DOCSLIB.ORG

How 'Trainspotting'

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
How 'Trainspotting' H10 www.philly.com THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Sunday, November 11, 2012 Books Pregnantgirlinstrangeland “Small Damages,” set in avivid Spain, is about love and choices, passions and regrets. CHICK WIT Small Damages tensity that partsofthe book almost rise By Beth Kephart to the level of erotic gastronomy. LISA SCOTTOLINE Philomel. 304 pp.$17.99 Then there is Esteban, ayoung man Kenzie’sage, with ahypnotic way with ReviewedbyElizabeth Eisenstadt Evans birds and horses. Esteban has aspare manner of speech that means that when nour modern world, where so much he speaks, it matters —anongoing con- Of spaghetti experience is diluted and mediated trast with the friendly,popular,and ulti- I through digital technologies, Beth mately unreliable Kephart’snovel, replete with sights and Kevin. As Kenzie’sre- smells and sounds filtered through the lationships with the bands and an eyes of ayoung woman on the cusp of ranch inhabitants adulthood,seems compellingly immedi- deepen, so does her ate —and as far away as acountry once connection to the life visited and now living on the margins of growing within her, excellentfriend memory. whom she imagines, For so much of this young adult novel, and addresses as set in southern Spain in the mid-1990s, is “you.” ’m good in an emergency,but first Ihave to about sensing. “‘What are you go- know it’sanemergency. As Kenzie experiences the sights and ing to do?’ Kevin had I With Hurricane Sandy,Ididn’t. smells and voices of the foreign land asked me, making it The first problem was the name. where her mother has sent the high my choice, and you Beth Kephart sets One of my best friends is named Sandy,and I school student to bear her child after she mine, drawing the the young-adult love that name, so when Iheard that Hurricane gets pregnant, readers are drawn into fine line between us,” novelinthe Sandy was on her way,Iwasn’tworried. If you this dislocating world, too. Kenzie recalls. mid-1990s. want me to worryabout ahurricane, name it Sa- Although Kenzie’sturmoil gradually From the book jacket Ultimately,the tan. evolves into something more complicat- book is about choices, For Hurricane Satan, I’d move the porchfurni- ed, the foreignness of the landscape and fully phrased suggestions of her boy- some made in the heat of emotion, and ture. idiosyncrasies of the characters are the friend) to continue the pregnancy,her few of them easy.“The present is now, But for Hurricane Sandy,Ididn’teven buy a backdrop for astory that in itself is about mother sends her to Spain as acook’s and there are consequences,” Kenzie flashlight. what happens when ayoung life is turned assistant. After the baby is born, her thinks. “I’m either hurting other people At the time, Iwas working around the clock to inside out. mother has arranged, through afriend, or I’m hurting myself.” meet my deadline for the next Rosato &Associates Near the book’sbeginning, the heroine, for aSpanish couple to adopt the child. In anovel where most of the characters book. Ihad agenerator that would keep power to newly arrived in southern Spain, nar- Kenzie is atalented high school senior are drawn with empathy and care, the the computer and the refrigerator,which was all rates her impressions: “there are olive (Shipley,inanod to local readers), and only one who really doesn’twork is one any girl needs. trees and orange trees and the smell of on her way to the Newhouse School of who is physically absent —Kenzie’smoth- Also Iwas working beside the puppies, who were gasoline mixed up with citrus. Cyclists Communications at Syracuse University. er.Though the author shows flashes of in their fifth week of life, so Iwas encased in a going by at afast-whiz pace. Farmers in Her boyfriend Kevin, the baby’sfather,is sympathy for the widow’spredicament, furry cocoon of adorableness. long-sleeved striped shirts. The sky has an equally gifted young man who is going the character seems too bad to be true. Hurricane Puppy Breath. started turning silver,and then there are to Yale University in the fall, and not As seenthrough the eyes of her alienat- Sandy was due to strike on Monday,but the small pieces of blue, and soonthe land- interested in adetour. ed child, Mom,who starts abusiness and weekend before Istill wasn’tworried, even with all scape is nothingbut ablast-up of green The novel, set in southern Spain, is peo- seeks another mate while her late hus- the hurricane reports on TV.Every time Ilooked and haze.” pled with characters that could have band’sbody is barely cold, comes off as a up from the computer,the TV showed red swaths Not to mention the sight of bull carcass- walked, slightly altered, out of aHeming- cartoon: selfish, cold, judgmental, and over Pennsylvania, but they looked like gift rib- es hanging on the walls of Los Nietos, the way novel. generally awalking disaster. bons, and then the newscaster started talking ranch where Kenzie, ahigh school senior Miguelbreeds