Macdonald, Kirsty A. (2005) Spectral Ambiguities : the Tradition of Psychosomatic Supernaturalism in Scottish Fiction
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MacDonald, Kirsty A. (2005) Spectral ambiguities : the tradition of psychosomatic supernaturalism in Scottish fiction. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1926/ 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] Spectral Ambiguities: The Tradition of Psychosomatic Supernaturalism in Scottish Fiction EIRSTY A MACDONALD In fulfilment of the degreeof PhD University of Glasgow Department of ScottishLiterature 2005 0 Kirsty-A Macdonald 2005 SpectralAmbiguities Abstract i Abstract This thesis aims to prove that there exists in Scottish literature a previously undervalued,or indeed, overlooked tradition of 'psychosomatic supernaturalism', which like other literary traditions, refers to an evolving constellation of texts with similar themes, motifs and techniques. It is widely accepted that the continued presenceof supernaturalelements is a common feature in Scottish literature. However, the modifier 'psychosomatic',a term borrowed from the field of psychiatry, designatesthose specific supernaturalevents or beings around which accumulate sustained doubt as to whether their origins are in the actual or the This psychological. supernatural/psychologicaltension - discussedbut rarely analysedclosely by critics - occurs primarily in fiction throughout the national literary history from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day. The evocation of this tension is a subversivestrategy, challenging realism and its associatedmodes of representation. Perhapsthe most renowned example of the tension occurs in JamesHogg's Private Memoirs and Confessionsof a Justified Sinner (1824). However, Hogg wrote a number of equally significant psychosomaticsupernatural tales, including the novel The Three Perils of Woman(1823), and the short story 'The Brownie of the Black Haggs' (1828). The start of the nineteenthcentury marks the establishmentof psychiatry, and the underlining of the distinction between madnessand supernaturalforces, a demarcationthat was previously hazy. This was something Hogg was fully aware of, and as a writer with a documented interest in the supernaturaland folk tradition, and in evolving views on mental illness, his work forms the starting point for the thesis.The developmentof this tradition throughout the nineteenthcentury is subsequentlytraced. During this time 'social realism' is a prominent mode in fiction. There are, however, critical and subversiveexceptions to this in the work of writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson,Margaret Oliphant and J.M. Barrie. The thesis considerstheir work, and then examineshow this tradition is manifested during the period now referred to by critics as the Scottish Renaissance. Late twentieth-century manifestations of the tradition are then analysed, against a backgroundof the increasingdominance of realism and its associatedmetanarratives in Scottish fiction, and massmedia contexts such as film and television.During this time, writers suchas Muriel Spark, Wilson Harris, Troy Kennedy Martin, Alasdair Gray, A. L. Kennedy and lain Banks employ the tradition to interrogate the myths of Scottishnessthat realism perpetuates, particularly those involving urban masculine working-class deprivation. Realism persists as the don-dnant mode today. Yet this thesis examines the ways in which the tradition of psychosomatic supernaturalismcontinues to maintain a dialogue with realist representation, interrogating from the inside, and evolving over time. SpectralAmbiguities Tableof Contents Table of Contents Abstract Table of Contents Acknowledgments iv Introduction: The Tradition and Contextualisation of Psvchosomatic Supernaturalism 1 Nineteenth-century Beginnings 4 Shared Themes 8 The Critics 11 Interrogating the Terms 13 Chapter Summary 21 Chai:)ter One: sit will never be in the nower of man to decide': Tames Hogg and Psychosomatic Supernaturalism 26 Hogg and Scott 27 'Ganging to houk up hunder-year-auld banes': Temporal Subversion 32 38 'A view of my own state, at which I shuddered': Political Subversion 93eyond the power of utterance': Ilterary Subversion 44 Chanter Two: the dead': Tum the Centurv Transformations of -'Identitv with of Psychosomatic Supernaturalism 53 Strange Looks and Solitary Lives: Robert Louis Stevenson 56 'Multiplying Peradventures': Margaret Oliphant 68 'The fancies of a crazy man': James Matthew Barrie 75 'Rocking in the wind, yet holding on for centuries' 78 