Graham Greene’s Aesthetics of Design, Sport, and Violence
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Published:
Dec 26, 2018
Keywords:
Graham Greene modernist architecture sport holiday camps violence
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Abstract
This paper argues for the relationship of modernist architectural theory, health and leisure culture, and martial violence in Graham Greene’s early criticism and fiction. The first section reads Greene’s response to the rhetorical strategies and values of the new architects and argues that Greene draws on that rhetoric in order to associate it with the language and value systems of regimented military violence. The paper then examines Greene’s representation of distinctly modernist recreational spaces like holiday camps and seaside resorts. For Greene, these modernist architectural spaces are also (like the movement’s rhetoric) easily assimilated into systems of discipline and force, as are the athletic games associated with the holiday camp and resort. Moving from recreational to popular culture, the paper reads those same martial qualities in Greene’s treatment of cultural items like story magazines and films. In this manner, Greene’s fiction paints a picture of a culture of conformity to military values which have infiltrated every sector of civilian life - from architectural discourse to sport, leisure, and popular culture. The paper ends with
a short reading of Greene’s descriptions of the Blitz. Paradoxically, it is here alone - in the instant of bombing - that Greene finds a reprieve from the pervasive regimentation of what he views as a culture of increasing discipline, surveillance, and organized brutality.
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Hart, K. A. (2018). Graham Greene’s Aesthetics of Design, Sport, and Violence. Journal of Studies in the English Language, 13(2), 28–66. Retrieved from https://so04.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/jsel/article/view/149877
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References
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Read, H. (1934). Art and industry. London: Faber and Faber.
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/London/issue/47397/data.pdf
Rattigan, N. (2001). This is England: British film and the people’s war, 1939-1945. London: Associated
University Press.
Sherry, N. (1989). The life of Graham Greene: Volume one, 1904-1939. London: Jonathan Cape.
Walton, J. (2000). The British seaside: Holidays and resorts in the twentieth century. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Ward, C., & Hardy, D. (1986). Goodnight campers! The history of the British holiday camp. London:Mansell .
Waugh, E. (n.d.). Waugh ransom center acquires newly discovered Evelyn Waugh letter to Graham Greene. Retrieved from https://www.hrc.utexas.edupress/releases/2004/letter.html
Arnold, J. (January, 1940). The lion has wings. Retrieved from http://www.tcm.com/this-
month/article/245815%7C0/The-Lion-Has-Wings.html
Camps Act. (1939). The national archives. Retrieved from http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Corbusier, L. (1986). Towards a new architecture.New York, NY: Dover.
Darling, E. (2007). Re-forming Britain: Narratives of modernity before reconstruction. New York, NY: Routledge.
Diemert, B. (1996). Graham Greene’s thrillers and the 1930s. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Doyle, A. C., Sir. (n.d.). Article on the causes of World War I. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: An Inventory of His
Collection at the Harry Ransom Center. Retrieved from https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingaid
.cfm?eadid=00788&showRequest=1#. Inserts on sports for unidentified work, handwritten manuscript with
emendations. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Center. Retrieved
from https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingaid.cfm?eadid=00788&showRequest=1#
Drazin, C. (2002). Korda: Britain’s only movie mogul. London: Sidgwick & Jackson.
Chapin, F. S. (1943). An enquiry into people’s homes: A report prepared by Mass-Observation for the Advertising
Service. London: John Murray.
Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Gardiner, J. (2010). The thirties: An intimate history. London: Harper Press.
Greene, G. (n.d.). It's a Battlefield. In Graham Greene:An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Center Harry
Ransom Research Center. Retrieved from https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00200
Greene, G. (1934). It’s a battlefield. New York, NY: The Viking Press.
. (1934). The old school. London: Jonathan Cape.
. (1943). The ministry of fear: An entertainment. Kings wood: Windmill Press.
. (1961). A burnt-out case. London: Heinemann.
. (1961). At home. In Collected essays.
New York, NY: The Viking Press.
. (1961). Brighton rock. New York, NY: The Viking Press.
. (1961). Herbert read. In Collected Essays.
New York, NY: The Viking Press.
. (1971). A sort of life. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
. (1971). The confidential agent. Middlesex: Penguin.
. (1971). This gun for hire. In Triple pursuit: A Graham Greene omnibus. New York, NY: The Viking Press.
. (1980). The pleasure dome: Collected film criticism 1935-1940. In J. R. Taylor (Ed.), The pleasure dome
Graham Greene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
. (1980). Ways of escape. London: The Bodley Head.
. (1994). The lion has wings. In D. Parkinson (Ed.), The Graham Greene film reader: Reviews, essays,
interviews & film stories. New York, NY: Theatre Book.
. (1994). The real glory and twenty-one days. In D. Parkinson (Ed.), The Graham Greene film reader:
Reviews, essays, interviews & film stories. New York, NY: Theatre Book.
Gropius, W. (1935). New architecture and the Bauhaus. London: Faber and Faber.
. (1943). Appraisal of the development of modern architecture. In W. Gropius (Ed.), Scope of total
architecture. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers.
Hawtree, C. (Ed.). (1985). Night and day. London: Chatto & Windus.
Hynes, S. (1976). The Auden generation: Literature and politics in England in the 1930s. London: The Bodley
Head.
Producer, Korda, A. (Producer), & Directors, Brunel, A., Hurst, B., & Powel, M. (Directors). (1939). The lion has wings.
London: Alexander Korda Film Productions.
Mass-Observation. (December, 1939). The lion has wings. Retrieved from
http://www.massobservation.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Preview-FileReports
Mellor, L. (2011). Reading the ruins: Modernism, bombsites, and British culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Mill, J. S. (1867). On liberty. London: Longmans.
Miller, T. (1999). Late modernism: Politics, fiction, and the arts between the World Wars. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press.
North, R. (1962). The Butlin story. London: Jarrolds.
Peter, B. (2007). Form follows fun: Modernism and modernity in British pleasure architecture, 1925-1940. New
York, NY: Routledge.
Physical Training and Recreation Act. (1937). The National Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/
Quennell, M. & Quennell, C. H. B. (1934). A history of everyday things in England, IV: The age of production, 1851-
1934. London: B. T. Bats ford.
Read, H. (1934). Art and industry. London: Faber and Faber.
The George medal royal warrant. (1941, January). The London Gazette. Retrieved from
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35060/data.pdf
. (1977, December). The London Gazette. Retrieved from https://www.thegazette.co.uk
/London/issue/47397/data.pdf
Rattigan, N. (2001). This is England: British film and the people’s war, 1939-1945. London: Associated
University Press.
Sherry, N. (1989). The life of Graham Greene: Volume one, 1904-1939. London: Jonathan Cape.
Walton, J. (2000). The British seaside: Holidays and resorts in the twentieth century. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Ward, C., & Hardy, D. (1986). Goodnight campers! The history of the British holiday camp. London:Mansell .
Waugh, E. (n.d.). Waugh ransom center acquires newly discovered Evelyn Waugh letter to Graham Greene. Retrieved from https://www.hrc.utexas.edupress/releases/2004/letter.html