bulls and lovingly tends But if the central premise of the nov- about spaghetti bands. from the Philadelphia area, will work as a them, until the day when he will send el is going to work, perhaps she has to Another misnomer. cook’sassistant until her baby is born. them off to the bullring. be. If you want me to worry about something, don’t Or the songs and talismans of gypsies, “Bullfighting is poetry and mind, he If you put the Main Line monster mom call it spaghetti. Ilove spaghetti. Call it something who weave their way in and out of the tells me, and when his bulls die well, he out of mind, Small Damages is an often thatworries me, like Internal Revenue Service narrative, forming acolorful counter- does not feel the sadness; he feels the sad, quietly hopeful, and always vivid bands. point to the main story. pride.” book that underlines the veracity of a Or something Ihate: Mourning her father,who died the fall Estela, the dour,aging cook, has her therapeutic aphorism —love is, indeed, Independence Blue Cross bands. of her senior year,the 18-year-old was as own secrets dating to Spain under Fran- always adecision. Or that Idread: close to her father she is as alienated co —passions and regrets that will even- Tech Support bands. from her mother,whom she scornfully tually prove key in spotlighting Kenzie’s Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans is an Episcopal The only thing that started to worry me were TV describes as a“Main Line party planner.” own decisions. Kephart describes Este- priest and afreelance writer. Contact her at reports about New York City,where Daughter When she chooses (contrary to the tact- la’scooking with such precision and in- [email protected]. Francesca lives. Increasingly,bySunday,the TV news showed New York wrapped in tons of red ribbons, and Ibegan to worry about my puppy. Thenewscasterstarted talking How‘Trainspotting’ crew came to be aboutspaghetti bands.Ilove Skagboys that shadows it, Skagboys’youthful vigor spaghetti.Ifyou want me to By Irvine Welsh is ultimatelyone of its most winning fea- W.W. Norton. 544 pp.$26.95 tures. worry, callitsomething that With short chapters called “Notes on ReviewedbyKatie Haegele an Epidemic,” Welsh reports coldly on worriesme, likeIRS bands. unemployment, heroin use, and the cir- ately,I’ve come across quite afew cumstances that contributed to making Er,Imean, my daughter. reviews of novels and films that the Edinburgh the “AIDS capital of Europe” So Icalled Francesca, and we talked all Sunday L reviewers had anticipated with such in the ’80s. But while he flirts with the morning because we couldn’tdecide whether she complex feelings that they couldn’twrite desire to address the big question —Why should come home. Her apartment was downtown acritique without writing about them- do some people turn to drugs when oth- near the Hudson River,but it hadn’tflooded in the selves. ers don’t? —hereally last hurricane. My thinking wasn’tclear,either J.K. Rowling’sfirst non-Harry Potter onlymakes afew sug- because Iwas preoccupied with my book, in major novel is like that; so is the film version of gestions. denial, or middle-aged in general. At one point, I Stephen Chbosky’snovel The Perks of Be- Mostly,Welsh wants remember asking her,“But is there really that ing aWallflower:It’simpossible to ap- us to know these guys, much water around New York?” proach them without ahead loaded with to feel their humanity, Francesca answered, gently,“Mom, Manhattan expectations and personal prejudice. So and in that respect the is an island. And they call it the Eastern Seaboard here’smetossing my first-person hat in novel is nothing short for areason.” the ring: Ijust finished Irvine Welsh’s of amasterpiece. It But while we were dithering, Mayor Michael Bloom- Skagboys,and Ireally ends up being about a berg announced that her building was in amandatory Author liked it. But it’salittle lot of things, but per- evacuation zone, and she had to evacuate. more complicated than haps more than any- Yikes. Irvine that. thing, it’sabout pover- Thenew book So our decision was made for us, but by then, we Welsh Skagboys is the “pre- ty and shame, person- uses material didn’tknow how to get Francesca home. Iworried quel” to Welsh’sfirst al tragedyand the way Welsh wrotefor about leaving the puppies for that long to go pick wantsusto novel, the smash hit it dogs you, and the “Trainspotting.” her up, and she couldn’ttake atrain, since Amtrak knowthese Trainspotting,which in- From the book jacket higher price that peo- doesn’tallow dogs, even in aproper carrier.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • “Resistance Art Is Nourishment When We Are in Dark Times. and We Are in Dark Times” Citation: M
