CLASS AND SOCIAL IDENTITY IN WILL SELF’S BETWEEN THE CONCEITS

Year 2015, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 170 - 177, 01.12.2015

Zeynep Apaydın

Abstract

Will Self’s Between
the Conceits in his collection of stories Grey Area involves the quest for meaning in the restrictive socio
cultural context of the 21st century London depicted in the novel. In the
story, creativity is rendered as the only reliable avenue as a source for
acquiring and shaping meaning in an unimaginative socio-cultural context. The
anonymous protagonist’s soliloquy as he addresses the reader throughout the story
relies on individualistic and imaginative strategies. His efforts in overcoming
loneliness and ennui as he attempts to withstand closure and control through
intellectual creativity demonstrates the inevitability of facing a social
reality that is resistant to change. In this respect, the narrator attempts to
build a sense of identity and purpose throughout his narrative in which he
creates his own hypothetical society. Hence, the socio-cultural dynamics of
this imaginary social order are utilized as a means for self expression and
undermining the order he exists in. In the story, there are many socially
constructed roadblocks that stand in the way of natural creativity and although
it is implied that the ultimate aim is to have a purposeful life, this is
questioned through the impositions of value criteria shaped by capitalism. As
the characters face socially induced daily concerns, they are implied to be
kept from experiencing their individualities and creative selves due to the
cultural impositions of a society that makes its evaluations in terms of
material measures. In this socio economical background, all creativity is
diminished and rendered void. Hence, it is implied that our socially dominated
mind-sets interfere with and dominate the process of our self identification as
members of a society. 

Keywords

Class, Social Identity, Will Self, Between the Conceits

References

• 1. Booker, M. Keith, Dystopian Literature; A Theory and Research Guide, A Guide to Selected Modern Cultural Criticism with Relevance to Dystopian Literature, Greenwood Publishing Group Inc., U.S.A., 1994.
• 2. Brooke-Rose, Christine; Stories, Theories, Things, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge CB2 8Ru, UK, 1991.
• 3. Duszak, Anna, Us and Others – Social Identities Across Languages, Discourses and Cultures, University of Warshaw, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 2002.
• 4. Self, Will, Grey Area and Other Stories, Penguin Books Ltd., 27 Wrights Lane, London, 1994.
• 5. Seret, Roberta, Voyage Into Creativity; The Modern Künstlerroman, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York, 1992.
• 6. Wright, Erik Olin, Class Counts, Cambridge University Press, The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2000.