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Alienation in the Work of Tom Leonard

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Alienation in the Work of Tom Leonard n Muñoz, Theresa Lynda (2015) Alienation in the work of Tom Leonard. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7028/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Alienation in the Work of Tom Leonard Theresa Muñoz B.F.A., MLitt Submitted in fulfilment of requirement for the degree of PhD College of Arts Department of Scottish Literature University of Glasgow 2015 2 Abstract This thesis is a chronological study of Tom Leonard's body of work from the years 1965-2009. In a span of forty-four years, Leonard produced three full poetry collections, a book of essays, an anthology of Renfrewshire writers and a biography of poet James Thomson. Though Leonard's work contains a range of narrative styles and genres, notably his pioneering work in urban phonetic dialect in the 1960s, a singular objective binds his varied oeuvre: the exploration of a fictive alienated persona. Through applying definitions of alienation from a sociological and existential perspective, this thesis provides an aesthetic framework for reading Leonard's work holistically. It charts the various methods by which Leonard’s poems and prose create a marginalised identity; initially in the areas of religion, class and language and later in the presentation of individuals who suffer from self-alienation (a fragmented sense of self ) and who express the desire to feel at peace or 'free' in their daily lives within in an existential context. Leonard articulates, but does not resolve, the emotional state of individuals who feel alienated from society or within their own minds and bodies. This thesis recognises that alienation does not apply to Leonard within the context of race or gender due to his position as a white, male writer who has been recognised for his work. However, Leonard's poems in urban phonetic dialect which explore language prejudice, his presentation of neglected writers in Radical Renfrew, his exploration of mental illness in nora's place and in Places of the Mind: The Life and Work of James Thomson (B.V.) illustrate an interest in, and empathy for, those who feel alienated from society, or to borrow his own words, those who exist ‘outside the narrative’. Hence, the wider theme of alienation can be seen as the philosophical arc shaping his body of work. As this is the first holistic analysis of Leonard's work, this thesis also aims to provide contextual analysis of Leonard's influential role in the flourishing use of urban phonetic dialect in Scottish literature, and also aims to address gaps in previous critical analyses of Leonard’s work. The thesis identifies critical gaps in discussion of Leonard's 3 work which include an absence of holistic criticism; a general failure to identify Leonard’s use of contemporary poetics; a failure to recognize his application of philosophical concepts such as existentialism and humanism to his work, and significantly, the missed opportunity to identify a consistent theme in his work. The five chapters of the thesis correspond to each of Leonard's main books, Intimate Voices, Radical Renfrew, Reports From the Present, access to the silence and outside the narrative. Each chapter builds on the premise that Leonard's poetry, prose and biography develops, responds to, and presents an alienated voice. 4 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 4 Author’s Declaration 5 Introduction: Alienation in the work of Tom Leonard 7 Chapter One: Intimate Voices: Selected Work 1965 - 1983 48 Chapter Two: Radical Renfrew: Poetry from the French 79 Revolution to the First World War Chapter Three: Places of the Mind: The Life and Work of 105 James Thomson ('B.V.') Chapter Four: Reports From the Present: Selected Work 131 1982-94 Chapter Five: access to the silence: poems and posters 159 1984-2004and outside the narrative: poems 1965- 2009 Conclusion 198 Bibliography 200 5 Acknowledgements I am grateful for the support of an Overseas Research Scholarship, Faculty of Arts Scholarship and Crichton Foundation Award which enabled me to complete the thesis. I would like to thank Professor Alan Riach for his dedicated supervision. I am grateful to Professor Gerard Carruthers for his valuable feedback during the viva and amendments process. And thank you to Professor Ted Cowan and Dr Lizanne Henderson for their continuous support. I am grateful to Edward Clark of Edinburgh University Press for proofreading this thesis. Also, Bernadette Gallagher of the Mitchell Library and Craig Nelson of the Scotsman archive for helping me locate important articles. Heartfelt gratitude to my parents, Arturo and Helen, and my family in Vancouver. And to Harry, whose love and encouragement gets me through everything. 