    Firenze University Press https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/bsfm-sijis “Resistance art is nourishment when we are in dark times. And we are in dark times” Citation: M. Terrazas (2021) “Resistance art is nourishment Interview with Irish writer Emer Martin* when we are in dark times. And we are in dark times”. Melania Terrazas Interview with Irish writer Emer Martin. Sijis 11: pp. 383-399. University of La Rioja (<[email protected]>) doi: 10.13128/SIJIS-2239- 3978-12893 Copyright: © 2021 M. Terrazas. This is an open access, peer-re- Emer Martin is an Irish author, artist and teacher who lives viewed article published by between the depths of Silicon Valley, California, and the jungles of Firenze University Press (https:// Co. Meath, Ireland. She has produced a strikingly diverse range of oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/ work: novels, poems, literary journalism, paintings, and short fi lms. bsfm-sijis) and distributed under the terms of the Creative Com- She is also an active writer for newspapers and on social media. Her mons Attribution License, which fi rst novel, Breakfast in Babylon (1995), won Book of the Year 1996 permits unrestricted use, distri- at the prestigious Listowel Writers’ Week in her native Ireland. Th is bution, and reproduction in any novel and her next, More Bread Or I’ll Appear (1999), were published medium, provided the original author and source are credited. internationally and widely acclaimed. A year later, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her third novel, Baby Zero (2014a), was Data Availability Statement: published in the UK and Ireland in March 2007 by Dingle, and All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Infor- released in the US in 2014 by Rawmeash, an artist-led publishing mation fi les.
    [Show full text]
  • Translating Scotland's Skagboys
    Translating Scotland’s Skagboys Bachelor Thesis English Language and Culture, Utrecht University Marit Leenders 3696952 Supervisor: Cees Koster Second Reader: Onno Kosters April 2014 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Theoretical Framework 2.1 Function of the Scottish Dialect 4 2.2 Translating a Dialect 8 2.3 Other Translation Problems in Skagboys 11 3. Conclusion 15 Works Cited 17 Appendix A Translation 18 Appendix B Source Text 30 3 Introduction In 2012, Irvine Welsh’s book Skagboys was published. This prequel of the cult classic Trainspotting completed the Trainspotting Trilogy, consisting of Trainspotting, Porno and Skagboys. It follows the characters Mark Renton, Simon ‘Sick Boy’ Williamson, Daniel ‘Spud’ Murphy and Frances Begbie in their journey from relatively innocent teenagers to young men addicted to heroin, who will do anything in the chase for their next shot. This group of friends, situated in the harbour city of Leith, consists of many different personalities. Mark Renton is the semi-intellectual one who leads a double life as a student at the university of Aberdeen where he hides from the problems created by society, his friends and his severely handicapped brother. Sick Boy uses his intellect and his charm to get what he wants, especially from the other sex. Spud is a naive man with a heart of gold who has been unlucky his entire life and always sees the good in other people. Begbie is a severely aggressive alcoholic who detests everything to do with drugs. Together they depict the victims of the drug scene that was booming in Edinburgh and of the society that had no place for people like them.
    [Show full text]
  • "Nice Work Sisters
    From Trainspotting to Filth – Masculinity and Cultural Politics in Irvine Welsh's Writings Stefan Herbrechter Trinity and All Saints, College of the University of Leeds ________________________________________________________________________ Men still have everything to say about their sexuality. You still have everything to say about your sexuality: that's a challenge. (Alice Jardine and Hélène Cixous, in Chapman & Rutherford 1988: 21) This powerful challenge, I am going to argue, is taken up in Irvine Welsh's work. What turns this work itself into a challenge is that it combines the search for sexual identity with aspects of the wider contexts of contemporary cultural politics. It critically reflects the transition from Thatcherite to Blairite Britain. From Trainspotting to Filth, Welsh's texts have been gravitating from Scottish marginality to mainstream British culture and economic and cultural thirdwayism. This development is reflected and find its (displaced) articulation in the crisis of masculinity which has increasingly become the focus of his writings. Welsh writes about social exclusion and individualism; the local, national and global; neoliberal economy and the commodification of drugs; but maybe, above all, about the dissolution of patriarchy and the de(con)struction of masculinity, about the erosion of gender categories and the family. Welsh's male working-class and subcultural (anti)heroes have to come to terms with the social changes of their roles and their relationships to their "mates", partners and children. As individual subjects, they are portrayed in their psychotic world of self- destructive masculine sexuality and identity, and, as members of post-industrial society, in their parasitic and anachronistic position within contemporary "postfeminist" and "post-gender" culture.
