DOCSLIB.ORG

British White Trash Figurations of Tainted Whiteness in the Novels of Irvine Welsh, Niall Griffiths and John King

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
British White Trash Figurations of Tainted Whiteness in the Novels of Irvine Welsh, Niall Griffiths and John King 2018-03-14 14-33-37 --- Projekt: transcript.anzeigen / Dokument: FAX ID 0228487392249540|(S. 1- 2) VOR4101.p 487392249548 From: Mark Schmitt British White Trash Figurations of Tainted Whiteness in the Novels of Irvine Welsh, Niall Griffiths and John King March 2018, 312 p., 39,99 €, ISBN 978-3-8376-4101-1 “White trash” is a liminal figure that dramatizes the intersection of race and class. Contemporary British novelists like Irvine Welsh, Niall Griffiths and John King use this originally US-American stereotype to interrogate the racializing discourse of class in British society. Their novels are interdiscursive reflections of the figurations of race and class that still haunt the British cultural imaginary. “British White Trash” is the first analysis to comprehensively examine the adaptation of the “white trash” stereotype in major British novels. The study thus contributes to a critical understanding of racism and classism, its cultural representations and its un- derlying social processes. Mark Schmitt is a postdoctoral Stuart Hall Fellow at TU Dortmund University, where he teaches British Cultural Studies. His research interests include British and Irish literature and film, cultural theory as well as discourses of social and racial abjection. For further information: www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-4101-1 © 2018 transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2018-03-14 14-33-37 --- Projekt: transcript.anzeigen / Dokument: FAX ID 0228487392249540|(S. 1- 2) VOR4101.p 487392249548 Contents Acknowledgements | 7 Introduction Whiteness and the C Word | 9 Critical Whiteness Studies and the European-British Context | 15 Tainted Whiteness, Class, Neoliberalism | 20 (Tainted) Whiteness in Contemporary British Literature | 23 Chapter Overview | 28 I What Happened to the British (White) Working Class? Theoretical and Methodological Framework | 31 The Disappearance and Return of Class | 31 Being Too White? The Murder of Stephen Lawrence | 40 Becoming Black: The 2011 English Riots | 44 Figurations and Inscriptions of Race and Class | 50 Literary Figurations of Race and Class | 73 II “The trash ay Europe” Abject Working-Class Whiteness in the Novels of Irvine Welsh | 77 II.1 Trainspotting | 81 Challenges to the White Self in Multicultural Britain | 86 Uncanny Thatcherism: The Past in the Present | 91 II.2 Marabou Stork Nightmares | 96 A “Genetic Disaster”: The Strang Family | 97 Spectres of Thatcher | 100 The Continuum of White Privilege | 105 Masculinity, Abject Sexuality and Whiteness | 115 II.3 Filth | 125 From the Pits to the Top | 126 The Uncanny Politics of Passing | 130 “Chasing Dirt”: The Unruly Body | 141 III How Southern Gothic Came to Wales Race, Class and Post-Britishness in the Novels of Niall Griffiths | 149 III.1 Grits | 156 Post-British Plurality of Voices | 156 Race in the Devolutionary Discourse | 161 White Trash and the Trans-British Community | 165 The Body, Decay and Grotesque Poetics | 173 III.2 Sheepshagger | 181 Postcolonial Monstrosity | 181 Hybrid Bodies | 192 Transatlantic Southern Gothic: Niall Griffiths and Cormac McCarthy | 199 From Pastoral to Capitalism | 202 Race, Gothic, Politics | 210 IV Trashing the National Centre England’s Human Waste in the Novels of John King | 219 IV.1 The Football Factory | 224 Ways of Looking at Trash | 224 The Aftermath of Empire | 241 White Male Impotence | 252 IV.2 White Trash | 258 Policing the Underclass | 258 Social Contamination | 269 Adapting the American White Trash Aesthetic | 283 Conclusion | 293 Works Cited | 297 Primary Sources | 297 Literary Texts | 297 Films | 297 Secondary Sources | 298 Acknowledgements This book is a slightly revised version of my doctoral thesis submitted at the Faculty of Philology at Ruhr-University Bochum. I am indebted to a number of people without whom the present book would not be the same. First, I would like to thank my supervisors Anette Pankratz and Sarah Heinz for their support and encouragement throughout the years of writing. Their academic advice and feedback as well as their help during critical phases and beyond the call of duty have been invaluable. This book took shape during my employments at the English Depart- ments at the University of Mannheim and TU Dortmund and was signifi- cantly influenced by their respective intellectual and academic environ- ments. I would like to thank my colleagues in Mannheim and Dortmund for their support and for providing an inspiring working atmosphere. In particular, I would like to thank the Dortmund team of British Cultural Studies for having my back during the final months of writing: Julia Becker, Marie Hologa, Christian Lenz, Sophia Möllers, Cyprian Piskurek and Gerold Sedlmayr. I would like to thank Ariane de Waal, Johannes Fehrle, Kai Fischer, Evangelia Kindinger, Igor Krstić and Solvejg Nitzke for patiently and competently commenting on my drafts, for suggestions, inspiring in-depth discussions and for their friendship. Conferences, colloquia and workshops in Bochum, Leuven, Leeds, London, Mannheim and Maynooth offered the opportunity to present and discuss the results of my research. I am particularly indebted to John Bran- nigan, Shona Hunter and Clive James Nwonka for sharing their expertise and offering crucial suggestions during these occasions. I would also like to thank Niall Griffiths for providing me with material in the final phase of writing as well as for his kindness and intellectual generosity. During my time as a B. A. and M. A. student at the Departments for English and Comparative Literature