Les romans de John Braine

• Auteur / Autrice : Claude Jourdain
• Direction : Georges Lamoine
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Anglais
• Date : Soutenance en 1987
• Etablissement(s) : Toulouse 2

Résumé

Le sujet de cette these porte sur les romans de john braine, un ecrivain de l'apres-guerre qui devint celebre avec un premier succes room at the top (1957). Comme braine fut, grace a ce roman, considere comme un jeune homme en colere, la litterature et la psychologie de cette nouvelle vague litteraire, egalement appelee le ''mouvement'', ont ete etudiees. Braine et les jeunes hommes en colere etant tres representatifs de leur epoque, en particulier grace au provincialisme qu'ils mirent a la mode, il etait interessant d'etudier cette periode d'apres guerre sur un plan social et economique, et de montrer les points communs et les divergences de braine avec le mouvement. Une etude generale appronfondie de son oeuvre fut faite comprenant les themes principaux, le style et la psychologie, ainsi que l'evolution de son oeuvre, dont on remarque la qualite decroissante au fil des annees. L'etude met en avant ses qualites : un excellent sens de l'observation, des descriptions vivantes, un style direct et simple, en meme temps que ses defauts = une perception tres etroite de la vie, un sens croissant du confort et un esprit bourgeois ainsi qu'une tendance a la repetition de procedes jadis efficaces. Malgre une faible contribution au roman anglais, l'oeuvre de braine a cependant permis de decouvrir et de comprendre sur le vif la vie d'une generation annoncant l'homme moderne ordinaire.

The subject of this thesis is the novels of john braine, a post-war novelist who became famous with a best-seller room at the top (1957). As braine was considered, with this first novel, as an angry young man, a study has been made on the literature and psychology of the new literary wave also called the ''movement''. Braine and the angry young men being strongly representative of their time, especially with the provincialism they brought into fashion, it was interesting to study that post-war period both socially and economically, and find out in which ways braine belonged or not to the movement. A comprehensive study of his work was conducted : the main themes, the style and psychology along with the evolution his work underwent, as the decreasing quality of his literary production can be noticed. His qualities : a keen sense of observation, psychological insight, vivid descriptions, a simple and direct style were pointed out, along with his flaws : a narrow perception of life, an increased sense of comfort and bourgeois spirit and a repetition of the same, once successful, literary figures. If his contribution to the english novel wasn't very important, however his work helped. . .