    [Show full text]
  • "T2 Trainspotting" Review
    CHICAGOLAWBULLETIN.COM FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017 ® Volume 163, No. 63 Serving Chicago’s legal community for 162 years also ready to avenge Renton’s be- t r a y a l . ‘T2’d o e s n’t pack “Sick Boy”Simon has traded his heroin addiction for cocaine. He runs his late aunt’s pub (where customers are scarce) as a side- RE B E C CA line to his pornography blackmail the same rush as L. FORD business. His accomplice and sometime romantic partner is a young prostitute from Bulgaria, Rebecca L. Ford is counsel at Scharf Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova). Banks Marmor LLC, and concentrates her Though half the men’s age, its 1996 precursor practice on complex litigation, compliance, board governance and specialized Veronika is clearly the adult employment issues. She is the former among them. Renton, Simon and executive vice president for litigation and Spud are all besotted by her. Riotous ‘Trainspotting ’came out 21 years intellectual property at MGM. She can be Everything is not immediately reached at [email protected]. forgiven between Simon and Ren- ago, and its characters didn’t age so well ton. When Renton offers Simon the share of the money he filched locomotive wallpaper. that “r i g h t f u l l y ”belongs to Simon, ven the worst things with Mark Renton (Ewan McGre- Broke and broken, no one from the realization of the lost oppor- that happen in one’s gor, the “Star Wars”p r e q u e l s ) the old gang has aged well.
    [Show full text]
  • Degree Project Bachelor’S Degree Thesis in Literature
    Degree Project Bachelor’s degree Thesis in Literature “Nae friends in this game. Jist associates” On the Presentation of Alienation in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting Author: Johan Skalstad Supervisor: Billy Gray Examiner: Carmen Zamorano Llen Subject/main field of study: English literature Course code: EN2048 Credits: 15 Date of examination: January 7th, 2020 At Dalarna University it is possible to publish the student thesis in full text in DiVA. The publishing is open access, which means the work will be freely accessible to read and download on the internet. This will significantly increase the dissemination and visibility of the student thesis. Open access is becoming the standard route for spreading scientific and academic information on the internet. Dalarna University recommends that both researchers as well as students publish their work open access. I give my/we give our consent for full text publishing (freely accessible on the internet, open access): Yes ☒ No ☐ Dalarna University – SE-791 88 Falun – Phone +4623-77 80 00 Table of Contents Introduction............................................................................................................................................... 1 Concepts of Alienation ........................................................................................................................... 6 Meaninglessness, Social Isolation and Normless Behaviour in the Chapter “Skag Boys, Jean-Claud Van Damme and Mother Superior” ............................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Disability in the Writing of Irvine Welsh: a Discussion Paper
    Paper presented at the Disability Studies Conference: Glasgow University, 8 December 1997 Disability in the Writing of Irvine Welsh: A Discussion Paper Introduction In this paper I shall explore the notion of disability within the writings of Irvine Welsh. As might be expected I am using the concept of disability from a purely social model perspective in the sense that it refers to the social oppression of people with perceived impairments. I am focusing on the work of Irvine Welsh because I believe he is probably one of the most important and, indeed, popular writers of the 1990s. I also believe that one of the most effective ways of gaining an insight into any social phenomenon which, in this case, is the social interactions between people with and without perceived impairments, is through the detailed analysis of the communication media, and popular culture in particular. This is equally applicable to representations of both non-fiction and fiction although here, of course, I'm focusing on the latter . Whilst I'm not a great reader I think literature can be especially useful in this regard. By its very nature cinema and television tends toward the sensational and the stereotype. Novelists and fiction writers, on the other hand, are impelled to produce complex and intriguing storylines with fully rounded and plausible characters in order to hold the reader's attention. Moreover, stories which are located in the contemporary world must inevitably contain an element of truth with which the reader can identify; in short, they must be believable. Irvine Welsh is one such writer and widely regarded as one of the most important and gifted British newcomers of the 1990s.
