Margaret Forster's novels as a social document

Mgr. Marie Lenochová

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Cílem této práce je analyzovat romány Margaret Forsterové Georgy Girl, Have the Men Had Enough?, The Battle for Christabel a Mothers’ Boys a ukázat, jak zobrazují stav britské společnosti konce dvacátého století. Hlavními tématy jsou ženy a jejich role, rodinné vztahy a záporné stránky dvacátého století: společnost rozdělená třídami, rasově a násilím. Důraz je kladen na analýzu mateřství, ženské práce, rodinných vazeb, domova, manželství, státu zasahujícího do rodiny a skutečnosti, jak je ve svých románech pojímá Margaret Forsterová. Jelikož jsou nedílnou součástí románů sociologická témata, je této problematice věnovaná i část práce spolu s podrobným zkoumáním děje a hlavních postav.

Abstract:

This thesis is about Margaret Forster’s novels seen as a social document. Its aim is to analyze her novels Georgy Girl, Have the Men Had Enough?, The Battle for Christabel and Mothers’ Boys and to show how they reflect the state of British society of the end of the twentieth century. It deals with the main topics of women and their roles, family relationships and negative sides of the twentieth century such society divided by class, race and violence. The emphasis is put on the analysis of motherhood, single motherhood, women’s work, family ties, home, perceiving of marriage, state involvement into family and the fact how these are depicted by Margaret Forster. As she focuses in her works on various sociological issues, after a general introduction of the topic, there are also included results of recent surveys and comments of sociologists in the in-depth study of plots and main characters.

Keywords

Margaret Forsterová, současný román, třídně rozdělená společnost, rodina, násilí, mateřství, společenská shoda, ženská práce. Margaret Forster, contemporary novel, class-divided society, family, juvenile violence, motherhood, social consensus, women’s work.

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 30. 11. 2010

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 30. 1. 2012
• Supervisor: prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Master programme / field:
Teacher Training for Secondary Schools / Upper Secondary School Teacher Training in English Language and Literature