GENDERED ALLEGORIES OF THE SCOTTISH NATION IN ALASDAIR GRAY’S FICTION

Abstract

Being an ardent patriot and Scottish nationalist Alasdair Gray has created a whole gallery of national allegories in his fiction. Until recently, researchers’ attention (K. Stirling, I. Platt, C. Blomeley) has been mainly focused on female national figures. Nevertheless, one of the basic categories of Scottish cultural identity has always been masculinity rather than femininity. Consequently, the key cultural trope of national literature is considered the “hard man”. The aim of this research is to provide a comprehensive analysis of male characters in A. Gray’s fiction based on J. Homberg-Schramm’s classification of national masculinity types: traditional man, compensatory man, and the man in transition. In his novels, traditional masculinity is associated with the generation of “fathers”, and is hugely criticized as a relic of the past. Toxic masculinity is embodied in the figures of “justified sinners” (misfits, and men suffering from mental disorders) whose viciousness results from colonial trauma. In order to fight degrading national stereotypes A. Gray has produced a number of positive images of male characters who, interestingly enough, serve as an illustration of writer’s changing views on Scottish masculinity. The given article may be of special interest to scholars whose expertise lies in the area of contemporary British fiction as well as Postcolonial and Gender Studies.