Palacky University in Olomouc Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies

PALACKY UNIVERSITY IN OLOMOUC FACULTY OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES MYTH AS PROPAGANDA: THE IDEOLOGICAL USES OF MYTHOLOGY IN SCOTTISH SOCIALIST NOVELS DISSERTATION BY JAN HORACEK SUPERVISED BY Mgr. EMA JELINKOVA, Ph.D. OLOMOUC, CZECH REPUBLIC AUGUST 2018 I, Jan Horacek declare that this dissertation and the work presented in it are my own and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that where I have consulted and quoted from the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed. I have acknowledged all sources of help in the bibliography. Signed: ___________________________ Date: ___________________________ ii Most political propaganda is a matter of telling lies, not only about the facts but about your own feelings. But every artist is a propagandist in the sense that he is trying, directly or indirectly, to impose a vision of life that seems to him desirable. —George Orwell, “The Proletarian Writer” iii CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS vi PREFACE vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viii ABSTRACT ix INTRODUCTION 1 PART I. IDEOLOGY AND MYTH 16 Chapter 1: Origins and Definitions 18 Chapter 2: Two Types of Thought 23 Chapter 3: Dialectic and Totality 29 Chapter 4: Belief and Reality 36 Chapter 5: Story Form 45 Chapter 6: Functions 52 PART II. STRUCTURE AND MEANING 59 Chapter 7: Method 60 Chapter 8: Preliminary Crisis 72 Chapter 9: Redirection 83 Chapter 10: Solace 89 Chapter 11: Immersion 96 Chapter 12: Mentor 103 Chapter 13: Conflict 111 Chapter 14: Acceptance 118 Chapter 15: Praxis 125 Chapter 16: Departure 132 CONCLUSION 138 iv BIBLIOGRAPHY 142 v ILLUSTRATIONS Figures 1. Common structural pattern of Scottish socialist novels 71 Tables 1. Structural relations in The Underworld 62 2. Simplified overview of structural relations in The Underworld 63 3. Structural relations in The Morlocks 66 4. Structural relations in Grey Granite 67 5. Structural relations in Major Operation 68 6. Structural relations in The Land of the Leal vi PREFACE I have always been fascinated by the peculiar ability of propaganda to communicate beliefs and values. This is particularly true in the case of Scottish socialist novels which I find to be a surprisingly thought-provoking area of study. Although they mainly reflect the political landscape of the 1930s, they are primarily a cultural means of promoting a political ideology. Regardless of their aesthetic quality, they have a lot to say about the ways in which we think about politics. As soon as I realized their potential to enlighten us about the dynamic of modern political propaganda, I looked for a pattern that could reveal how it works. I ignored the obvious answers and searched elsewhere for a clue. Eventually I decided to focus on the role of myth and its ideological uses because it has been historically used to communicate and consolidate power relations in society. I find the inescapable omnipresence of mythical thinking in the modern world tremendously impressive. It has continually motivated me to explore its function in political propaganda, and the relationship between rational and irrational thought in general. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am very grateful to the Department of English and American Studies, Philosophical Faculty, Palacky University and most importantly to my wife and daughter. viii ABSTRACT This study explores political propaganda in Scottish socialist novels to demonstrate how literature can convey a political ideology. It argues that they show how propaganda recycles myth as a vehicle for ideological persuasion. The reason behind doing so is to suggest that the narrative structure of Scottish socialist novels reveals a previously undetected pattern that underlies the strategies employed by political propaganda. In particular, it examines the epistemological link between myth and ideology in James C. Welsh’s The Underworld (1920) and The Morlocks (1924), Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Grey Granite (1934), James Barke’s Major Operation (1936) and The Land of the Leal (1939), respectively. The theoretical method is informed by applied structuralism and traditional myth criticism. This approach allows for a hermeneutic redefinition of the genre on the one hand, but more importantly it is instrumental in identifying significant processes inherently involved in the cultural dimension of socialist propaganda. As a result, this dissertation disregards questions of aesthetic quality because it contends that such concerns offer only a limited insight into the social phenomenon of political propaganda. Instead, it considers some universal implications of Scottish socialist novels for modern politics, especially the role of ritualization in communicating political ideologies. ix