A Cultural Materialist Approach to Gender through Look Back in Anger

Abstract

As John Osborne's Look Back in Anger illustrates, the Angry Young Men Movement centred mostly on male disaffection, reflecting the societal upheavals that occurred in Britain after World War II. Nevertheless, it mainly disregarded the particular challenges and cultural constraints that women encountered during that time. In addition to experiencing comparable psychological traumas from the war, women were compelled to return to constrictive domestic duties, which overshadowed their efforts and aspirations during the war. The movement's narratives ignored the complex difficulties women faced, such as the struggle for autonomy and the conflict with pre-war feminine norms, in favor of focusing on men's experiences, such as Jimmy Porter's existential problems. This omission draws attention to a critical weakness in the movement's analysis of post-World War II society and emphasizes the need for a gender-inclusive investigation of the psychological and cultural dynamics of this period. This paper attempts to examine Osborne’s Look Back in Anger in line with cultural materialist theory of Raymond Williams to analyze gendered power dynamics in the theater with a particular focus on the chosen play. The strategic portrayal of victimization within a gendered power system in the play is examined in this research. Using cultural artifacts and social conventions, it especially examines how the play's narrative and character interactions reflect and question the maintenance of gender hierarchies. The paper focuses on the interactions between male and female characters in order to dissect the intricate power struggles that are portrayed in the play.