One of my casual interests is crime novels of the 1920s and 1930s. They were of course written by people who lived through the Great War, often by people who had seen active service or had been engaged in war work of one form or another.
Writers of this era knew the world where my parents, aunts, uncles and many school teachers grew up and in numerous ways their lives were not like ours. For this reader, that is where the main fascination lies, a fascination which is even to be found in cheap second-rate novels sold in railway station bookstalls to alleviate the tedium of long train journeys.
For example, many crime novels of the interwar years relied heavily on stereotypes. There wasn’t much exploration of the nuances of more complex characters, but the stereotypes are still interesting because they had to be recognisable in their era and are still recognisable today.
In novels of the 20s and 30s, middle class characters might refer to certain people as ‘types’, rather than stereotypes. Examples are numerous, such as the well-dressed chancer, the bumbling official, the sturdy down to earth tradesman, the showgirl with a kind heart, the maternal wife, the waspish academic, the bluestocking, the ineffectual vicar, the local drunk and so on.
There are dozens of them and many are still used today. My father once described one of my uncles as 'a local government type’ and I knew just what he meant, why he’d said it and why it was a mild criticism.
The striking aspect of stereotypes both past and present is how they are used to make sense of society. They reinforce social boundaries and thereby knit together an entire culture. Yet at some point, the use of old social stereotypes came under sustained attack by media outfits such as the BBC. Many socially cohesive stereotypes were reclassified as bigotry and those who still used them became stereotypes themselves.
The result has been a gradual shift towards more divisive, politically approved stereotypes as opposed to socially cohesive ones which were largely beyond the reach of government and politics. When this began is impossible to define, but maybe 1960 is a useful marker.
A measure of how far things have deteriorated is that stereotypes now have to be used with care and some can become a matter for the police.
Writers of this era knew the world where my parents, aunts, uncles and many school teachers grew up and in numerous ways their lives were not like ours. For this reader, that is where the main fascination lies, a fascination which is even to be found in cheap second-rate novels sold in railway station bookstalls to alleviate the tedium of long train journeys.
For example, many crime novels of the interwar years relied heavily on stereotypes. There wasn’t much exploration of the nuances of more complex characters, but the stereotypes are still interesting because they had to be recognisable in their era and are still recognisable today.
In novels of the 20s and 30s, middle class characters might refer to certain people as ‘types’, rather than stereotypes. Examples are numerous, such as the well-dressed chancer, the bumbling official, the sturdy down to earth tradesman, the showgirl with a kind heart, the maternal wife, the waspish academic, the bluestocking, the ineffectual vicar, the local drunk and so on.
There are dozens of them and many are still used today. My father once described one of my uncles as 'a local government type’ and I knew just what he meant, why he’d said it and why it was a mild criticism.
The striking aspect of stereotypes both past and present is how they are used to make sense of society. They reinforce social boundaries and thereby knit together an entire culture. Yet at some point, the use of old social stereotypes came under sustained attack by media outfits such as the BBC. Many socially cohesive stereotypes were reclassified as bigotry and those who still used them became stereotypes themselves.
The result has been a gradual shift towards more divisive, politically approved stereotypes as opposed to socially cohesive ones which were largely beyond the reach of government and politics. When this began is impossible to define, but maybe 1960 is a useful marker.
A measure of how far things have deteriorated is that stereotypes now have to be used with care and some can become a matter for the police.
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