This thesis examines the work of antiquary and scholar Joseph Ritson (1752-1803) in publishing significant and influential collections of early English and Scottish literature, including the first collection of medieval romance, by going beyond the biographical approaches to Ritson's work typical of nineteenth- and twentieth-century accounts, incorporating an analysis of Ritson's contributions to specific fields into a study of the context which made his work possible. It makes use of the 'Register of Manuscripts Sent to the Reading Room of the British Museum' to shed new light on Ritson's use of the manuscript collections of the British Museum. The thesis argues that Ritson's early polemic attacks on Thomas Warton, Thomas Percy, and the editors of Shakespeare allowed Ritson to establish his own claims to expertise and authority, built upon the research he had already undertaken in the British Museum and other public and private collections. Through his publications, Ritson experimented with different strategies for organizing, systematizing, interpreting and presenting his research, constructing very different collections for different kinds of texts, and different kinds of readers. A comparison of Ritson's three major collections of songs - A Select Collection of English Songs (1783), Ancient Songs (1790), and Scotish Songs (1794) - demonstrates some of the consequences of his decisions, particularly the distinction made between English and Scottish material. Although Ritson's Robin Hood (1795) is the most frequently reprinted of his collections, and one of the best studied, approaching this work within the immediate context of Ritson's research and other publications, rather than its later reception, offers some explanation for its more idiosyncratic features. Finally, Ritson's Ancient Engleish Metrical Romance's (1802) provides a striking example of Ritson's participation in collaborative networks and the difficulty of finding an audience and a market for editions of early English literature at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

This thesis focuses on the work of two contemporary authors, Ali Smith and Jeanette Winterson, and their treatment of the concepts of history and gender in their fiction. I argue that, by openly speculating about the nature of time and history, and by making their readers think about the origin of these notions, Smith and Winterson uncover the seemingly stable but, in actuality, very fragile roots of the 'truths' we take for granted. They explore the potentiality of the past, which, in turn opens up the present and the future. To support my argument, I turned to Hayden White and his theory of historiography and Paul Ricoeur's philosophy of time and history. The latter part of the thesis deals with gender, as well as biological sex and sexual orientation, and the way in which Smith and Winterson's texts put into practice Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, and work towards the subversion of gender norms as well as the destabilisation of heteronormativity. Both parts of the thesis are closely connected; history serves to keep the laws that define gender, sex and sexuality intact, and, in turn, these laws are often adhered to solely by the virtue of their historicity. What is more, myth and language are equally exposed to be supporting these norms. The aim of this thesis is to...

One of the most striking features of contemporary Scottish fiction has been its shift from the predominantly realist novels of the 1960s and 1970s to an engagement with very different modes of writing, from the mixture of realism and visionary future satire in Alasdair Gray’s Lanark (1981) to the Rabelaisian absurdity and excess of Irvine Welsh’s Filth (1998). This development has received considerable critical attention, energising debates concerning how such writing relates to or challenges familiar tropes of identity and national culture. At the same time, however, there has been a very striking and commercially successful rise in the production of popular genre literature in Scotland, in categories which have included speculative fiction and crime fiction. Although Scottish literary fiction of recent decades has been studied in great depth, Scottish popular genre literature has received considerably less critical scrutiny in comparison. Therefore, the aim of my research is to examine popular Scottish writing of the stated period in order to reflect upon whether a significant relationship can be discerned between genre fiction and the mainstream of Scottish literary fiction, and to consider the characteristics of such a connection between these different modes of writing. To achieve this objective, the dissertation will investigate whether the features of any such shared literary concerns are inclined to vary between the mainstream of literary fiction in Scotland and two different, distinct forms of popular genre writing. My research will take up the challenge of engaging with the popular genres of speculative fiction and crime fiction during the years 1975 to 2006. I intend to discuss the extent to which the national political and cultural climate of the period under discussion informed the narrative form and social commentary of such works, and to investigate the manner in which, and the extent to which, a specific and identifiably Scottish response to these ideological matters can be identified in popular prose fiction during this period. This will be done by discussing and comparing eight novels in total; four for each chosen popular genre. From the field of speculative fiction, I will examine texts by the authors Iain M. Banks, Ken MacLeod, Margaret Elphinstone and Matthew Fitt. The discussion will then turn to crime fiction, with an analysis of novels by Ian Rankin, Christopher Brookmyre, Denise Mina and Louise Welsh. As well as evaluating the work of each author and its relevance to other texts in the field, consideration will be given to the significance of each novel under discussion to wider considerations of ideology, genre and national identity which were ongoing both at the time of their publication and in subsequent years. The dissertation’s conclusion will then consider the nature of the relationship between the popular genres which have been examined and the mainstream of Scottish literary fiction within the period indicated above.

