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Abstract

This dissertation examines human identity in the post-war crisis fictions of William Golding's Lord of the Flies, John Christopher's The Death of Grass and J.G. Ballard's The Drowned World. The argument surrounding a dark and unstable human identity is shaped by a range of different critical and theoretical perspectives in order to provide a unique of issues relating to human interactions, behaviours and identity. The first chapter applies Platonian philosophy from the The Republic to explore how questions of an uncivilised and unstable human identity have dated back to classical times, and to solidify that similar anxieties around crisis in human civilisation and the civilised human veneer manifest in Golding, Christopher, and Ballard's mid-twentieth century fiction. All three crisis novels define the human in ways which destabilise and undermine the civilised and rational exterior of mankind, and turning to human beings and their reliance on food, clothing and shelter encapsulates a version of British society whose naturally violent, immoral and savage. Mary Midgely's Animal Studies criticism is also pertinent in this dissertation, arguing Homo sapiens are a species of animal that at times inherit violent instincts that prove we are far worse than any other animal. Whether through procuring food, clothing bodies or pursuing/competing for shelter, these novels alert the reader to the fact that humanity is not primarily civilised. When these abiding features of human life are withdrawn or unavailable, these post-war writers expose that beneath the veneer of civilisation exists something inherently savage, thus drawing upon ideas that mankind is in the process of both devolution and regression from civility.

Course: English Literature - BA (Hons) - C0995

Date Deposited: 2022-09-21

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14016.html