INTRODUCTION Literary radicalism in Scotland has a well-established tradition. Dating back to the iconic eighteen-century poet Robert Burns, whose revolutionary sympathies shaped much of his poetry, Scottish writers have traditionally shown egalitarian concern for the common man. What originated as a sense of dignity in a largely agricultural society gradually over a century developed into a fierce protest against the dehumanizing effects of industrial capitalism. However, it was not until the 1920s that radical fiction appeared in Scotland. Its relatively late arrival can be accounted for by two inter-related processes. First, despite the sweeping progress of industrialization in the nineteenth century, writers typically misrepresented Scotland as an idealized pastoral community with a particular dislike for cities.1 Second, in the wake of the First World War the increased sense of class consciousness and political radicalization2 which swept across the country was far too significant to be ignored by writers. As a result, the need to tackle the dramatic changes in Scottish society brought about by its economic transformation considerably contributed to the emergence of socialist fiction in Scotland. In particular, the socialist novel represents an unprecedented attempt to communicate the Scottish experience of rapid proletarianization and urbanization. It documents the rise and struggles of organized labor in Scotland. Ranging from dramatizations of the early period of the Scottish labor movement to the threat of fascism in the 1930s, the Scottish socialist novel not only redefines the established representational framework but also acknowledges the international political context. More importantly, it offers a vivid picture of modern Scottish history from a working- class perspective with a heavy emphasis on promoting socialist ideology. The ideological aspect is significant for two reasons. For one thing, it was the first time writers opted for the novel form to promote socialism in Scotland. For another, their efforts to grasp and represent a political ideology clearly show the unique nature of Scottish socialism, which was largely informed by the ethical legacy of Robert Burns rather than orthodox Marxism.3 In spite of their marginalization, the works of 1. See Carl MacDougall, Writing Scotland: How Scotland’s Writers Shaped the Nation, (Edinburgh: Polygon, 2004), 27. 2. See William Kenefick, Red Scotland! The Rise and Fall of the Radical Left, c. 1872 to 1932 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), 24. 3. See Kenefick, Red Scotland, 24. 1 Scottish socialist novelists deserve more attention because they depict a frequently overlooked aspect of British cultural and political history. Even though the Scottish socialist novel originated in the 1920s, its definition and interpretation appears to be somewhat problematic. It is complicated by the concurrence of its formation and the advance of modernism in Scotland known as the Scottish Cultural Renaissance. In fact, this period of literary revival seems to have conveniently overshadowed the existence of explicitly socialist novels in Scotland. Although the movement’s mastermind Hugh MacDiarmid was briefly associated with the Left, his cultural preferences and volatile political allegiances were not entirely compatible with the goals of Scottish socialist writers. Therefore, the Scottish Renaissance should not represent the determining factor in interpreting Scottish socialist writing. Instead of seeing the socialist novel in Scotland as a by-product of the Scottish Renaissance, it makes more sense to define it by contrasting it with working-class fiction. Regardless of some superficial similarities, there is a fundamental difference between a socialist and working-class novel. Raymond Williams, an influential cultural critic in the New Left movement, suggests that in working-class fiction “the majority of characters and events belong to working-class life,” whereas in socialist writing “the author, or a decisive character offers a socialist interpretation of what is happening, what happened, what might have happened, what could yet happen.”4 Williams introduces a vitally important distinction that rests on the ideological baggage inherently present in socialist writing. In order to establish a degree of clarity, this straightforward definition requires further modification. In his seminal study of the radical novel in the United States, Walter Rideout points out that a socialist novel “as one of its primary purposes explicitly or implicitly advocates some form of Socialism.”5 He stresses the importance of consistent political agenda which is at the core of socialist writing. While working-class fiction may or may not selectively dramatize some aspects of socialism, socialist novels systematically and consciously

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