Creative Evolution in the Novels of Nan Shepherd
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Creative Evolution in the Novels of Nan Shepherd HEATHER KATHARINE VINSON DEGREE OF MASTER OF LETTERS DEPARTMENT OF SCOTTISH LITERATURE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW 2002 This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Letters 2002 (c) Heather Katharine Vinson, May, 2002 ProQuest Number: 13818817 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 13818817 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Dissertation Abstract This thesis examines the novels of Aberdeenshire author, Nan Shepherd:The Quarry Wood (1928), The Weatherhouse (1930), andA Pass in the Grampians (1933). Shepherd developed a vision of life as being characterised by a flow of change encompassing all things in relation. Rejecting determinism and fatalism, Shepherd exalts the human spiritual capacity for creative influence over what is essentially a chaotic universe. Hers is a philosophy of evolution, explicated through narrative. Literal and symbolic dramatisations of her vision explore individual and communal awakenings to the underlying nature of reality, and to the human creative capacity. Shepherd's optimistic vision is rooted in the power of perception, whereby individuals can exert creative influence over their experience of existence. In their search for a peaceful existence, her characters awaken to the importance of continual spiritual (inner) adaptation enabled by interaction with the changing physical (external) world. Deeply rooted in her local region, Shepherd finds there an abundance of material that inspires her spiritual vision and lends tangible force to her modernist ideas. The natural world and human worlds are equally important to her vision. Her characters and communities articulate a specific temporal dimension to the landscapes that Shepherd loved. Perpetual and unpredictable change underlies all of Shepherd's novels. In each, Shepherd seeks balance between the inherited traditions of the past and a bold, creative embrace of an open-ended and unformed future. The first chapter seeks to set Shepherd in the context of her own time and place, and identify her work in relation to the wider cultural arena. The chapter also introduces critical approaches applied in this thesis. The following three chapters are dedicated to Shepherd's novels, treated in chronological order. There is a consistent core to Shepherd's philosophical vision, though each novel shifts its angle and focus as Shepherd's own vision evolves. In each novel an isolated, self-contained entity — a character, a community, or generations of families — awakens to and reconciles its perception to unpredictable, uncontrollable events external to it, establishing close spiritual connections with people and landscape. The purpose of this reconciliation is to find a way in which to live a peaceful, balanced life of empathic compassion and wisdom. In The Quarry Wood, Martha must adapt her inner vision of life to external (physical and social) realities. Failure to do so invites disaster. The novel describes evolution toward wisdom, leading to her discovery that she is in need of others to create a whole and fulfilling life for herself. In The Weatherhouse, each individual must adapt him or herself to complex, unsuspected realities. The novel describes communal evolution within a narrow space and time, toward profound understanding of the vast interconnections of being. The novel demonstrates the need we have for one another. Failure to integrate one's self within the human web has tragic consequences. The horizons of space and time inA Pass in the Grampians are broader than any previous novel. Three generations adapt to the broad movements of social and cultural history -- specifically, the modem age. Failure to adapt one's spiritual tradition means spiritual death will accompany the inevitable physical death. The novel explores the threads of mutual need (embodied by tradition and memory) that link past, present and future generations together in a web of temporal and spatial dimensions. The Irish poet, Eavan Boland, writes: 'Our present will become the past of other men and women. We depend on them to remember it with the complexity with which it was suffered. As others, once, depended on us.' Boland's words describe the evolving continuum of being that provides the raw material for Shepherd's work, even while she reminds us that the universal life cycle of being will continue creatively and irrepressibly beyond all particular human actions or events. 