at Ruhr-University Bochum, I was 8 British White Trash lucky to meet instructors whose guidance proved to be instrumental in my decision to move forward with my ideas for a doctoral research project. For their support and mentorship, I would like to express my gratitude to Uwe Lindemann, Monika Schmitz-Emans and Claus-Ulrich Viol. I would like to thank the FAZIT Foundation for supporting my work with a transitional grant during the final stages of writing. I am grateful to Kristie Kachler for the thorough copy-editing (I am solely responsible for all mistakes you might still find in the present book). Beyond academia, my heartfelt thanks go to my friends who have met both my fits of euphoria as well as bouts of self-doubt and moaning throughout the years with equal patience and empathy: Vilim Brezina, Christof Danielsmayer, Valentin Gube, Celia and Neil Hickey, Marcel de Oliveira, Anika Simon and Andreas Warneke. Finally, I would like to express my immense gratitude to my family for their unconditional support on all levels: Gabi, Paul-Gerhard and Miriam Schmitt. Introduction Whiteness and the C Word In January 2009, almost a decade after it had commissioned the Parekh Report on the “future of multi-ethnic Britain”, the Runnymede Trust pub- lished a collection of analyses with the provocative title Who Cares about the White Working Class? This question might at the time have prompted the instinctive answer: not too many. As the Runnymede Trust’s vice- chair, Kate Gavron, anticipates in her foreword, such a question might surprise readers for a number of reasons. Most importantly, for an organi- sation which has dedicated its work and its resources to “promot[ing] a successful multi-ethnic Britain by addressing issues of racial equality and discrimination against minority communities” to put their focus on “the grievances of a part of the white majority is not an obvious development” (Gavron 2009: 2). In addition, in a supposedly post-class and post-indus- trial time, the mere mention of the working class must for many British people seem to be oddly out of touch with contemporary society. In fact, in September 2008, only a few months before the publication of the Run- nymede Trust’s study, Harriet Harman, then deputy leader of the Labour Party, caused media outrage by mentioning “the c word”, as the Telegraph contemptuously put it, in an advance script for a talk about the social and economic factors influencing an individual’s life chances in contempo- rary Britain to be held at the Trade Union Conference (Pollard 2008). “The class war is over – do tell Labour”, proclaimed the Telegraph, and in a knee-jerk reaction to the backlash in public discourse, she eventually skipped the contentious term in her actual talk (Pollard 2008, Sveins son 2009b: 3). Yet, despite media backlash and criticism of Harman’s alleg- edly anachronistic focus on class, which, as the Telegraph venomously commented, supposedly echoed the concerns of “Old Labour” (Pollard 2008), other policymakers have also called attention to class as a decisive 10 British White Trash factor of social inequality. Similarly, class is increasingly being regarded in its intersections with race and other identity factors such as gender and age in public discourse. Even before the discourse on the white working class escalated when historian David Starkey reacted to the English riots in August 2011 with the comment that “black gangster culture” was to blame and that the “whites have become black” (BBC Newsnight), speaking about class in Britain had conspicuously retreated to a vocabulary of racialisation. This was most prominently documented in BBC Two’s The White Season, which aired in early 2008 with the aim “to shine the spotlight on the white working-class in Britain today” (The White Season). Featuring films which examined the origins of xenophobia and cultural alienation amongst the white working class, starting with Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech in 1968 and moving on to the growing popularity of the British National
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 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]
  • 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.
    [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]
  • Running Head: the PSYCHOPATH NEXT DOOR 1
    Running head: THE PSYCHOPATH NEXT DOOR 1 The Psychopath Next Door: How Similar Are They to Those Behind Bars? Criminality, Executive Functioning, and Emotion Processing in ‘Noncriminal’ Psychopathy. Emily Louise Adam Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (IF49) The School of Psychology and Counselling Faculty of Health Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation Queensland University of Technology 2017 THE PSYCHOPATH NEXT DOOR 2 Keywords Criminality, psychopathy, noncriminal psychopathy, primary psychopathy, secondary psychopathy, executive function, emotion, emotion-processing, gender differences, lexical decision task. Running head: THE PSYCHOPATH NEXT DOOR 3 “Though not deeply vicious, he carries disaster lightly in each hand” Hervey Cleckley, The Mask of Sanity (1955) Running head: THE PSYCHOPATH NEXT DOOR 4 List of Abbreviations ASD Antisocial Personality Disorder (in quoted material) ASPD Antisocial Personality Disorder ASPD+P Antisocial Personality Disorder with Psychopathy ASPD-P Antisocial Personality Disorder without Psychopathy AX-CPT A/X Continuous Performance Test BAS Behaviour Activation System BE Blame Externalisation BIS Behavioural Inhibition System C Coldheartedness calCAP-SPM2 California Computerised Assessment Package Serial Pattern Matching 2 CAT Categories Achieved CFA Confirmatory factor analysis CH Coldheartedness CN Carefree Nonplanfulness CSS-M Criminal Sentiments Scale-Modified CSS-R Criminal
    [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]