Application for Smith Grant – Robert Martinez, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of English
My dissertation research centers on the artistic genre of dystopian fiction and the social, economical, and
political turmoil in the United Kingdom during the troubled years of 1970-1990. Working out of the
shadows cast by George Orwell’s landmark dystopian novel, 1984, a whole generation of contemporary
British, Scottish, and Irish writers began experimenting with the novel form in order to portray and make
sense of how the UK had come to embody many of the tragic conditions predicted by Orwell. My project
takes a multidisciplinary approach to research by analyzing how psychological trauma, material conditions of
historical moments, and artistic representations of violence all combined during this era powerfully to
transform the very nature of the dystopian genre. In light of post-war economic depression, Scottish unrest
for independence, internal Leftist terrorism of groups such as the Angry Brigade and the Red Army Faction,
increasing IRA/British violence both within England and Northern Ireland, and the urgent rise in hysteria
concerning the possibility of nuclear war during the 1980s, I argue that a unique collection of artists—
writers, musicians, and filmmakers—from the UK became obsessed with realist modes of expression. They
use this method to critique the UK at large and to create a new style of satire that would, in the words of
critic Ian Jack, transform satire into a kind of “art become protest.” My dissertation challenges many old
perceptions and “rules” about dystopian fiction, which still persist to this day in both scholarly debates and
high school and college classrooms, that define the dystopia as a futuristic or sci-fi genre unconcerned with
the tradition of the realist novel. Given the seriousness of the plight experienced in the UK and the UK’s rich
tradition of the realist and social realist novel in the twentieth century, I believe that my project makes a
strong contribution not only to literary scholarship, but also serves as a kind of historical document that
captures the real lives that struggled through this period and the losses that they endured.
The purpose of my application for the Smith Grant concerns the very multidisciplinary nature of my
research. My dissertation does cutting-edge work in its combination of literary analysis, historical analysis,
film studies, and, more importantly, popular music studies. Two of my dissertation chapters thus far deal
with the vast creative outburst of new music that occurred in the UK between 1976 and 1988, beginning with
the Sex Pistols’s inauguration of the punk and post-punk movement in England. My argument includes an
analysis of how bands like Joy Division, The Smiths, The Cocteau Twins, and many others emerged as
significant voices of sonic discontent about socio-political issues in the UK. In the process, these various
bands designed unique music that came to be an expression not only of an alternative social history of the
times but also of a new way to imagine dystopian ideas or themes in sound. As part of this quest to analyze
the serious work being done by music artists in the UK during this period, I discovered in December1 that
British playwright Trevor Griffiths wrote a work called Oi for England, which was produced for British TV
in 1982 and documents racial and social unrest in England by examining the emerging skinhead punk rock
scene. After contacting several staff members of the BBC and ITV stations in England in December, I was
informed that no copies of this film exist for lending or borrowing purposes. I exhausted database searches
and staff resources at Davis Library, only to discover that no libraries in the world own a copy of this film.
However, staff members at ITV in England eventually responded a few weeks ago (in January) and offered
to pull the film from their archives and make an NTSC VHS tape for my research and teaching purposes.
The cost of this production work, including all aspects of preparing and reediting the tape, is 180 GBP
(approximately $353.00). The prospect of being able to study this unique film would be a significant act of
recovery for this moment in history, especially given how youth subcultures such as punk provide access to
social histories of this period that have been previously ignored. Thus, a Smith Grant would enable me to
secure a copy of a highly rare film and fulfill one of the more important pieces of my dissertation.
1
Because of the recent nature of my discovery of this film, I have not been able to locate many other funding sources
for this type of request. I did make an inquiry to the Hispanic GI Forum, a scholarship grant program that I have been
honored by the in past, but their funding awards do not cover research materials of this nature.