6 Author’s Declaration I declare that, except where explicit reference is made to the contribution of others, that this dissertation is the result of my own work and has not been submitted for any other degree at the University of Glasgow or any other institution. Signature Printed Name: Theresa Muñoz 7 Introduction: Alienation in the Work of Tom Leonard Contextualising Leonard Tom Leonard inhabits an influential though narrowly thematic critical space in Scottish poetry as a result of his pioneering renderings of urban phonetic dialect and his representations of marginalised figures in his poetry and prose. Throughout his career, Leonard has been associated with various literary groups with which his writing shares political and linguistic aims of using urban phonetic speech as an artistic representation of an under-represented social class. In the 1960s Leonard’s Six Glasgow Poems (1969)1 appeared to follow the urban phonetic poetry of Ian Hamilton Finlay and Stephen Mulrine, and, like Edwin Morgan, challenged the prescriptive limits of Hugh MacDiarmid’s synthetic and generic brand of Scots, Lallans. This counter-reaction towards Lallans was made by all three poets through the publication of their poems written in urban phonetic dialect, representing the marginalised voices of the Glaswegian working-classes. As a student at Glasgow University in the 1970s, Leonard attended Philip Hobsbaum’s intramural creative writing class which included Glasgow writers James Kelman, Alasdair Gray, Liz Lochhead and Agnes Owen, as well as Tom McGrath’s informal performing troupe of writers and artists known as ‘The Other People.2 In 2001, Leonard became even more closely associated with Kelman and Gray when the three writers were appointed joint chair of University of Glasgow’s Creative Writing programme in 2001.3 Leonard can be seen as an influential figure in Scottish Literature, particularly for his early poetry which presented, through its artistic representation of urban phonetic dialect and the selection of terms appropriate to Glaswegian vernacular, the experiential reality of living in working-class Glasgow. The publication of Leonard’s Six Glasgow Poems encouraged other poets to express their thoughts and experiences in urban phonetic dialect, and one of the first noted examples was a fellow Glasgow University student 1 Tom Leonard, Six Glasgow Poems (Glasgow: Midnight Press, 1969). 2 See Philip Hobsbaum, The Glasgow Group: An Experience of Writing’, Edinburgh Review, 80-1, (1988) 59-63 and Gavin Selerie, Tom McGrath Riverside Interviews (London: Binnacle Press, 1983) 3 McLean, Jim, ‘Literary Giants Create New Alliance: Kelman, Gray & Leonard Form a Dream Team of Creative Writing to Put Scotland on the International Map’, Herald Scotland, 22 May 2001, p. 3 8 named Bill Keys. Keys was seen by Philip Hobsbaum as being influenced by Leonard's narrative style, though the only bond between the work of the two poets seemed to be the mutual use of phonetic dialect.4 The significance of Keys will be investigated more closely later in this introduction. Stronger thematic examples of Leonard's literary influence on other poets, however, can be seen in the work of Alison Flett and William Letford, whose use of urban dialect in their work explores the relationship between language, sound and power and echoes themes in Leonard’s collection Intimate Voices: 1965-1983(1984).5 Influence is difficult to prove, but it can be observed that Leonard’s use of phonetic dialect as a style which succinctly expressed one's local background through the individual's transcription of their accent became a popular means of expressing one's identity in Scottish literature. This popularity is evidenced by the work of writers such as Irvine Welsh in Trainspotting (1993) and Alan Bissett in Boy Racers (2002). The writing trend continues to this day with, for example, Nick Brooks' recent novel Indecent Acts (2014) where urban phonetic dialect underpins the socio-economic background of the characters. Within the West of Scotland, the working-class topics of religion, sectarianism, football in Leonard's poetry placed him alongside prose writers who were also tackling the social realities and class issues of contemporary Glasgow, though in short story and novel form rather than poetry. Along with writers Alasdair Gray, Alan Spence, William McIlvanney and Archie Hind, Leonard has been identified by Douglas Gifford as part of a group of male writers in the 1990s whose work contained themes of ‘Scottish realism’; specifically a new wave of urbanised literature which strived to let go of the mythic and rural Scotland once explored by writers such as Edwin Muir, Neill Gunn, Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Hugh MacDiarmid.
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