title: Illuminated cities: transgression and transcendence in urban Scottish literature

authors: Oliver, Fiona Margaret

abstract: Canonical representation and critical appraisal of urban Scottish literature before the publication of Alasdair Gray’s Lanark, in 1981, emphasizes its innate realism. This realist reading pays attention to surfaces and objective identities, rather than subjective depths and transgressive or transcendent possibilities. It inevitably encounters areas of lack, absence and failure. This thesis proposes that the Scottish representation of the city, as in other literatures, is inextricable from its perception and subjectification. This thesis explores a number of non-realist readings and attempts to open up the realist surfaces. These opening strategies are prompted by the phenomenological and intertextual readings demanded by the works of Alexander Trocchi. Trocchi can be considered the linchpin in a body of urban literature that is concerned with transgressive modes of self-realization. From his pivotal position a line of inheritance may be drawn back to the male-authored urban visions of James Thomson and John Davidson, and forward to Irvine Welsh.

In the ‘metaphysical’ readings suggested in this thesis, the narrative delineates a quest for transcendence, catalysed by the protagonist’s recognition of lack at a realist level and his desire for meaning within metaphysical or psychological depth. Thus, the city may represent a real place and ask for a realist reading, but it also functions as the controlling metaphor for concerns pertaining to personal identity. The city is a psychogeographical terrain that embodies an interplay between reality and the ideal. In the abject topos of the city, however, the dialectic of transcendence does not move toward totality of vision, or unity of identity. Negative and transgressive modes such as rupture and division are recuperated to engender a conception of transcendence based on ‘becoming’ and movement, rather than on a place or state of being.

The principle aim of this thesis is to address a shortfall in analytical criticism on the body of Scottish urban literature. It traces the representation of the city from nineteenth-century social and religious tracts, poetry and fantasy texts and suggests that such works are more appropriate forerunners to the modern urban Scottish novel than the sentimental and lightly humorous novels and stories of the so-called ‘urban kailyard’. The tenets propounded in these early works are developed in a theme-driven analysis of Scottish canonical twentieth-century urban novels. Revisionary readings and recontextualization of these works, based on modernist and Continental literary and philosophical paradigms, aim to reappraise a hitherto disregarded tradition out of which has developed the recent flourishing of late twentieth-century Scottish writing.

text: Illuminated cities: transgression and transcendence in urban Scottish literature Canonical representation and critical appraisal of urban Scottish literature before the publication of Alasdair Gray’s Lanark, in 1981, emphasizes its innate realism. This realist reading pays attention to surfaces and objective identities, rather than subjective depths and transgressive or transcendent possibilities. It inevitably encounters areas of lack, absence and failure. This thesis proposes that the Scottish representation of the city, as in other literatures, is inextricable from its perception and subjectification. This thesis explores a number of non-realist readings and attempts to open up the realist surfaces. These opening strategies are prompted by the phenomenological and intertextual readings demanded by the works of Alexander Trocchi. Trocchi can be considered the linchpin in a body of urban literature that is concerned with transgressive modes of self-realization. From his pivotal position a line of inheritance may be drawn back to the male-authored urban visions of James Thomson and John Davidson, and forward to Irvine Welsh.

In the ‘metaphysical’ readings suggested in this thesis, the narrative delineates a quest for transcendence, catalysed by the protagonist’s recognition of lack at a realist level and his desire for meaning within metaphysical or psychological depth. Thus, the city may represent a real place and ask for a realist reading, but it also functions as the controlling metaphor for concerns pertaining to personal identity. The city is a psychogeographical terrain that embodies an interplay between reality and the ideal. In the abject topos of the city, however, the dialectic of transcendence does not move toward totality of vision, or unity of identity. Negative and transgressive modes such as rupture and division are recuperated to engender a conception of transcendence based on ‘becoming’ and movement, rather than on a place or state of being.

