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Week two notes - The Girls of Slender Means
British Literature and TwentiethCentury History (LL530)
University of Brighton
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British Literature and Twentieth Century History Week Two Lecture Notes The Girls of Slender Means
Origins of World War Two - from the early 1930s, there was growing tension between left and right and between democracy and dictatorship across Europe - Nazi Germany annexed the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia in September 1938 after an agreement between Hitler and Chamberlain. Britain’s policy to avoid war with Germany was known as appeasement. - the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 1939) divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence - after the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939 - the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact ended in June 1941 when Hitler invaded the Soviet- controlled region of Poland
The novels historical background - In 1940 Germany overran France; the British army is evacuated at Dunkirk in May/June of 1940 (Nicholas is invalided from the army at this time) - In autumn of 1940 the German Luftwaffe begin the ‘Blitz’, an intense bombing campaign on London and other British cities. (the unexploded bomb at the Club is from a raid in 1942) - In the summer of 1944 British and allied forces land in Normandy. - On 8th May 1945 Britain celebrated V-E Day to mark victory over the Nazis and their European allies - In August 1945 the US dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. V-J Day was celebrated on August 15th 1945. The novel is set in the months between the two celebrations. - A Conservative-led coalition, with Winston Churchill as Prime Minister, governed from 1940 to 1945. Ministers came from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties. - Shortages of essential goods led to a system of rationing, a recurring motif in the novel. - Petrol 1939 - Food 1940 - Clothing 1941 - Coal 1941 - Food rationing only ended in 1954. - The ’40s was split in half by the War; historians often characterize the decade as ‘Churchill’s War; Attlee’s peace’ as from 1945 the country was governed by the first majority Labour Government led by Clement Attlee. -
The Beveridge Report, 1942
A ‘New Jerusalem’ - First Labour majority government elected in 1945 - Implements radical manifesto of nationalisation and reconstruction - Nationalisation of the Coal industry 1947 - National Health Service created 1948 - Nationalisation of the Railways 1948 - Massive housebuilding programme - Indian Independence and the dismantling of Empire - The first few ‘experimental’ comprehensive schools were set up between 1945- 50. - Labour government also instituted a programme of expenditure cuts and ‘austerity’ measures
Life and Work of Muriel Spark (1918-2006) - Born in Edinburgh; aged 19 she married and moved to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) but returned to England in 1944 and stayed at a women’s hostel in London. - Worked in the intelligence community during the remainder of the War. - In 1954 she joined the Roman Catholic Church. - She published 22 novels, the best known being The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)
Narrative techniques - Analepsis and Prolepsis: ‘flashback’ and ‘flashforward’ make the time frames of the novel unclear and allow for dramatic irony. ‘More positively, the text should read, ‘it is better to be enter maimed into the Kingdom of Heaven than not to enter at all’. He hoped to publish this sermon one day in a Collected Sermons, for he was yet inexperienced in many respects, although he later learned some reality as an Air Force chaplain’ (p) - Collage effects - Farce - Tone ‘Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions’ (p)
- Use of modernist emphasis (on perception of time, for example) but also satirising modernism (Nicholas).
Historical novel – looking back on the 1940s from the 1960s - Spark’s novel was written in 1962, published in 1963. - Labour government and its legacy. - Labour in Government 1945-1951 not re-elected until 1964. - Promise of ideal society through creation of welfare state. The May of Teck as a symbol of a similar kind of promise. - Atomic era. - 1962 dominated by the Cuban missile crisis in which the USA and USSR came to the brink of war owing to the decision in Russia to locate nuclear warheads in Cuba. - Spark’s novel ends with the detonation of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki which heralded the start of nuclear age.
bohemian London; role of fashion? change in gender relations and traditional women’s roles’; sexual freedom;
- Ideology economy’ of social relations Individual vs collective; the female body as a site of ideological conflict
- Class Middle class identity (‘slender means’); egalitarianism – ‘all the nice people were poor’
- Political engagement the idea of political engagement seems largely satirised – the ‘anarchists’ ; role of feminism?
