weaving between past and present
Big Ben marks clock time but the characters flow through decades of memories
The time in
NW
jumps unpredictably reflecting memory and identity instability
The way Natalies life is told shows how she compartmentalizes her identity
In
The Drowned World
time is geological
Human chronology collapses, and history is moving back to a prehistoric state
Kerans experiences "deep time" through dreams
Natalie faces an identity collapse and emotional crisis