Thesis
"Fighting in their ways"? : the working man in British culture 1939-1945
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2012
- Thesis identifier
- T13342
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- This thesis examines the depiction of the working man in British culture during the Second World War. It contributes to the existing historiography on the British experience of the war by placing the civilian working man at the heart of the analysis for the first time. It also expands upon the sociological literature of masculinity by empirically exploring the masculine subjectivities of men not able to enact the ideal, or hegemonic, male role of being in the armed forces. It therefore builds on the work of those historians focusing on the militaristic ideal, for example Sonya Rose and Graham Dawson, by investigating how the working man was represented in light of the overt focus on the armed forces in wartime. Through an analysis of film, radio and visual culture it explores industrial employment, agricultural work, the Merchant Navy and the fire services to understand how profession impacted on depiction in the war years. Furthermore, through Home Intelligence files, BBC Listener Research and Mass Observation files it engages with responses to these occupations and their depictions in order to understand reception as well as representation. This thesis, then, reintroduces the male civilian worker to Britain's story of the Second World War, arguing that occupation was key to the portrayal of the wartime civilian male. However, while all were central to victory there were sharp distinctions between the different groups of civilian workers. Those men in more sedate occupations which were distanced from the violence and dangers of war, including industrial and agricultural work, were often overlooked in favour of the new, quickly-trained but seemingly competent female workforce. Even when men in these occupations were depicted it was generally unfavourable. They were often shown, for example, to be aged or unfit and so distanced from the image of the young soldier hero. In sharp contrast, men in more dangerous occupations, namely the Merchant Navy and the fire services, were generally depicted in a way which aped the heroic portrayal of the armed forces. They were usually portrayed as brave and courageous in the face of enemy action. Moreover, they were often imbued with the traits of the idealised Briton marking these men as truly British heroes. This thesis, therefore, explores the civilian hierarchy of masculinity as seen in Britain during the Second World War in which danger and action under fire became the measure of manliness.
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