Angry Young men as a result of a disilusionment in post-war bourgeois reality.

Angry young men — a new trend in English literature appeared in the fifties of the XX century as a result of disillusionment in post-war bourgeois reality. The writers of the trend criticize con­temporary society, but do not show the way out of the impasse.

They were not "angry" in the strict sense of the word, they were not all young and not all men either (Doris Lessing and Iris Murdoch are women), but all the members of the group shared a strong fresh viewpoint which had made them unquestionably a new and interesting literary phenomenon of the post-war years. The group of writers known as Britain’s “Angry Young Men” was widely discussed and spoken much about. Though their group title is not quite exact – they are not angry in the strict sense of the word – they are not all young and not all men – the members share a strong, fresh view-point which has made them unquestionably the most important literary phenomenon of post-war years. The four best-known novelists Kingsley Amis, John Wain, John Braine and Iris Murdoch and a playwright John Osborne belong to this trend.

These writ­ers of the fifties, judging by their works and their manner of writ­ing are widely different. At the same time these writers have also much in common. They all belong to the young writers who came into literature after World War II. In different ways and in many voices the younger generation of writers, critics, poets and intelligentsia in the age group of roughly 25 to 35 had been expressing irritation at the scene around them.

With the production and im­mense success of J. Osborne's Look Back in Anger which was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1956, they found a symbol of their dissatisfaction. The term derived from the play itself — "Angry Young Men" has by now passed into the language. Their novels and John Osborne­’s play “ Look Back in Anger ” in particular became popular in England reflecting the mood of a large section of bourgeois youth of the post-war period.

The the­atre was an important forum for the "angry young men" and for their more radical contemporaries. Harold Pinter (b.1930) with his works The Caretaker, The Homecoming, No Man's Land, and other dramatist of the time associated with the Theatre of the Absurd abandoned realism, plot and characterization in order to communi­cate a sense of emptiness and absurdity of modern existence.

After World War II the English governement promised prosperity to the nation. It introduced a number of reforms – some branches of industry were nationalized, education became more democratic and more accessible. Many youngsters entered universities (called red Brick Universities). Years passed and the governement failed to carry out the promises. A large number of university graduates were confronted with a world of on real use for them. They became either small shopkeepers (like Osborne’s hero Jimmy Porter), lecturers in provincial universities (Jimmy Dixon in “Lucky Jim”) or school teachers.

Most of the young men dissatisfied with life came of middle classes, their petty bourgeois views are apparent in their individualism. Life is dull and devoid of interest. After seven hours in the offise or shop, library or bank or school the only distraction is a pint of beer at the pub. The writers of the “Angry Young Men” declared themselves deceived and lost and flew into rage or became angry (hence the term ‘ angry young men’) cursing everything and everybody. They brought a common type hero – a little man in opposition with his sosiety, the traditional ways of life, thinking, but unable to overcome difficulties, he remains in internal outsider, succumbs to obstacles. Because of their petty bourgeois limitations and their individualism ‘ the angry young men’ did not understand the political situation of the post-war period. Their scepticism, lack of any definite conculsions brought them into deadlock.

Their rebellion would not have been fruitless had they known not only against whom, but what for to fight, whereas they are characterized by absence of ideals worth fighting for.

It should by noted that the Angry Young Men far from compising a group with any sort of rallying place or programme and hate the term “Angry Young Men” as for English literature the Angry Young Men have so far contributed little in the way of major writing. But what they have contributed so far is the capacity to feel deeply about something, about anything. As Osborne has said of himself, “I want to make people feel, to give them lessons in felling. They can think afterwards.” They had been expressing irritation at the scene around them. They tried to express a certain view of life, to find relationship between the intellectual and reality. With the production and huge success of “Look Back in Anger” they found a symbol for their dissatisfaction. The term “Angry Young Men” was derived from the play itself and has passed into the language. As mentioned before, the Angry Young Men are not necessarily angry. The most prevailing attitude amoung them is one of way of irritation, and their weapon is more often satire than polemic.

2. JOHN JAMES OSBORNE (1929)

The playwright was born in Fulham, London, the son of a commercial artist who died in 1940. The first volume of his autobiography, “A Better Class of Person” (1981), describes his childhood in suburbia, his brief spell as a journalist, and his years as an actor in provincial repertory, during which he began to write plays, the 1^st of which was performed in 1950. He made his name with “Look Back in Anger” (1957), which was followed by “Ephitaph for Georg Dillon” (1958), “The Entertainer” (1957) which starred Laurence Olivier as Archie Rice, a faded survivor of the greats days of music hall; “Luther” (1961), based on the life of Martin Luther, which much emphasis on his physical as well spiritual problems. Iconoclastic, energetic, and impassioned, Osborne’s works at their most positive praise the qualities of loyalty, tolerance, and friendship, but his later works, which include “West of Suez” (1971), “A Sense of Detachment” (1972), “Watch it Come Down” (1976) have become inereasingly vituperative in tone, and the objects of his invective have become apperently more arbitrary. His outbusts of rage against contemporary society are frequently exhilarating, for the anger thet made him known as an “Angry Young Man” remains one of his strongest theatrical weapons. He also expresses from time to time an ambivalent nostalgia for the past that his own work did so much to alter.

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