'O light a mo' the hills S'uld ye gang oot, To whatna dark the warld'll fa' - fromIn the Cairngorms CONTENTS Author's Declaration i Acknowledgements ii List of Abbreviations iii Introduction I Chapter One: 6 Nan Shepherd in Context I) B iography o f N an S hepherd 6 Home and Family 6 Shepherd and Aberdeen University 8 Shepherd and Northeast Life 11 II) S hepherd an d Mo dernism 13 Problems of Expression 15 Unexpected Parallels 18 Bergsonian Ideas in Shepherd 19 III) S hepherd a n d the S cottish renaissance 2 3 Scotland's Regional Tradition in the Renaissance 24 The Power of Creative Vision: Shepherd and MacDiarmid 25 Philosophies of Change: Shepherd and Gibbon 27 Creating Identity: Shepherd and Willa Muir 29 Change in the Scottish Renaissance 31 IV) SHEPHERD AND EASTERN SPIRITUAL THOUGHT Eastern Thought in Western Culture 32 'Knowing Being' 34 P'o, Ming and Te in Shepherd's Writing 36 En d n o t e s Chapter Two: The Quarry Wood and the Quest To Be' I) Introduction Crusoe and The Quarry Wood 46 The Quarry Wood in Context 47 Critical Approach: A Novel of (Female) Development 48 Odyssean Parallels 50 Romance and Myth 52 ID Early C ircles of Development III) A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY AND DELUSION Confusing Knowledge and Wisdom 59 Spiritual Discoveries in a New World 60 Delusion and Isolation ' 62 Withdrawal From Physical and Social Life 65 IV) A w akening a n d Adaptation Awakening to Physical Life 69 Glamourie and Changing Perceptions: The Kiss 71 'The Good Apothecary': Return to Aunt Josephine 73 Temptation, Trial and Evolving Perceptions 75 'Quhat They Say, Lat Them Say' 76 Wisdom and Creation Through Death 77 Conclusion 80 En d n o t e s Chapter Three: The Weatherhouse: 'To Know Being' 85 I) Introduction 8 6 Shepherd and 'Fires' 86 The Weatherhouse in Context 87 Critical Approach 89 II) Initial Aw ak ening s 9 0 Lindsay's Journey to Knapperly 90 Carry's 'Delusions' of War 93 Messenger of Change to Fetter-Rothnie 96 III) F rontiers a n d C o m f o r t s1 9 9 Divisions in the Community 99 Garry's Reconstructive Efforts 101 An Empathic and Fantastic Life: Ellen's Imagination 103 Balancing Substance and Spirit: Knowing Birds 105 IV) D issolution a n d q u ie sc e n c e 10 7 Awakening to Spaces Beyond the Self 108 Awakening to Ambiguity: Ellen's Dissolution 111 Lindsay's Awakening to Spirit 113 Untameable Being: Elementality and Bawbie Paterson 114 Defiant Being: Light, Fire, and Johnny Rogie 116 Quiescent Being: Wind and Laughter 117 V) DESTRUCTION AND RE-CREATION 1 1 9 Human Destruction and Re-creation 119 Physical Destruction and Re-creation 120 Crea ting New Life in the Balance 122 En d n o t e s 1 2 5 Chapter Four: A Pass in the Grampians and the Continuum of Being 211 OlNTRODUCTION 1 2 7 Shepherd and Song of the Barley By Night' 127 A Pass in the Grampians in Context 129 Critical Approach: Creative Evolution in the Novel 132 II) The Kilgour a g e 1 3 4 A Family Tradition 134 Processes of Creation and Dissolution: The Life of Andrew Kilgour 136 Sacrifice and Resentment in the Community 139 III) The B eg innings o f C hange 141 The Developing Female Line: 'Half-Tamed by Men' 141 Fire and Laughter: Signs of Change 145 Bella's Childhood and Escape 149 IV) T he F renzy o f Battle a n d C reation 151 Bella as an Embodiment of Elan Vital 151 Desire for Physical Representation 152 Perspectives and Realities: Modem Art in the Novel 155 Dance of Creation and Destruction 156 Jenny's Creative Evolution 158 E n d n o t e s 1 6 3 Conclusion 165 Bibliography 170 Primary Sources 170 Man usc ript Materials 1 7 2 Secondary Sources 174 i Author's Declaration This thesis is a work of my own composition. It has not been submitted in any previous application for a degree. All quotations have been distinguished by quotation marks or by identification in the text, and the source o f my information specifically acknowledged. Glasgow Heather Katharine Vinson May, 2002 Acknowl ed gements I must first express grateful acknowledgement to the Saint Andrews Society of the State of New York for sending me to Scotland, and to the Overseas Research Scheme for keeping me here. Their financial contribution has been a significant source of support. I must also thank the Faculty of Arts for a research award that enabled many illuminating hours in the archives of Aberdeen University's Special Collections. I am grateful to staff at the National Library of Scotland, and the Aberdeen University Special Collections.