Term Paper on
The Role of Working Class in Scottish Fiction
The early and mid-twentieth century marked the literature vitality of working
class. Where in the early years the working class acclaimed cultural prominence
and importance through novels such as Tressell'scite The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists and Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. Between the wars came Orwell's
The Road to Wigan Pier, Cronin's The Stars Look Down and Greenwood's Love on the
Dole. The 50’s and 60’s saw a new rising in working class writing, in the novels
of Sillitoe, Barstow, and the plays of Naughton, Mercer and Russell.
Order Your
Custom Term Papers, College Essays and Research Papers
The theme that arises now is whether working class writing still has
significance in the 1990s, or the concept of class still prevalent in what John
Major has called the "classless society"? The definition of the working class is
under question along with the difference between writing from a working class
perspective and writing about the working class from the outside. Well, does the
working class writer write themselves out of their class by the very act of
writing, or is the working class writing "good literature"? Is there an
interception of the issue of class with that of the gender? And lastly, how do
issues of class and nationality inter-relate for a Scottish working class writer
like James Kelman?
Over the decades, numerous Scottish writers have emanated. These are rather,
often from working-class backgrounds. To name the one prominent are the Irvine
Welsh, and the Booker-prize winner James Kelman, Iain Banks, William Boyd, A.L.
Kennedy, Andrew O'Hagan, Alan Warner, Janice Galloway, Philip Kerr, Ian Rankin,
Christopher Brookmyre, and J.K. Rowling.
The end of the 19th century witnessed the "kailyard", was all the rage amongst
Scottish writers such as J.M. Barrie, F.R. Crockett and Ian MacLaren. Kailyard
literature portrayed a maudlin, highly romanticized representation of rural and
small town life in Scotland, brimming with the local color of the Scots tongue.
That it have the resemblance to the often harsh reality of the time, the
realization that all in the garden wasn’t quite so lovely didn’t come until
1901, and the publication of The House With The Green Shutters by G. Douglas.
In Scotland the conventional cleave between two kinds of theatre, highbrow and
lowbrow, was crossed by a new theatre of commitment. This shift was reflected in
the founding of Mayfest in the early 1980s, a Glasgow arts festival backed by
the trade unions whose mission was to 'celebrate not only May Day but also
Scottish working class theatre and popular political theatre from other
countries'. Suburban religious discourses conveyed to urban hymns, as
conventional political themes gave way to a “slipstream” of more discriminating
and subtlety conflicts with politics and culture. Where John McGrath used folk
forms as a reliable board, while Welsh's criterion is the effervesce culture.
This new trend in the Scottish drama is less a cleft with past political theatre
than a fertile bifurcation. Taking example of the Welsh's characters. These are
not educated, respectable, law-abiding working class figures did not find in
much traditional fiction and drama, nor are the communities unified in their
opposition to some faceless authority. Welsh’s play 'You'll have had your tea'
implies a poverty of spirit in a host's attitude to a guest. As the lines
describe, 'I'm presuming you've eaten and that means you're getting nothing from
me'. This oratorical question is generally characteristic to a middle class
woman. By comparison, getting your opening is a working class masculine term for
sexual fulfillment. Where sexuality is intermixed with the working class
characters, this novel paves the way for a new type of literature attribute of
contemporary Scottish culture.
The social realist custom was not only on the side of the working class, but
stood in their way, dramatizing them, symbolizing them, and talking for them.
The social absurdity or hyperrealism of Welsh's writing twinge with genuineness.
The contemporary Scottish writers are not tongue-tied by authority or hamstrung
by convention or classical training. The writings are depiction of the working
class anger, violence and the language that fairly pops with cruelty. Much
spoken of the violence, as criticized and then rationalized as the basic
attribute of the working class, the violence and cruelty of life are the
ingredients the working class has to live with in the present political and
economic scenario.The writings that represent the anguish of the working class
also pride for the patriotism, but growing skepticism about modern
manifestations of nationalism. These writers have left their imprint as prolific
and provocative on the postmodern Scottish psyche, representing the popular
youth culture.
Order Your
Custom Term Papers, College Essays and Research Papers
One of the great Scottish novelists is McIlvanney, whose novel A Gift of Nessus
(1968), focuses on the mental crisis of a salesman brought about by the futility
of his job and the consequences of an adulterous affair. As critics’ points out,
McIlvanney has also been seen as conservative in his treatment of violence and
his depiction of women. As has been indicted of encouraging an old-fashioned
assertion in the way that he exemplifies violence. But, the writer argues that
violence has always been a part of working-class life (as narrated above) and
that it cannot be separated from a code of honor that is, or at the least was,
primary to the world-view of working-class people.
Another depiction, yet very prominent is in the writings of James Kelman.
Though, not elegant to admit, but is seems that the work of James Kelman shadows
over Irvine Welsh 's first novel. By this statement, one might think that the
Scottish fiction revolves around only one theme that is the sufferings and life
of the working class. As depicted in the writings as such as the life is tough
and tougher is the language used in these writings? Utilization of the street
language is the phenomenal symbolization of the life of the working class, shown
by both Welsh and Kelman. It is an attitude born of the idea that most British
fiction is bourgeois, and thereupon, is that as it may, deceitful. For the
contemporary writers, it gives for a self-denying ordinance. Swamped in wordless
existence and feigning that the author is someway not present, they let
themselves no room to scheme. Their expressive fiction is flat, detached,
somewhat a humdrum. A time would come when someone must study the effect of
Hubert Selby's Last Exit to Brooklyn on modern Scottish fiction. The issue of
the name is that no trains have left the old Leith Central Station for decades,
but the truth that working-class Edinburgh is not visible to New Town
professionals is a stereotype as old as the city itself. The characters of
junkies, prostitutes, psychos, bigots and social security rip-off artists
existing by what is left of their satire are specious.
The role of these characters have notably shaped great master pieces like Dr.
Jackal and Hyde, in illustration of the desire of working class in Scotland but
a novel way of seeing and problem solving, that might not be morally acceptable,
but can help in eliminating the inefficiencies of the prevalent conditions.
Works Cited
Mcllvanney, Williams (1936), http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?aut=McIlvanney%2C+William&golist=true
Dr Willy Maley on the impact of Irvine Welsh's new stage play You'll Have Had
Your Hole, November 15, 2001, http://www.spikemagazine.com/0199welshplay.htm
Haacke, Paul (2001). The History of Beginning
P. Barker (1982). Union Street
Campbell, B. Wigan (1984). Poverty and Politics in the Eighties
J. Kelman (1989). Disaffection
J. Torrington (1992). Swing Hammer Swing
Hart, Francis R (1978). The Scottish Novel: A Critical Survey. London: John
Murray
McCulloch, Margery Palmer (1987). The Novels of Neil Gunn: A Critical Study.
Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
Order Your
Custom Term Papers, College Essays and Research Papers
