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The English Short Story, 1945-1980: A Critical History PDF

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A CRITICAL HISTORY TWAYNE'S CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY William Peden, General Editor University of Missouri-Columbia The American Shore Storx "';fore 18 50 Eugene Current-Garcia, Auburn University The American Short Story, 1850-1900 Donald Crowley, University of Missouri-Columbia The American Short Story, 1900-1945 Philip Stevick, Temple University The American Short Story, 194 5-1980 Gordon Weaver, Oklahoma State University The En9lish Short Story, 1880-1945 Joseph M. Flora, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill The Irish Shore Story James f. Kilroy, Vanderbilt University The Latin American Shore Story Margaret Sayers Peden, University of Missouri-Columbia The Russian Shore Story Charles Moser, George Washington University .. A CRITICAL HISTORY Dennis Vannatta University of Arkansas at Little Rock Twayne Publishers ... The English Short Story 1945-1980 A Critical History Copyri?,ht © 1985 by G. K. Hall & Company All Rights Reserved P11bli1hed in 1985 by Twayne P11bli1hers A Division of G. K. Hall & Company 70 Lincoln Street, Boston, Massach11setts 02111 Printed on permanent/durable acid-free paper and bound in the United States of America First Printing Book production by Marne Sultz Book design by Barbara Anderson Typeset in 11 pt. Garamond U'ith Perpet11a display type by Compset. Inc. of Beverly. MA Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: The English short story, 1945-1980 (Twayne's critical history of the short story) Biblio?,raphy: p. 17 5 lnd11des index_. Con/mis: Chronolo!!,y - Introduction - The En?,lish short story. 1945-1950 I john). Stinson - [etc.} 1. Short stories. En11.lis~H istory and criticism. 2. English fiction-20th cen/11ry H islory and criticism. I. Vannatta, Dennis P. JI. Series. PR829.E533 1985 823' .Ol 109 85-8574 ISBN 0-8057-9358-5 .. TR g:29 ES-33 7 I <:jS Contents CHRONOLOGY VII INTRODUCTION ix THE ENGLISH SHORT STORY, 1945-1950 1 John ]. Stinson THE ENGLISH SHORT STORY IN THE FIFTIES 34 Dean &ldwin THE ENGLISH SHORT STORY IN THE SIXTIES 75 Jean Pickerin9 THE ENGLISH SHORT STORY IN THE SEVENTIES 120 Walter Evans NOTES AND REFERENCES 173 BIBLIOGRAPHY 175 ef Selected Biblioaraphy En9lish Shore Story Collections, 1945-1980 175 ef Selected and Annotated Biblioaraphy Secondary Sources 190 INDEX 197 .. Chronology 1945 Clement Attlee elected prime minister. Death of Caradoc Evans. Anna Kavan, I Am Lazarus. 1946 National Health Service Act passed. Death of H. G. Wells. 1947 Dominions of India and Pakistan established. Graham Greene, Nineteen Stories. No Scottish Twilight: New Scottish Short Stories, edited by Maurice Lindsay and Fred Urquhart. 1948 William Sansom, Something Terrible, Something Lovely. 1949 West Country Short Stories, edited by Lewis Wilshire. 1950 Angus Wilson, Such Darling Dodos and Other Stories. 1951 Sir Winston Churchill reelected prime minister. 1952 Death of George VI. Elizabeth II accedes to the throne. 1953 Death of Dylan Thomas. 195 5 Sir Anthony Eden elected prime minister. 1956 Death of Walter de la Mare. V. S. Pritchett, Collected Stories. 1957 Harold Macmillan elected prime minister. Death of A. E. Coppard. 1958 Muriel Spark, The Go-Away Bird and Other Stories. 1959 Alan Sillitoe, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. 1960 Introduction: Stories by New Writers first published. 1961 Arena begins publication. London Magazine begins publication. 1962 Death of Karen Blixen (Isak Dineson). 1963 Sir Alec Douglas-Home elected prime minister. Death of Aldous Huxley. r\.,.:,..; ..... -.1 f,,.,... ........ vm THE ENGLISH SHORT STORY 1945-1980 1964 Harold Wilson elected prime minister. Robert Graves, Col lected Stories. 1965 Death of W. Somerset Maugham. Doris Lessing, African Stories. 1966 Death of Evelyn Waugh. Alta begins publication. 1968 Death of Anna Kavan. Muriel Spark, Collected Stories. James Stern, The Stories ofJ ames Stern. 1969 British troops rushed to Ulster. Death of Osbert Sitwell. Edward Upward, The Railway Accident and Other Stories. 1970 Edward Heath elected prime minister. Death of E. M. For ster. Roald Dahl, Selected Stories. 1971 Gabriel Fielding, Collected Short Stories. Glyn Jones, Selected Short Stories. 1973 Graham Greene, The Collected Stories ofG raham Greene. Dor is Lessing, Collected African Stories. 1974 Harold Wilson reelected prime minister. Death of H. E. Bates. Gwyn Jones, Selected Short Stories. 1975 Beyond the Wordr: Eleven Writers in Search of a New Fiction, edited by Giles Gordon. 1976 James Callaghan elected prime minister. 1978 Roald Dahl, The Best of Roald Dahl. Doris Lessing, Collected Stories (vol. I, To Room Nineteen; vol. 2, The Temptation of jack Orkney). Modern Scollish Short Stories, edited by Fred Urquhart and Giles Gordon. V. S. Pritchett, Selected Stories. 1979 Margaret Thatcher elected prime minister. 1980 Kingsley Amis, Collected Short Stories . .. Introduction The Short Story in Postwar British Culture To understand fully any specific body of literature or any specific genre, we must, of course, understand something about the society from which it springs. It is no revelation to observe that the years immedi ately following World War II were for all nations involved at the best a period of transition and at the worst a time of near chaos. The con temporary British short story is the product of a society in often painful flux. If the problems facing postwar British society were less dramatic than those facing Germany, Poland, Italy, Japan, or China, they were nevertheless severe, rooted both in the immediate effects of the war and, more fundamental, in old sores that had been festering since the turn of the century and before. That Britain's problems were long standing is best dramatized by Lord Churchill's defeat in the 1945 and 1950 elections-a stunning and perplexing circumstance to casual ob servers, considering Churchill's almost mythic status