Date of Award

2011

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

English

First Advisor

Jeffers, Jennifer

Subject Headings

Burgess, Anthony, 1917-1993 Clockwork orange, Juvenile delinquency, A Clockwork orange, "Angry Young Man"

Abstract

Anthony Burgess's novel is more than an exercise in the language of violence: A Clockwork Orange is a satiric testament to an era which recognized the need for social conformities and new scientific discourses as a means to control the revolting youth. The teenage angst and violent rebellion which encompasses the very essence of Burgess's protagonist, Alex, is attributed to the British "Angry Young Man" movement prevalent during the 1950's as a way to show how this literary "voice" ends with the arrival of A Clockwork Orange on the literary scene. By utilizing Alan Sillitoe's novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and three novellas from The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner as a way to lay the foundation for this prolific genre, I will focus on how these novels and their respective heroes gradually progress into A Clockwork Orange, the final "chapter" in this highly influential movement. I also wish to focus on how the anger expressed in Sillitoe's works reaches a pinnacle stance upon A Clockwork Orange's inception as Alex represents the horrific parody of the rebellious youth

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