In the last decades of the twentieth century British society witnessed a ferocious attack against long-term assumptions on welfare provisions, the role of local authorities or the socalled post-war consensus that had marked the history of the country since the end of World War II. In the 1980s, the official Thatcherite discourse on family, healthcare or education was clearly aimed at dismantling the alleged persistence of Labour ideology and resulted in open confrontation between Margaret Thatcher's successive governments and the different social groups involved, the school community among them. In this last case, the conflict was so evident that it soon became literary matter, particularly when depicted by the skilful pen of Sue Townsend. In The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and ¾ (1982) and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1984), the author describes in diary format the misfortunes of a neurotic, pseudo-intellectual, provincial teenager. His remarks on school impositions instilled by official policies and the subsequent reactions of some teachers and students illustrate the extent to which British schools were turned into minor battlefields, where things beyond marks, forms and course books were at stake; namely a prevailing vision of the rules of the socioeconomic game.Key words: political discourse; conflict; school; Sue Townsend; Adrian Mole Resumen En las últimas décadas del siglo XX la sociedad británica fue testigo de un ataque abrumador a ciertos postulados históricamente asumidos relativos, por ejemplo, al estado del bienestar, el papel de las autoridades locales o el denominado «consenso de postguerra» que habían marcado la historia de Gran Bretaña desde el final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. En los años ochenta, el discurso oficial impuesto por Margaret Thatcher sobre la familia, la sanidad o la educación tenía como objetivo evidente desmantelar la supuesta persistencia de la ideología laborista, lo que resultó en un conflicto abierto entre los sucesivos gobiernos de Margaret Thatcher y los diferentes grupos sociales implicados, entre ellos la comunidad escolar. En este último caso, el conflicto fue tan evidente que pronto se convertiría en materia EPOS, XXXII (2016) Mole (1984), la autora describe en formato de diario ficticio las desdichas de un adolescente neurótico, provinciano y pseudointelectual. Sus observaciones sobre las restricciones en el mundo de la escuela, inspiradas por las políticas oficiales en conflicto y la consiguiente reacción de profesores y estudiantes ilustran en qué medida los colegios británicos se estaban transformando en pequeños campos de batalla donde se dirimía una realidad más allá de notas, cursos o libros de texto; en concreto, una visión predominante de las reglas del juego socioeconómico.
What happens when a woman, housewife and mother, decides to take to her room and stay in bed for a whole year? This scarcely plausible proposition opens the last published work by the late British author Sue Townsend. This paper aims to explain the main coordinates of the narrative by using Foucault’s concept of heterotopia; an effective, theoretical tool when applied to the analysis of a contained, physical space which is eventually turned into a site of contestation by means of the protagonist’s self-imposed confinement. This implies further questioning on the degree of agency she displays within her environment and, in addition, raises doubts about whether the novel responds to a feminist stance on the part of the author or to a literary depiction of her unavoidable withdrawal from the outside world due to her personal circumstances.
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