Not Winnin’ Anymore:

Boys from the Blackstuff and the Literature of Recession

Abstract

This article addresses representations of working-class life in Britain during the
1980s; specifically, experiences of recession, unemployment, and difficulty in the
workplace. The primary text considered is the television drama series Boys from
the Blackstuff (1982), written by Alan Bleasdale; more briefly this is linked to
James Kelman’s novel The Busconductor Hines (1984), and to the post-industrial
landscape of the poetry of Sean O’Brien. In the wake of the socialist criticism
of Raymond Williams, the article explores how the “Industrial Novel” of the
1840s may be succeeded, in the Thatcher years, by the literature of recession and
deindustrialization.