The principle aim of this thesis is to address a shortfall in analytical criticism on the body of Scottish urban literature. It traces the representation of the city from nineteenth-century social and religious tracts, poetry and fantasy texts and suggests that such works are more appropriate forerunners to the modern urban Scottish novel than the sentimental and lightly humorous novels and stories of the so-called ‘urban kailyard’. The tenets propounded in these early works are developed in a theme-driven analysis of Scottish canonical twentieth-century urban novels. Revisionary readings and recontextualization of these works, based on modernist and Continental literary and philosophical paradigms, aim to reappraise a hitherto disregarded tradition out of which has developed the recent flourishing of late twentieth-century Scottish writing.

year: 2000

title: Pedagogical learnings of Borat for make benefit glorious community of drama teachers: What teachers can learn from Borat about frame, position and power when working in role.

authors: Aitken, Vivienne Jane

subjects: education

abstract: One of the most exciting strategies available to teachers of drama and indeed any learning area is that of ‘teacher-in-role’. When a teacher takes on a fictional role within the socially real classroom, she reframes reality and repositions herself in relation to the children in the class (Aitken, 2007). To ensure that children are as empowered as possible within the transformed relationship – and for significant aesthetic and ethical reasons too – many teachers stress the importance of ‘signalling’ their transition in and out of role and making the ‘frame’ of the drama explicit (O’Toole, 2002; Edmiston, 2003). However, some resort to unsignalled role in the belief that the lesson will be somehow ‘better’ if participants misframe what is happening as real life events rather than as ‘just’ a drama. This paper critiques this attitude by drawing parallels with Baron Cohen’s controversial ‘mockumentary’ Borat, which could be described as a sustained exercise in unsignalled ‘filmmaker-in-role’. While Cohen operates in the medium of film rather than classroom drama, and while his objectives are not pedagogical, the movie highlights crucial questions about ethics, aesthetics and power that resonate for anyone using unsignalled role, including teachers. This paper addresses some of these questions, including: ‘Is it acceptable to manipulate people into ‘misframing’ a fictional role for your own purposes?’ ‘What difference does it make if the objective is educational?’ and ‘What if the unwitting participants are children?’

text: Pedagogical learnings of Borat for make benefit glorious community of drama teachers: What teachers can learn from Borat about frame, position and power when working in role. One of the most exciting strategies available to teachers of drama and indeed any learning area is that of ‘teacher-in-role’. When a teacher takes on a fictional role within the socially real classroom, she reframes reality and repositions herself in relation to the children in the class (Aitken, 2007). To ensure that children are as empowered as possible within the transformed relationship – and for significant aesthetic and ethical reasons too – many teachers stress the importance of ‘signalling’ their transition in and out of role and making the ‘frame’ of the drama explicit (O’Toole, 2002; Edmiston, 2003). However, some resort to unsignalled role in the belief that the lesson will be somehow ‘better’ if participants misframe what is happening as real life events rather than as ‘just’ a drama. This paper critiques this attitude by drawing parallels with Baron Cohen’s controversial ‘mockumentary’ Borat, which could be described as a sustained exercise in unsignalled ‘filmmaker-in-role’. While Cohen operates in the medium of film rather than classroom drama, and while his objectives are not pedagogical, the movie highlights crucial questions about ethics, aesthetics and power that resonate for anyone using unsignalled role, including teachers. This paper addresses some of these questions, including: ‘Is it acceptable to manipulate people into ‘misframing’ a fictional role for your own purposes?’ ‘What difference does it make if the objective is educational?’ and ‘What if the unwitting participants are children?’

year: 2008

title: Inclusion of indigenous peoples in CONFINTEA VI and follow-up processes

authors: Morrison, Sandra L.

subjects: indigenous people and CONFINTEA VI

abstract: This paper discusses key issues raised by indigenous peoples during CONFINTEA VI and proposes strategies to enable them to participate in ongoing processes. Indigenous peoples are not involved in the design, implementation and monitoring of adult education programmes, and this often results in a “one-size-fits-all” model. This article takes the position that indigenous people must have full and effective participation in all matters which concern them and that well-meaning policy statements are only as effective as the display of real effort to make them work. One example of an indigenous community taking initiative in order to free itself of overwhelming deficit positioning by mainstream educational and other systems is the Māori community of Aotearoa/New Zealand. The paper argues that through CONFINTEA VI, there is still space for the voice of indigenous peoples to be heard.

text: Inclusion of indigenous peoples in CONFINTEA VI and follow-up processes This paper discusses key issues raised by indigenous peoples during CONFINTEA VI and proposes strategies to enable them to participate in ongoing processes. Indigenous peoples are not involved in the design, implementation and monitoring of adult education programmes, and this often results in a “one-size-fits-all” model. This article takes the position that indigenous people must have full and effective participation in all matters which concern them and that well-meaning policy statements are only as effective as the display of real effort to make them work. One example of an indigenous community taking initiative in order to free itself of overwhelming deficit positioning by mainstream educational and other systems is the Māori community of Aotearoa/New Zealand. The paper argues that through CONFINTEA VI, there is still space for the voice of indigenous peoples to be heard.

year: 2011