In 1974 - just two years after it had opened - the movie “A Clockwork Orange” by Stanley Kubrick was banned from Bristish screens. It was Kubrick himself who decided to withdraw the film from distribution in the UK. Since Kubrick received death threats and threatening phone calls he hoped that the controversary would subside with the fading of memory. The film had been blamed for several violent acts and Kubrick and Anthony Burgess, the writer of the novel, were made responsible for them. In fact, the film caused a moral panic because of its violence. However, it seems interesting to me who is behind all this violence. I want to analyse how Alex and his droogs define themselves. Are they rebels without a cause and if not, what are they rebelling against? I will try to take a look at the book and the film in context of subculture: how did subculture influence the works of Burgess and Kubrick, how is subculture presented in their works and how did they influence subculture afterwards?
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Subculture before ACO
2.1. Short overview: Subcultures in the 1960’s
2.1.1. Teddy Boys
2.1.2. Mods
2.1.3. Rockers
2.2. Inspiration for the novel
3. Subculture in novel and film
3.1. Setting
3.2. The droogs
3.2.1. Dress
3.2.2. Language
3.2.3. Drugs
3.2.4. Violence
3.2.5. Music
4. Subculture after ACO
4.1. Affection on youth
4.2. Punk subculture
4.3. Skinheads
5. Conclusion
Objectives and Topics
This paper examines Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange and Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation within the context of British subculture. The primary goal is to analyze how the characters define their subcultural identity through rebellion, style, language, and violence, while exploring how these works were influenced by and subsequently influenced real-world youth movements.
- The sociopolitical context of 1960s British subcultures.
- The use of "bricolage" and Nadsat language as tools of subcultural resistance.
- The interplay between fictional dystopian violence and real-world social impact.
- Comparative analysis of the "droogs" with actual subcultural groups like Teddy Boys, Mods, Rockers, Punks, and Skinheads.
- The role of media and moral panic in shaping the reception of A Clockwork Orange.
Excerpt from the Book
3.2.2. Language
Alex speaks a special slang which is called Nadsat. The word “Nadsat” is a transliteration of a Russian suffix equivalent to the English suffix “teen”16; it is therefore a kind of teenage language. Burgess invented this slang because he realized that by the time his book was published, the teenage slang of this time would already be out of date: “ A slang for the 1970’s would have to be invented, but I shrank from making it arbitrary, I shut the half completed draft, who’s sixties slang clearly would not do, in a drawer and got down to the writing of something else”17. By inventing Nadsat Burgess combines Russian words, descriptive phrases, odd Cockney expressions, biblical locutions and schoolboy humor talk18.
Words of Russian are heavily present in ACO. For instance, the favourite adjective of the Nadsat speaker “horrorshow”, which is used in the sense of “good” or “splendid” (“I could have chained his glazzies real horrorshow” [ACO, p. 56] ), derives from the Russian word “kharasho”, meaning “good” or “well”. Since the English speaker cannot pronounce the initial consonant because it is an unvoiced velar fricative, which does not exist in English, he can only utter a voiceless glottal fricative. By this anglicization “kharasho” becomes “horrorshow”.19 Burgess ends up with an vocabulary of 200 Russian words and suggests that the reader – after having read the novel – “would be brainwashed into learning minimal Russian”20.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Outlines the moral panic surrounding the film adaptation and states the research goal of analyzing subcultural influences and manifestations within the work.
2. Subculture before ACO: Provides a theoretical foundation by explaining the "New Subcultural Theory" and detailing specific 1960s British youth movements like the Teddy Boys, Mods, and Rockers.
3. Subculture in novel and film: Analyzes the fictional world of the novel, the construction of the "droogs'" identity through language, dress, and drugs, and the role of violence and music.
4. Subculture after ACO: Discusses the real-world impact of the story on youth culture, including the moral panic, the perceived link to Punk, and the relationship between the novel and Skinhead culture.
5. Conclusion: Summarizes how A Clockwork Orange has transcended its original purpose to become an ingrained part of contemporary subculture.
Keywords
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess, Stanley Kubrick, Subculture, Nadsat, Droogs, Youth Rebellion, Moral Panic, Bricolage, Teddy Boys, Mods, Punk, Skinheads, Violence, Social Identity.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the central focus of this research paper?
The paper explores the relationship between Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange and the subcultural landscape of post-war Britain, analyzing how the characters act as representations of subcultural identity.
What primary sociological theory is used in the work?
The author references the "New Subcultural Theory" developed by the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University to frame subcultures as forms of resistance against structural problems.
What is the core research question?
The author seeks to understand how the characters Alex and his "droogs" define themselves, what they are rebelling against, and how the works influenced and were influenced by real-world subcultures.
Which specific subcultural groups are compared to the "droogs"?
The paper discusses the Teddy Boys, Mods, Rockers, Punks, and Skinheads to highlight both similarities and specific cultural contexts.
How is the "Nadsat" language analyzed in the main section?
The paper explores Nadsat as a linguistic tool that facilitates immersion, expresses teenage rebellion, and functions as a barrier that Burgess intentionally refused to explain with a glossary.
How does the author categorize the key themes?
The thematic analysis focuses on style, language, drug use, specific acts of violence, and the function of music as a catalyst for Alex's identity.
Why was the movie banned in the UK?
The film was withdrawn by Kubrick himself following intense public backlash and death threats due to the "moral panic" caused by its portrayal of extreme violence, which was blamed for copycat incidents.
What is the connection between Alex's love of classical music and his violence?
The author argues that while classical music provides Alex with aesthetic pleasure and a sense of individuality, it remains physically stimulating rather than spiritually civilizing, creating an incongruity between his behavior and his tastes.
- Quote paper
- Maren Volkmann (Author), 2003, "A Clockwork Orange" in the Context of Subculture, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/62218
