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

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.