This thesis takes issue with Fredric Jameson’s suggestion that contemporary science fiction is sending back “more reliable information [about current political and economic organisation] than an exhausted realism” and it develops an alternative Marxist defense of contemporary realist fiction. Can realism's techniques adequately represent the complexity of contemporary political organization? The thesis presents readings of key realist texts — by Pat Barker, Maurice Gee, Kerstin Hensel, James Kelman and David Peace — testing their potential to produce the knowledge of history, industrial politics and the metropolis traditionally central to literary realism’s concerns. (For complete abstract open document).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Glasgow, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

Esta é uma leitura crítica de Lanark: a Life in Four Books do escritor escocês Alasdair Gray (1934), cujos talento e estilo se constituem exemplo da literatura contemporânea da Escócia. Esta investigação tem por objetivo determinar o papel exercido pela produção do autor nas esferas literária, cultural e sociopolítica da Escócia de hoje. Ao transitar entre ficção e meta-ficção, arte e autobiografia, Gray encara os paradoxos envolvidos ao tentar revitalizar traços da identidade nacional. O trabalho de Gray não pode ser considerado sem o reconhecimento de que a sua literatura é, simultaneamente, local e universal. Ela pertence ao cosmos escocês o qual é destacado por lutas culturais assim como é também dominante por ser escrita em Inglês e, com isso, alcançar leitores de todas as partes do mundo dentro das fronteiras transpostas pela Língua Inglesa. Essa é uma das razões pelas quais esta pesquisa busca lançar luz sobre a cena literária contemporânea escocesa, empenhando-se em preencher uma lacuna existente no currículo acadêmico brasileiro de nossos cursos de graduação e pós-graduação no que tange o tratamento e a abordagem das outras Literaturas produzidas em Língua Inglesa. Para tanto, a tese está dividida em três partes. A primeira considera a literatura escocesa em relação à formação, ratificação e reavaliação do significado de senso de identidade nacional, como observado diacronicamente através do período entre 1940 e 1970. A segunda parte focaliza os novos olhares no cenário cultural da Escócia por um grupo de escritores repleto de estilo, história e visão, os New Scottish Writers. As estratégias de Gray para lidar com ficção e biografia em Lanark assim como sua reflexão sobre a natureza do mundo são de grande importância para este trabalho. Com embasamento teórico no entendimento de Linda Hutcheon sobre meta-ficção historiográfica, intertextualidade, parodia e ironia no pós- modernismo, eu tento enquadrar, no Capitulo Três, as manobra literárias desempenhadas pelo autor ao usar tais recursos textuais no romance. Espero que o resultado desta tese de doutorado possa ser útil como reflexão sobre o presente estado de discussões sobre a literatura Escocesa pós-moderna e, ao mesmo tempo, como um meio de tornar os leitores acadêmicos brasileiros mais familiarizados com a obra de Alasdair Gray. / This is a critical reading of Lanark: a Life in Four Books, a novel by the Scottish writer Alasdair Gray (b. 1934), whose talent and style provide a fitting example of Scotland’s contemporary literature. The aim of this investigation is to determine the role played by Gray’s production in the literary, cultural and sociopolitical spheres of present-day Scottish life. In his blending of fiction and metafiction, of art and autobiography, the author faces the paradoxes involved in the attempt to stress the marks of a national identity. Gray’s work cannot be considered without recognizing that his literature is both local and universal. It belongs to the Scottish cosmos which is highlighted by cultural struggles as well as it is dominant, once it is carried out in English reaching readers all over the world from within the limits and format determined by the English Language. That is one of the reasons why this research aims to shed light on the current Scottish literary scene, attempting to fill an existing gap in the Brazilian academic curriculum respecting the treatment and approach of Literatures produced in English in our undergraduate and graduate courses. The dissertation is divided into three parts. The first contextualizes Gray in Scotland’s literature in its relation to the formation, ratification and revaluation of the concept of a sense of national identity as observed diachronically, throughout the period between 1940s and 1970s. The second section focuses on the new looks at Scotland’s cultural scenario by a distinguished group of writers burst with style, history and post-devolution vision, the New Scottish Writers. Gray’s strategies to deal with a fictional and biographical context in Lanark and his reflection upon world’s nature and worth are of great importance for this work. By the reading of Linda Hutcheon’s understanding on historiographic metafiction, intertextuality, parody and irony in postmodernism, I attempt to frame in Chapter Three the literary maneuvers Gray makes in using such textual resources in his novel. I hope that the result of this doctoral thesis may be useful both as a reflection upon the present state of the discussion about Scotland’s postmodern literature, and as a means of making the Brazilian academic readers more familiar with the work of Alasdair Gray.

