AS Struggle For Identity - Wider reading list

The Personal is Political

The phrase 'the personal is political' originated as a rallying cry of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Its significance was that it denied one of the main tenets of the anti-feminist movement which was that personal experiences, feelings and problems had no place on the political stage. What the rallying feminists realised was that the experiences of a single individual act as a microcosm, reflecting the attitudes and values of the society as a whole.

The microcosm may be one town or village, one school, one family or, even, one individual but it will always reflect the macrocosm; the reason for this is that no one can exist in a vacuum: we are all influenced by the society at large. Offred, the protagonist of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale alludes to this truth when she states: 'context is all'. The context, that is the history, the environment, the background, the surroundings and the circumstances of an event, defines the event.

In terms of the struggle for identity, the following texts depict individuals who are caught up in movements and events much larger than themselves; seemingly through sheer chance, they become defined by their place in history and by how they choose to respond to it.

War

Nowhere is this more true than in the field of war; the story of war is one of individuals whose lives are disrupted, turned upside down and, often, brought to an end by a conflict over which they had no control. Furthermore, history has shown us that, as technology develops, war has a greater impact on civilians; this is particularly evident in World War II as, first, the Blitz on London, and then the Allied bombing of Dresden, and finally, the nuclear bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima decimated the lives of ordinary people.

If This is a Man by Primo Levi (1947)

A first hand account of life in life in Auschwitz, Primo Levi relates his personal experience of the death camps with poetry, compassion, anger, factual detail and philosophical reflection. The title and epigram ask the reader, 'you who live safe in your warm houses', to consider 'if this is a man/ who works in mud / who knows no peace / who fights for a crust of bread' and admonishes us to 'never forget that this has happened'. Thus begins an emotive and unforgettable account of man's inhumanity to man only briefly illuminated by kindness and hope.

Style/structure: memoir

Themes: humanity, evil, God, survival.

Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

A butler recounts his life of service in an English country house in the period leading up to World War II. The narrator, Stevens, is devoted to his master, Lord Darlington whom the reader begins to suspect of being a Nazi sympathizer. It is Stevens' lack of awareness of both others' feelings but also his own that makes his story so poignant. His loyalty to a dying class system and to a dishonoured master prevents Stevens from living his own life, a fact that he slowly becomes aware during the course of the narrative as he reflects on the choices he has made and, eventually, the opportunities he has missed.

Style/structure: non-linear narrative, unreliable narrator

Themes: duty, loyalty, social conventions, memory.

Spies

The English Patient

Snow Falling on Cedars

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)

Part autobiography, part science fiction, part philosophical treatise, this novel charts the bombing of Dresden in 1944 and its life-long effects on Vonnegut who witnessed it as a German prisoner-of-war. Black humour, time travel, surreal events and pithy reflections on war and human nature combine to create a unique and profound novel.

Style/structure: non-linear prose, three interwoven narratives.

Themes: human nature, war, philosophy, time.

Wild Swans

Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally

Political systems

When writers want to criticise or interrogate a political system they do so by examining its effect upon an individual or on fictional characters; this is an effective way of examining the impact of totalitarian regimes, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan or the mythical Gileadean regime in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale which is a composite of several different totalitarian governments, but also smaller scale political conflicts such as that between the miners and the police during the strikes of the 1980s, a subject which forms the backdrop against which Billy Elliot dances his way to freedom.

1984

The Kite Runner

A Thousand Splendid Suns

The Handmaid's Tale

Social change

Perhaps the greatest power of fiction is its ability to make us see the world through another's eyes. For this reason, novels can be a great force for changing the status quo and overthrowing or improving corrupt or unjust systems. By reading about the life of a victim or political insignificant minority, the powerful may be made to reconsider the system to which they belong and to work to change it from the inside. Perhaps the most potent example of this is Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe; this novel, which depicts the life of a black slave in the Deep South, was credited with igniting public opinion in the north of the USA against slavery and leading to the Civil War between north and south. Indeed, when Abraham Lincoln met Ms Beecher Stowe he is believed to have addressed her as 'the little lady who started this war', a story which reflects the ability of literature to effect social change.

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