A terrific book - racy, pacy and full of interesting insights and analysis. Not only does it offer ways for scholarship to go forward in the domain of scottish studies and questions of national identity, it also impels the reader to go out and read the novels, see the films, revisit the television programs.-professor Susan Hayward, University of Exeter
Regarded by some as a response to a growing sense of political disenfranchisement, the last twenty years have witnessed an unprecedented flourishing of cultural expression in Scotland. Contemporary Scottish Fictions explores some of the major figures, works, themes and aesthetics of this cultural renaissance in the high profile areas of film, television drama and the novel. The first half of the book focuses on the aesthetic response to the political, economic and social transformations of the '80s and '90s. Ranging from the impotent howl of the Scottish 'hard man', to the innovations of Alasdair Gray and James Kelman in literature, to Bill Forsyth in cinema and John Byrne in television drama. Underscoring the needed engagement of female experience and subjectivity along with the new realities of Scottish post-industrial society. The second half examines high profile generic trends such as Gothic and Detective fiction and interrogates recurring themes in Scottish film and literature such as the figure of the Child and the Travelling Scot. A wide range of novelists are discussed, including Ian Rankin, Janice Galloway, Andrew O'Hagan, Alan Spence, Candia McWilliam, Alan Warner, Iain Banks and Irvine Welsh. Film-makers include Bill Douglas, Danny Boyle, Peter Mullan, Lynne Ramsay, David Mackenzie and non-Scottish directors like Ken Loach and Lars von Trier.
Features
* The first comparative study of contemporary scottish film, television drama and the novel
* The only serious consideration of the distinctive field of scottish television drama
* Aimed at a wide readership of students and academics in scottish studies, literary studies, film and television studies, as well as the general reader with an interest in contemporary scottish culture.