    [Show full text]
  • Community and Male Camaraderie in Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting
    Befriending the Other: Community and Male Camaraderie in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting ÁNGELA RIVERA IZQUIERDO Institution Address: Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Filología Inglesa y Alemana. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Campus de la Cartuja. C/Profesor Clavera s/n. 18011 Granada. Spain. E-mail: [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-8257-650X Received: 29/11/2016. Accepted: 25/02/2017 How to cite this article: Rivera Izquierdo, Ángela. “Befriending the Other: Community and Male Camaraderie in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting.” ES Review. Spanish Journal of English Studies 38 (2017): 89‒112. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24197/ersjes.38.2017.89-112 Abstract: Set in post-Thatcherite Scotland, critics generally agree that Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting (1993) mirrors the emergence of rampant individualism and the disintegration of working-class communities in the UK. To support this view, they consider the lack of a sense of fraternity in the group and the characters’ fear of intimacy as indicative of individualism. However, it is possible to see Welsh’s ‘trainspotters’ not as atomised individuals, but as members of an alternative communitarian assemblage, as theorised in continental, post- phenomenological philosophy. Using a masculinities approach, this paper proves that the characters’ emotional detachment is representative of homosocial interactions among men trying to adhere to idealised types of masculinity and that, therefore, cannot be restricted to their alleged individualistic character. Contrarily, the kind of male friendship that Welsh describes can be considered as a paradigmatic example of Jean-Luc Nancy’s conception of the inoperative community, characterized by transcendence and exposure to alterity.
    [Show full text]
  • The Acid House a Film by Paul Mcguigan
    100% PURE UNCUT IRVINE WELSH The Acid House a film by Paul McGuigan a Zeitgeist Films release The Acid House a film by Paul McGuigan based on the short stories from “The Acid House” by Irvine Welsh Starring Ewen Bremner Kevin McKidd Maurice Roëves Martin Clunes Jemma Redgrave Introducing Stephen McCole Michelle Gomez Arlene Cockburn Gary McCormack Directed by Paul McGuigan Screenplay by Irvine Welsh Director of Photography Alasdair Walker Editor Andrew Hulme Costume Designers Pam Tait & Lynn Aitken Production Designers Richard Bridgland & Mike Gunn Associate Producer Carolynne Sinclair Kidd Produced by David Muir & Alex Usborne FilmFour presents a Picture Palace North / Umbrella Production produced in association with the Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund, the Glasgow Film Fund and the Yorkshire Media Production Agency UK • 1999 • 112 mins • Color • 35mm In English with English subtitles Dolby Surround Sound a Zeitgeist Films release The Acid House a film by Paul McGuigan Paul McGuigan’s THE ACID HOUSE is a surreal triptych adapted by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh from his collection of short stories. Combining a vicious sense of humor with hard- talking drama, the film reaches into the hearts and minds of the chemical generation, casting a dark and unholy light into the hidden corners of the human psyche. Part One The Granton Star Cause The first film of the trilogy is a black comedy of revenge, soccer and religion that come together in one explosive story. Boab Coyle (STEPHEN McCOLE) thinks he has it all, a ‘tidy’ bird, a job, a cushy number living at home with his parents and a place on the kick-about soccer team the Granton Star.