Chapter Three: Ancient Identities and Dark Voids: The Scottish Renaiss nce and Post-war Scepticism 83 The ScottishRenaissance 84 Post-warScepticism 91 Chapter Four: The Journey North in Late Twentieth CentuW 97 -Fic-tion Muriel Spark'sSjm posium 101 Wilson Harris's BlackMarsden 110 Spectral.4mbiguities Tableof Contents iii Alasdair Gray's Lanark 116 lain Banks's The Waip Factog and The Cmw Road 118 Chapter Five: Preternatural Politics 133 Alasdair Gray's Lanark 137 Wilson Harris's Black Marsden 146 Troy Kennedy Martin's Ed geof Darkness 152 , A. L. Kennedy's So IAm Glad 159 Conclusion: 'To know is to die. ' 169 Appendices A: Twenty-Fitst CenturyManifestations of the Tradition 174 B: Thelist 'A '(14th-28thFebruary2002) 178 cartoon: really shockingartistic proposal.. C: Franciscode Goya, 'The Sleepof ReasonProduces Monsters' (1798) 179 Bibliography 180 SpectralAmbiguities Acknowledgments iv Acknowled2ements I am ever grateful to my supervisor, Professor Alan Riach, for his unstinting support and continued constructivecriticism during my time as a PhD student.Thanks must also go to top researchassistants Dorothy and Donald Macdonald of Oban, also known as Mum and Dad, and to Dondie Macdonald, for general big brotherishness.I thank the Arts and Humanities ResearchCouncil for feeding and sheltering me, and providing effective researchtraining, and the staff of Glasgow University Library, in particular the Inter Library Loan department,for being consistently helpful. Ken and Bethea MacColl of Oban, and Ian and JanetteHamilton of North Connel must also be thanked for access to their supernaturaland folk-tale filled libraries during initial stagesof research.For discussionsand even argumentsabout my work I thank Douglas Gifford, Christopher Whyte, Gerry Carruthers, and Margery Palmer McCulloch, all of the Department of Scottish Literature, and Malcolm Nicholson of the Department of History of Medicine. Special thanks go to Theo Van Heijnsbergen for his friendship and enthusiasm,and to all the scot lit postgradswho have known me, in particular Helen Lloyd and Lyndsay Liman, I have without whom would given up severaltimes over. - SpectralAmbiguities Introduction Introduction 'Art is a meansof communicationby which mind reachesout to mind acrossgreat gaps of spaceand time, as well as acrossdeath. ' - Francis Hoyland' 'We askwith the despondingand restless scepticism of Pilate,"what is trutlf'? but the oraclethat was so eloquentone moment, is dumbthe next,or if it answers,it is with that ambiguitythat makesus dreadwe haveto consultagain - again- andforever - in vain!' - CharlesMaturin, Melmoth the Wanderer2 Fiction and truth have always been incongruent concepts.Throughout Scottish literary history, a number of texts have set out to examine and interrogate the very idea of 'truth' within fictional representation,refusing to identify glib answersor to presentone view of events.The texts examinedin this thesis 'consult the oracle' via the presenceof an ambiguous and unresolved supernatural,yet unlike the narrator in Maturin's novel, expectno answers,and are unperturbed- and even liberated- by ambiguity and silence. In terms of context and status, these texts 'reach out across great gaps of space and time', yet their continuity in terms of sharedthemes and motifs justifies the claim that they form a coherent, and previously obscuredtradition in themselves.This 'tradition' does not form an untroubled and continuous story, from its first print manifestationsin the early nineteenth century to the multiple and divergent examples in various media and genres in the present day. However, the word 'tradition' allows us to attempt to describe a definite historical trajectory, and to read closely into a moving constellation of texts, which evolves and transforms under different pressures.These texts are at times connectedself-consciously, and at times unconsciouslyby implicit motifs or ideas that transfer and change from one text to another. On occasion, both forms of connection are present. That the shifting but continuous connectednessof these texts constitutes a tradition in its own right is the contention that will underlie the individual close readingsthis thesis will present. Throughout literary history, a concern with the representation of 'truth' is evident,and from the late eighteenthcentury the realistmode in fiction hasin someway attempted to articulate a kind of truth, an actual and accurate representation of the reality of the world and society to which the texts belong. Indeed, realism was first defined in 1826 as 'the literature of truth.