Social realism of British New Wave 'Left' films: The working-class border characte

Film and social critics had questioned the "newness" and/or "reality" of British New Wave films; its directors were faulted for making "working-class" films from a privileged, middle-class stance and for copying French New Wave forms. This dissertation identified a subset of New Wave films---New Wave Left [NWL] films---which required more rigorous analysis. By analyzing NWL films through an early New Left lens, this dissertation has shown that such criticism was based on limited expectations and ways of seeing and did not adequately differentiate between social realist films which introduced new approaches and social problem films which used conventional and melodramatic approaches to dramatize specific societal issues, such as teen violence, homosexuality, and union organizing.;The NWL filmmakers exposed class realities via working-class writers. The social views of the working-class "border" character is a feature of these films. Poetic choices, such as shot amplification and non-conventional edits, encouraged film viewers to take up similar "border" positions that opened oppositional perspectives on the social situation of postwar Britain. Further, in order to reach their goals, NWL film directors argued for and implemented production processes that would free them from industry and union restrictions. These approaches and attitudes formed what was described as the New Left film aesthetic. Though these films influenced later approaches to social realism in British film, New Left writers at the beginning of the twenty-first century admitted that positive social change would not happen under present capitalistic conditions.;Chapter One describes the social-historical context from which New Left concerns, theories and goals emerged. Chapter Two defines what Raymond Williams and other New Left culturalists meant by a work's committed social realism. Chapters Three and Four look at the literature of the writers whose works were adapted for NWL films and show that this literature only partially accomplished Williams's social realism. Chapter Five examines the early negative criticism of NWL films and then analyzes how NWL films revealed New Left social attitudes and social realist aesthetics that defined the New Left film aesthetic.