- National Identity Challenges to authoritative versions of national identity (politicians, monarchy, church); May of Teck as a microcosm of the nation; Nicholas’ believes it to be ‘a miniature version of a free society [...] a community held together by the graceful attributes of a common poverty.’ (p), but is this shown to be an illusion at the end of the novel?
Seminar Notes
Character of Nicholas being considered bisexual; published 4 years before homosexuality was decriminalised. Ground-breaking in that sense
Feels quite modern in some ways, War itself is hardly touched on even though it is setting. Matter of fact, mundane everyday lives. Not much plot in terms of an adventure of a War novel.
Community feel of the novel; they are all women, whilst they are in it together as a house there are issues that revolve between them. Willing to trade but not willing to share.
Difference between London poverty vs Northern poverty. Still aspiring to go up; a different type of affluence there. Class context different from the first novel.
Double meaning behind the title. The phrase “of slender means” on one hand refers to the girls limited financial resources, whereas on the other hand it relates to their physical build and measurements. Only the slimmest girls can slip through the narrow slit-window of the top-floor washroom to gain access to the May of Teck roof for a spot of sunbathing. Selina and Anne can manage it, but not the others, especially not Jane who is rather plump.
Obsessed with their bodies, but they think they gives it access to aspects. Irony of dieting all the time considering there are rations. Era of apparent rationing and deprivation, they are still rejecting food. Modern in terms of the issues it raises. Beginning threads of consumerism bleeding into society after the war.
Obsession with the dress, mystical presence by the end of the novel. Everyone is obsessed with the dress and want a piece of it. Presents an image of the women not being quite what they are. Dress is twofold, allows them to be glamorous and attractive, but also has an impact on their status back in the club.
Maybe the novel is showing the beginnings of what is going on and what will develop post world war two.
What it means to be a woman. Even in a time when women have more agency over their lives, they still put themselves in that setting.
Page 16- the club have gone down to central London to join in the celebrations.
‘something between a wedding and a funeral.’ Coming together and mourning everything they have left behind, those who have lost their lives.
Death of a culture of their life they had during the war. At some point when the men demobilise and come back, their lives will take the path of a 1950s housewife.
Crowd described as one mass of people, the community aspect of it. The individual has been submerged. This description doesn’t seem like it is a part of the positive depiction of VE Day. Takes away the glamorisation of it; makes it very mundane, takes away as well the social idea of it all. Minimises everything down to not being as impressive as it is made out to be. Undercuts some of these things we think of as being significant.
Simmering anxiety to the scene. Thinking about the whole mass rather than the individual experience.
Description of the royals made it seem very impersonable, does not sound like the royals necessarily want to be there. They have to- for appearances sake. Very routine way they are half hourly shuffled on.
Experimentally satirical. ‘many liaisons, some permanent.’ One national massive release of stress. The fact that everyone is on such high emotion, there is some release of that. Something pent up is taking form in sexual activity.
The characters have their own defining thing that makes them who they are. They all have something that makes them stick. You have an image when you think of the name. But in terms of plot and depth they are very surface level. Jane and Joanna get the most characterisation whereas the others have defined characteristics.
‘I’m doing brain work.’ Comes off as being pretentious, in the world. Gives her a certain attitude to her work. Believes she has a higher status than the unemployed girls of the club.
Her relationship with Nicholas. Admires him personality wises, although we do not entirely understand the feelings. Mutual respect of character that does not go anywhere beyond that. Does she feel repressed or is she more not interested in him that way? He was only interested when she was sad or vulnerable in front of him.
Jane seen as being constantly in competition to everyone else. She thinks her intellectual business being her thing. When Nicholas tells her that yes whilst you may be intellectually intimidating, no one is going to find you attractive because of it. The one thing that she has up on everyone else is Nicholas dying. The way she tells the death are really mundane, no one seems that bothered. Very futile and uninterested.
He is a bit of a dick! He doesn’t really change, but he has this big transformation and dies as a martyr in a sense, so you do consider his attitude and whether or not he has really changed.
Joanna doesn’t go beyond the elocution lessons. She just wants to help people become better versions of themselves. Martyr type level to her, similar to Nicholas.
Week two notes - The Girls of Slender Means
Module: British Literature and TwentiethCentury History (LL530)
University: University of Brighton