    [Show full text]
  • Actants and Networks in Skagboys: Thatcher, Crime and Mundane Artifacts As Mediators
    Actants and Networks in Skagboys: Thatcher, Crime and Mundane Artifacts as Mediators Thomas Pedersen English Studies – Literary Option Bachelor 15 Credits Spring Semester 2020 Asko Kauppinen Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 2 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3 2. Background: Thatcher’s Legacy, Welsh’s Work, and the Postcritical Approach................... 6 2.1. Thatcher’s State Revolution ................................................................................................... 6 2.2. Welsh and the Working Class ................................................................................................ 7 2.3. Literary Postcritique ............................................................................................................... 9 3. Theoretical Departures: Actor-Network Theory and its Use in Literature ........................... 11 3.1. The Social as a Product of Associations .............................................................................. 11 3.2. The Implications of Network ................................................................................................ 12 3.3. Nonhuman Actors Make Us Moral ...................................................................................... 14 3.4. Using ANT to Trace Literature’s Political Implications
    [Show full text]
  • International Journal of Scottish Literature ISSN 1751-2808
    international journal of scottish literature www.ijsl.stir.ac.uk ISSN 1751-2808 ISSUE FIVE, AUTUMN/WINTER 2009 Is Life Beautiful? Narrative Uncertainty and ‘Literary anti-Trotskyism’ in Trainspotting Dougal McNeill You always mix in some little phrase that is not your own, And that disturbs because of the recollection it prompts! Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments[1] For all its shocks and provocations, Trainspotting employs a remarkably straightforward and direct style of narration. There is plenty that is difficult for the reader, to be sure, and plenty of material incorporated that is explored only rarely in most contemporary fiction, but the manner of Welsh's presentation is, at this stage in his career at least, characterised by a sort of 'up- frontness' and immediacy that serves to reinforce a sense of his work's moral seriousness and of the importance of his representational project. His narrative raw material, whether disgusting yet disgustingly plausible (all that ferreting around in the unflushed toilet Renton does early on) or moving, sympathetically portrayed and disturbing (Dawn's sudden and unexplained death) is represented in a broadly realist manner: the horror, particularly when the reader learns of Dawn's death, is that we know quite precisely what is going on. Narrative uncertainty, writerly tricks, tension and so on: these modernist or detective fiction stock-in-trade devices are noticeably absent at this stage in Welsh's work, and it is their absence that gives us a sense, when reading Trainspotting, of authorial solidarity with his characters, an evident sympathy and bond. Against conservative critics' claims that the novel is using the details of addiction and drug abuse for sensationalist ends, Welsh's matter-of-fact presentation indicates instead the presence of genuine engagement and attention.
    [Show full text]
  • The Downsides of Heroin Use As Represented in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
    University of Iceland School of Humanities Department of English “Ah Choose not tae Choose Life”: The Downsides of Heroin Use as Represented in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh B.A Essay Guðmundur Ásgeir Sveinsson 1401883449 Supervisor: Ingibjörg Ágústsdóttir May 2017 Abstract Trainspotting is famous in the Western world today. Most people who know it connect it with the 1996 Danny Boyle film of the same name. The movie is based on a novel by Irvine Welsh which was first published in 1993. Welsh based the novel on his own drug related experiences from his youth in Scotland. Trainspotting revolves around a group of friends that are addicted to heroin. The novel portrays the addicts’ turbulent lives and does not paint a pretty picture. The characters often clash with others, whether it is government, police or their families. Mark Renton, the protagonist of Trainspotting, and his friends feel like they do not belong in today’s society and do everything they can to stay out of it. They are unemployed, have cut their families out of their lives and have no direction in life. The British government has implemented laws and spent a lot of money and effort on campaigns against drugs since early in the 20th century. In the last few decades the British government has focused on a war against heroin and in doing so described heroin addicts as worthless losers that nobody would want to end up like, the lowest of the low. The British government has implemented laws and run campaigns that aim to marginalize heroin addicts and show that there is no place for them in society.
    [Show full text]
  • The Foregrounding of Place in Trainspotting: a Discourse-Stylistic Analysis
    Globe: A Journal of Language, Culture and Communication, 5: 32-47 (2017) The foregrounding of place in Trainspotting: A discourse-stylistic analysis Cassandra Herrmann, Aalborg University Marie Møller Jensen, Aalborg University1 Tine Myrup Thiesson, Aalborg University2 Abstract: In this paper, we investigate how place is foregrounded through language in Irvine Welsh’s 1993 novel Trainspotting. We establish that many of the linguistic features which occur in the novel are associated with and represent Scots, a stigmatised language variety of Scotland. Drawing on Silverstein (2003), Johnstone (2009, 2010, 2013), and Eckert’s (2008) work on indexicality, we argue that these linguistic features in Trainspotting function as indexical markers connecting the characters and the novel to place, more specifically to Scotland. In the analysis, we explore three channels through which the foregrounding of place is evident. First, the foregrounding of place happens through the sheer volume of nonstandard English associated with Scots throughout the novel in that the extensive appearance of nonstandard English deviates from most novels, and in that the nonstandard variety indexes Scotland. Second, place becomes foregrounded through the discourse surrounding language in the novel; throughout the novel, several characters comment on their own styles of speech and linguistic abilities, which highlights the focus on language and directs the reader’s attention hereto. Finally, the foregrounding of place happens through the ideology that favours Standard English over nonstandard English. This channel of foregrounding appears through the characters’ ability or inability to style- shift between nonstandard English and Standard English, and the effects of the ability or inability to do so.
    [Show full text]