George MacDonald (1824-1905) is one of the most complex and significant Scottish writers of the nineteenth century, especially as a writer of children's fiction and literary fairy tales. His works, however, have seldom been studied as Scottish literature. This dissertation is the first full-length analysis of his writings for children in their Scottish context, focusing particularly on his use of Scottish folklore in his literary fairy tales. MacDonald wrote in the Scottish Romantic tradition of Robert Burns, Walter Scott, and James Hogg; by close reading his works alongside similar texts by his compatriots, such as Andrew Lang, MacDonald's own idiosyncratic contribution to that tradition becomes more apparent. His profound knowledge of and appreciation for Christian mysticism is in evidence throughout his work; his use of folklore was directly informed by his exploration of mystical ideas. Hogg is recast as a second Dante, and ‘bogey tales' become catalysts for spiritual awakening. MacDonald's fairy tales deal sensitively and profoundly with the theme of child death, a tragedy that held personal significance for him, and can thus be read as his attempt to come to terms with the reality of bereavement by using Scottish folklore to explain it in mystical terms. Traditional figures such as Thomas Rhymer, visionary poets, and doubles appear in his fairy tales as guides and pilgrims out of the material world toward mystical union with the Divine.

Esta é uma leitura crítica de Lanark: a Life in Four Books do escritor escocês Alasdair Gray (1934), cujos talento e estilo se constituem exemplo da literatura contemporânea da Escócia. Esta investigação tem por objetivo determinar o papel exercido pela produção do autor nas esferas literária, cultural e sociopolítica da Escócia de hoje. Ao transitar entre ficção e meta-ficção, arte e autobiografia, Gray encara os paradoxos envolvidos ao tentar revitalizar traços da identidade nacional. O trabalho de Gray não pode ser considerado sem o reconhecimento de que a sua literatura é, simultaneamente, local e universal. Ela pertence ao cosmos escocês o qual é destacado por lutas culturais assim como é também dominante por ser escrita em Inglês e, com isso, alcançar leitores de todas as partes do mundo dentro das fronteiras transpostas pela Língua Inglesa. Essa é uma das razões pelas quais esta pesquisa busca lançar luz sobre a cena literária contemporânea escocesa, empenhando-se em preencher uma lacuna existente no currículo acadêmico brasileiro de nossos cursos de graduação e pós-graduação no que tange o tratamento e a abordagem das outras Literaturas produzidas em Língua Inglesa. Para tanto, a tese está dividida em três partes. A primeira considera a literatura escocesa em relação à formação, ratificação e reavaliação do significado de senso de identidade nacional, como observado diacronicamente através do período entre 1940 e 1970. A segunda parte focaliza os novos olhares no cenário cultural da Escócia por um grupo de escritores repleto de estilo, história e visão, os New Scottish Writers. As estratégias de Gray para lidar com ficção e biografia em Lanark assim como sua reflexão sobre a natureza do mundo são de grande importância para este trabalho. Com embasamento teórico no entendimento de Linda Hutcheon sobre meta-ficção historiográfica, intertextualidade, parodia e ironia no pós- modernismo, eu tento enquadrar, no Capitulo Três, as manobra literárias desempenhadas pelo autor ao usar tais recursos textuais no romance. Espero que o resultado desta tese de doutorado possa ser útil como reflexão sobre o presente estado de discussões sobre a literatura Escocesa pós-moderna e, ao mesmo tempo, como um meio de tornar os leitores acadêmicos brasileiros mais familiarizados com a obra de Alasdair Gray. / This is a critical reading of Lanark: a Life in Four Books, a novel by the Scottish writer Alasdair Gray (b. 1934), whose talent and style provide a fitting example of Scotland’s contemporary literature. The aim of this investigation is to determine the role played by Gray’s production in the literary, cultural and sociopolitical spheres of present-day Scottish life. In his blending of fiction and metafiction, of art and autobiography, the author faces the paradoxes involved in the attempt to stress the marks of a national identity. Gray’s work cannot be considered without recognizing that his literature is both local and universal. It belongs to the Scottish cosmos which is highlighted by cultural struggles as well as it is dominant, once it is carried out in English reaching readers all over the world from within the limits and format determined by the English Language. That is one of the reasons why this research aims to shed light on the current Scottish literary scene, attempting to fill an existing gap in the Brazilian academic curriculum respecting the treatment and approach of Literatures produced in English in our undergraduate and graduate courses. The dissertation is divided into three parts. The first contextualizes Gray in Scotland’s literature in its relation to the formation, ratification and revaluation of the concept of a sense of national identity as observed diachronically, throughout the period between 1940s and 1970s. The second section focuses on the new looks at Scotland’s cultural scenario by a distinguished group of writers burst with style, history and post-devolution vision, the New Scottish Writers. Gray’s strategies to deal with a fictional and biographical context in Lanark and his reflection upon world’s nature and worth are of great importance for this work. By the reading of Linda Hutcheon’s understanding on historiographic metafiction, intertextuality, parody and irony in postmodernism, I attempt to frame in Chapter Three the literary maneuvers Gray makes in using such textual resources in his novel. I hope that the result of this doctoral thesis may be useful both as a reflection upon the present state of the discussion about Scotland’s postmodern literature, and as a means of making the Brazilian academic readers more familiar with the work of Alasdair Gray.

