Understanding Alan Sillitoe

286 Pages·1999·0.73 MB·English

by  Gillian Mary Hanson

Understanding Alan Sillitoe Understanding
title:
Contemporary British Literature
author: Hanson, Gillian Mary.
publisher: University of South Carolina Press
isbn10 | asin: 157003219X
print isbn13: 9781570032196
ebook isbn13: 9780585322926
language: English
subject Sillitoe, Alan--Criticism and interpretation.
publication date: 1999
lcc: PR6037.I55Z73 1997eb
ddc: 823/.914
subject: Sillitoe, Alan--Criticism and interpretation.
Page i
Understanding Alan Sillitoe
Page ii
Understanding Contemporary British Literature
Matthew J. Bruccoli, Series Editor
Understanding Kingsley Amis
Merritt Moseley
Understanding Martin Amis
James Diedrick
Understanding Julian Barnes
Merritt Moseley
Understanding John Fowles
Thomas C. Foster
Understanding Graham Greene
R. H. Miller
Understanding Kazuo Ishiguro
Brian W. Shaffer
Understanding John le Carré
John L. Cobbs
Understanding Doris Lessing
Jean Pickering
Understanding Iris Murdoch
Cheryl K. Bove
Understanding Harold Pinter
Ronald Knowles
Understanding Alan Sillitoe
Gillian Mary Hanson
Understanding Arnold Wesker
Robert Wilcher
Understanding Paul West
David W. Madden
Page iii
Understanding Alan Sillitoe
Gillian Mary Hanson
Page iv
© 1999 University of South Carolina
Published in Columbia, South Carolina, by the
University of South Carolina Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
03 02 01 00 99 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hanson, Gillian Mary, 1943
Understanding Alan Sillitoe / Gillian Mary Hanson.
p. cm.(Understanding contemporary British literature)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 157003219X
1. Sillitoe, AlanCriticism and interpretation. I. Title.
II. Series.
PR6037.155Z73 1999
823'.914dc21 9733887
Page v
Contents
Editor's Preface vii
Preface ix
Chapter One 1
The Making of a Writer
Chapter Two 15
Literary Touchstones
Chapter Three 26
Sillitoe and the New Existentialism
Chapter Four 53
The Search for Identity in Sillitoe's Love Stories
Chapter Five 82
"Out of a Mind": A Necessary Madness in Sillitoe's
"Thought Adventures"
Chapter Six 120
Sillitoe's Defiant Women
Chapter Seven 154
Past and Present
Notes 178
Bibliography 183
Index 192

Page vii
Editor's Preface
The volumes of Understanding Contemporary British Literature have
been planned as guides or companions for students as well as good
nonacademic readers. The editor and publisher perceive a need for
these volumes because much of the influential contemporary literature
makes special demands. Uninitiated readers encounter difficulty in
approaching works that depart from the traditional forms and
techniques of prose and poetry. Literature relies on conventions, but
the conventions keep evolving; new writers form their own
conventionswhich in time may become familiar. Put simply, UCBL
provides instruction in how to read certain contemporary
writersidentifying and explicating their material, themes, use of
language, point of view, structures, symbolism, and responses to
experience.
The word understanding in the titles was deliberately chosen. Many
willing readers lack an adequate understanding of how contemporary
literature works; that is, what the author is attempting to express and
the means by which it is conveyed. Although the criticism and
analysis in the series have been aimed at a level of general
accessibility, these introductory volumes are meant to be applied in
conjunction with the works they cover. They do not provide a
substitute for the works and authors they introduce, but rather prepare
the reader for more profitable literary experiences.
M. J. B.
Page ix
Preface
During the past four decades, Alan Sillitoe has written more than fifty
books, including novels, short stories, poems, plays, and travel
writing, as well as more than four hundred contributions to books and
periodicals. This writer has always had a large reading audience in his
native England and in other countries such as Germany, Russia, and
Japan. He is also recognized in the United States, where more and
more of his fiction is being read on university campuses and by the
general reading public. His first two and still most widely read works
are Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958), a novel, and The
Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1959), a collection of short
stories. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was made into a movie
that was directed by Karel Reisz and produced by Lindsay Anderson,
starring Albert Finney as its rebellious young antihero, Arthur Seaton.
"The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner," the title story of the
collection of short stories, was also made into a movie, directed by
Tony Richardson with Tom Courtney playing the role of the juvenile
delinquent, Colin Smith, who finally wrests a victory over the
"establishment."
One of Sillitoe's strengths as a writer is that he addresses universal
themes and articulates the dilemmas of those who often are unable to
themselves, and he does this so realistically that he evokes very
positive responses from his readers. Perhaps for this reason, he is
widely translated; Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, for instance,
has been translated into nineteen languages, including Serbo-Croatian
and Bulgarian, and The