Abstract
Drawing on a range of literary and visual texts and using a cultural studies
methodology, this thesis investigates how three prominent figures in Scottish popular
culture have, in the last two decades, explored the relationship between failure and
nationalism as a socially exclusionary force. The central discussion follows how
Irvine Welsh in his novels, Alexander McQueen in his fashion design work, and
Danny Boyle in his films consider the implications of nationalism, and Scottish
nationalism particularly, on gender, race, and class. Each of the three ‘artists’ under
consideration for this inter-disciplinary study are evaluated in terms of the meaning
that they assign to failure in the context of Scottish nationalism and as part of the
human condition in general. I show how Welsh re-evaluates societal understandings
of failure and employs a humanist vision in his exploration of nationalism as
constructed as class-based. Similarly, McQueen uses historical revisionism and
temporal distortion in order to foreground and explore Scotland’s tumultuous political
history and the implications of it on gender divisions. Lastly, I show how Boyle in his
films questions notions of deviance and criminality as part of his re-evaluation of
failure on one level and Scottish nationalism on the other. While all three are
concerned with the manner in which nationalist narratives exclude minority groups
and heighten prejudice against them, their considerations extend beyond ideas and
representations of victimhood – rather, the work under study for this project is most
interested with re-imagining national identities and histories and in reframing failure
and the role it can play in both creative expression and lived experience within a
nationalist framework.
D.Litt. et Phil. (English)