Esta é uma leitura crítica de Lanark: a Life in Four Books do escritor escocês Alasdair Gray (1934), cujos talento e estilo se constituem exemplo da literatura contemporânea da Escócia. Esta investigação tem por objetivo determinar o papel exercido pela produção do autor nas esferas literária, cultural e sociopolítica da Escócia de hoje. Ao transitar entre ficção e meta-ficção, arte e autobiografia, Gray encara os paradoxos envolvidos ao tentar revitalizar traços da identidade nacional. O trabalho de Gray não pode ser considerado sem o reconhecimento de que a sua literatura é, simultaneamente, local e universal. Ela pertence ao cosmos escocês o qual é destacado por lutas culturais assim como é também dominante por ser escrita em Inglês e, com isso, alcançar leitores de todas as partes do mundo dentro das fronteiras transpostas pela Língua Inglesa. Essa é uma das razões pelas quais esta pesquisa busca lançar luz sobre a cena literária contemporânea escocesa, empenhando-se em preencher uma lacuna existente no currículo acadêmico brasileiro de nossos cursos de graduação e pós-graduação no que tange o tratamento e a abordagem das outras Literaturas produzidas em Língua Inglesa. Para tanto, a tese está dividida em três partes. A primeira considera a literatura escocesa em relação à formação, ratificação e reavaliação do significado de senso de identidade nacional, como observado diacronicamente através do período entre 1940 e 1970. A segunda parte focaliza os novos olhares no cenário cultural da Escócia por um grupo de escritores repleto de estilo, história e visão, os New Scottish Writers. As estratégias de Gray para lidar com ficção e biografia em Lanark assim como sua reflexão sobre a natureza do mundo são de grande importância para este trabalho. Com embasamento teórico no entendimento de Linda Hutcheon sobre meta-ficção historiográfica, intertextualidade, parodia e ironia no pós- modernismo, eu tento enquadrar, no Capitulo Três, as manobra literárias desempenhadas pelo autor ao usar tais recursos textuais no romance. Espero que o resultado desta tese de doutorado possa ser útil como reflexão sobre o presente estado de discussões sobre a literatura Escocesa pós-moderna e, ao mesmo tempo, como um meio de tornar os leitores acadêmicos brasileiros mais familiarizados com a obra de Alasdair Gray. / This is a critical reading of Lanark: a Life in Four Books, a novel by the Scottish writer Alasdair Gray (b. 1934), whose talent and style provide a fitting example of Scotland’s contemporary literature. The aim of this investigation is to determine the role played by Gray’s production in the literary, cultural and sociopolitical spheres of present-day Scottish life. In his blending of fiction and metafiction, of art and autobiography, the author faces the paradoxes involved in the attempt to stress the marks of a national identity. Gray’s work cannot be considered without recognizing that his literature is both local and universal. It belongs to the Scottish cosmos which is highlighted by cultural struggles as well as it is dominant, once it is carried out in English reaching readers all over the world from within the limits and format determined by the English Language. That is one of the reasons why this research aims to shed light on the current Scottish literary scene, attempting to fill an existing gap in the Brazilian academic curriculum respecting the treatment and approach of Literatures produced in English in our undergraduate and graduate courses. The dissertation is divided into three parts. The first contextualizes Gray in Scotland’s literature in its relation to the formation, ratification and revaluation of the concept of a sense of national identity as observed diachronically, throughout the period between 1940s and 1970s. The second section focuses on the new looks at Scotland’s cultural scenario by a distinguished group of writers burst with style, history and post-devolution vision, the New Scottish Writers. Gray’s strategies to deal with a fictional and biographical context in Lanark and his reflection upon world’s nature and worth are of great importance for this work. By the reading of Linda Hutcheon’s understanding on historiographic metafiction, intertextuality, parody and irony in postmodernism, I attempt to frame in Chapter Three the literary maneuvers Gray makes in using such textual resources in his novel. I hope that the result of this doctoral thesis may be useful both as a reflection upon the present state of the discussion about Scotland’s postmodern literature, and as a means of making the Brazilian academic readers more familiar with the work of Alasdair Gray.