Revolutionary Writing And Red Consciousness In Arnold Wesker’s Plays

Arnold Wesker is one of the famous left-wing playwrights in the first wave of British Drama Innovation after World War II.His works,with realistic,radical and political features,set him apart from most other playwrights in the first wave of contemporary drama development.Most of Wesker’s creations are based on the labor alienation of people in capitalist society,the conflicts between the bourgeoisie and the working class and the revolutionary actions of the working class.Through the writing of revolution,Wesker tries to describe the reality,criticize and reflect the social issues.Wesker was born in a Jewish family of working class.He experienced world War II and served in the Royal Air Force,then began to work,doing a variety of jobs.The special family background and personal experience made him understand the suffering of the lower class and realize that the socialist revolutions can save people from suffering.At present,the political themes in Wesker’s plays have already attracted the attention of some scholars,but few of them discuss Wesker’s political thoughts and red consciousness from the perspective of revolutionary writing.However,Wesker’s plays present special features of themes and writing strategies as the significant parts of the western left-wing culture,which are the important mediums to reveal the development history of socialism and promote socialist spirit in the world.Therefore,this thesis selects Arnold Wesker’s three plays The Kitchen,Chicken Soup with Barley,I’m Talking about Jerusalem,which contains rich revolutionary images as the study objects,further exploring the red consciousness related to the socialist and communist revolutions by analyzing the revolutionary writing,with the help of the thoughts about revolutionary motivation,method and road in Marxist Social Revolutionary Theory.The thesis is divided into six chapters.Chapter One is the introduction of Wesker and his major works and Marxist Social Revolutionary Theory.Chapter Two analyzes the class oppression and labor alienation in The Kitchen in terms of the theory of revolutionary motivation,discussing Wesker’s red consciousness of resisting the bourgeoisie and criticizing labor alienation.Chapter Three explores the revolutionary actions of the working class in Chicken Soup with Barley from two perspectives of violent revolutionary actions and peaceful revolutionary actions according to the theory of revolutionary method,revealing Wesker’s red consciousness of anti-fascism and supporting class struggle.Chapter Four dissects the rural revolutionary experiment of socialism of the working class in I’m Talking about Jerusalem based on the theory of revolutionary road,demonstrating Wesker’s red consciousness of resisting capitalist industrialization and pursuing socialism.Chapter Five excavates the motives and significance of Wesker’s revolutionary writing.Chapter Six serves as a concluding part.The research results of this thesis are as follows.One the one hand,the revolutionary writing in the plays shows Wesker’s unique expressing methods of themes.One the other hand,the revolutionary writing presents Wesker’s hatred of the capitalist society and his pursuit of socialism,thus his red consciousness is demonstrated.In his opinion,literature and art should respond to political expression.Under the capitalist social division of labor,the alien power deprives humans’ freedom,and the class oppression and conflicts occur frequently.The working class begin their revolutionary anti-fascist fight for the survival of themselves and the whole nation.They carry out the revolutionary experiments of socialism in order to take them away from the economic exploitation and class oppression.They work tirelessly to found socialist society.Wesker’s revolutionary writing not only expresses his special creating methods of plays,but also illustrates his criticism of capitalism and his expectation for socialism,presenting his concern for the fate of the working class,his criticism of social problems and his thinking on the road of society development.