as World War II savior. Yet the people were not rejecting Churchill so much as the Conservative party, whose policies had, in the eyes of many, both led to and failed to lead Britain out of the economic slump of the 1930s. Britain did not face the depression alone, of course; it plagued most of the industrial world and was actually less severe in Britain than in, for instance, the United States. Many of Britain's problems in the post World War II period had their roots, in fact, in issues dating from before World War I. Only the most jingoistic Britisher could deny that the empire was slowly fading in scope and vitality throughout the twentieth century. The beginning of the end had been signaled sym- x THE ENGLISH SHORT STORY 1945-1980 bolically by the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. Of much more prac tical note, however, had been the devastating effects of the Boer War in the 1890s-a grueling, seemingly endless struggle that had caused Britishers co question not only their empire's military strength bur, more important, its moral and ethical strength. Clement Attlee and his Labour party's victory over Churchill, then, indicated that the Brit ish were looking for new leaders with innovative ideas for dealing with problems old and new. Britain emerged from World War II-perhaps its proudest moment as a military power since the defeat of the Spanish Armada-with the look of a conquered nation. Many of its cities were in ruins; its factories and railroads were worn out in the effort to supply the war machine; worse, a huge war debt compounded the problems, requiring a nation whose balance of payment deficits were centuries old co attempt to export products in greater quantities. Producing for export requires money; there was little. It requires efficient factories; the factories were worn our. Britain found itself in the economically untenable position of needing to borrow huge sums of money in order co reach the poten tial of paying off old debts. One of the results was that with exports going to pay off debts rather than to bring in capital or material goods, consumer goods were scarce, and the government enacted strong ra tioning measures-frequently more stringent than rationing imposed during World War II. Large loans from the United States and, especially, the Marshall Plan helped Britain regain a measure of economic vitality. Economic prob lems, however, have continued to plague Britain since the war. More over, many of the measures taken by the Labour party and subsequent governments to combat the economic woes have had as great an impact on the British character and way of life as inflation, unemployment, and declining production. One of the more radical measures was the nationalization of certain industries and utilities such as coal, gas, elec tricity, and various transport industries. Nationalization mer with ap proval in some sectors, bitter invective in others; it was nor a resounding success, and some nationalization acts were rescinded. Of even more pervasive impact on British society has been the growth of the welfare state, especially in health and housing. The welfare state has also had mixed results but seems, nevertheless, a permanent feature of British life. The emergent European Economic Community seemed one possible broad solution to the economic problems, but Britain was reluctant to join for practical and for symbolic reasons: her ancient .. Introduction XI island status might be compromised, spiritually if noc geographically, by such a union wich che Continent. Join she did eventually, but the Common Markee has not been che godsend some envisioned. Ocher problems or issues important in postwar Britain are less spe cifically economic in nature but frequencly result in pare from econom ic issues or in curn cause economic problems. If che decline of che empire could be said co begin with the death of Victoria in 190 l, the end itself could clearly be seen by 1947 with the loss of the "Crown Jewel," India. Over the next few years, ocher countries in Asia and Africa gained their independence, and Britain's stature as leader of che Commonwealch began co erode co something closer co member of che Commonwealth. A related problem, growing more severe over che years, is chat of race. The influx of large numbers of Asians and Afri cans has exacerbated housing and unemployment problems, led co ide ological and even physical confroncacions, and fed the fires of a sad, desperate bigotry. Even worse is the "Irish question," the bloody legacy of centuries of British exploitation, racism, and brutality-a question with only one answer, obvious co all but more difficult co embrace with each new ace of terrorism and retaliation. The list of Britain's problems in the pose-World War II years is lengthy: youth disaffection and violence, government corruption and scandal, increasing agitation for Welsh independence, the "brain drain," and so on. And though Britain managed to avoid the bloody conflict in Vietnam, victory in World War II did not usher in an age of blissful peace. The Jewish-Palescinean question lay largely in Brit ain's unwilling hands until 1948; the Persian nationalization of British oil interests in 1951 brought the nation co che brink of war once more; the festering Israeli-Egyptian problem culminated in che Suez crisis of 1956, almost plunging Britain inco war again and straining, briefly, relations with the United Scates. Lurking behind and in the midst of all this was che cold war and the numbing possibility of nuclear warfare. It is, perhaps, not simply engaging in facile stereotype to observe chat che stiff upper lip in face of trouble is pare of the British character. There seems to remain something endearingly "British" about che Brit ish even in the worst of times, times of radical and fundamental change. Still, the Britain of post-World War II is not che Britain of 1939 and certainly not of 1899. What chis means for che British shore story since the war remains co be seen. • • •

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