Abstract
There has to date been no attempt at a detailed comparative study of
contemporary Irish and Scottish literature: this thesis constitutes an attempt to do
so. Specifically, it looks at the significance of the dialect novel in writing after
1979. My claim is that the dialect novel must be read in terms of the crisis facing
working-class communities at the end of the twentieth century. Despite certain
attempts to declare class a redundant critical category, I argue that it is
fundamental to our understanding of contemporary Irish and Scottish culture.
Chapter one traces the emergence of Irish-Scottish studies as an interdisciplinary
field within the humanities. It also outlines the political and theoretical
challenges confronting Marxism at the end of the twentieth century. Here I will
introduce the work of Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Throughout this thesis
Gramsci's ideas will underpin the discussion of specific literary texts. Chapter
two looks at Scotland and the work of James Kelman. It examines attempts by
nationalist critics to locate Kelman's work within the so-called 'Renaissance' of
contemporary Scottish literature. Against this, I argue that Kelman's use of
dialect belongs fundamentally to a class based politics, one that compels us to
reconsider questions of nationalism. Chapter three looks at the Republic of
Ireland and the work of Roddy Doyle. Focusing in The Commitments (1987) it
examines the novel's contentious claim that the working-class are the niggers of
Ireland. The conflation of class and race will be examined in detail. This is
particularly relevant in light of James Kelman's coincidental insistence that his
own work is part of a literature of de-colonisation. This issue forms a conduit to
re-considering the Irish postcolonial debate that arose during the 1990s. Chapter
four examines the wholly neglected issue of class within the post '69 conflict in
Northern Ireland. It focuses on the role of dialect in Frances Molloy's No Mate
for the Magpie (1985) and John Boyd's Out ofmy Class (1985). I argue that
socio-economic roots of the Troubles have been systematically elided from
mainstream perceptions of the North. Chapter five considers all three regions in a
more concentrated form of analysis. It focuses on the critical endorsement of
Richard Kearney's concept of postnationalism and the postmodern theory upon
which it is predicated. Although popular among both Scottish and Irish critics, I
contend that this is essentially a misguided critical enterprise. Postmodernism is
read in terms of the enthronement of late capitalist values, producing a cultural
discourse that reconfigures rather than redresses underlying issues of social
inequality.
