I thought a
blog post making my PhD readily available online might be helpful. This was a
Creative Writing PhD on self-design in the post-punk movement. The novel
component of the PhD, entitled 'How I Left The National Grid', is available as a free preview on Google Books, here-
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/How_I_Left_The_National_Grid.html?id=yABKBgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y
Through
creative and critical practice, this PhD makes an original contribution by
developing theories of self-design in relation to understandings and creative
representations of the post-punk movement. These materials inform the creative
component of this PhD, a novel entitled How
I Left The National Grid (hereafter, HILTNG). Broadly,
speaking, the results, discussion and conclusion for the PhD are as follows:The term
‘self-design’ builds upon the research of Stephen Greenblatt (1980). Greenblatt used the term ‘self-fashioning’
to explore the how people in the Renaissance
created their own identities in relation to ideological structures and social
pressures, in a manner we recognise today. This idea of self-design recurs in
the context of the punk movement, drawing from the work of Dick Hebdige (1979).
This PhD uses Stuart Hall’s
(2000) theories of articulation in reference to post-punk bands such as Joy Division. This allows for
a more ‘post-punk’ understanding and contextualistion
of self-design. This is partly possible
because Hall’s consideration of ‘landscapes’ within an artists’ work led to a
theoretical consideration of how post- punk musicians used landscapes as part
of their identity.
Drawing from the work of Dick Hebdige (1979) and Stuart Hall (1989), self-design is thereby understood as a consequence of cultural moments in which self-expression becomes an acute concern. The historical research of Andy Beckett (2010) is drawn from. This allows the PhD to offer a context regarding how self-design has become most important during post-war, and recession-era Britain.
Thesis available here-
