RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Chaos and Dissolution?: Deconstruction and Scotland in the Later Fiction of Robin Jenkins
A1 Ágústsdóttir, Ingibjörg
AB This paper will examine Robin Jenkins’s representation of Scotlandand the wider world in his most recent fiction. It will demonstratehow Jenkins deconstructs the idea of a society with a fixed set of valuesand moral codes, for example through the troubled sense of identityand the obvious breakdown of moral and human values portrayed in hisnovel Just Duffy. In a characteristic manner of ambivalence and irony,Jenkins juxtaposes the postmodern with the traditional, the subversivewith the reactionary, and the disturbing with the moving, so that we arepresented with a world where there are no set answers to any of ourquestions, independent of whether they are inward —or outward— looking.Throughout his later fiction, Jenkins criticises the increasinglyimmoral, hypocritical, and disordered vision of modern society, whichultimately emerges as a deeply disturbing reminder to his readers, relevantnot only to Scotland and Scottish issues, but also to the world asa whole. Accordingly, Jenkins’s later fiction reveals a concern with aScotland where the whole idea of society or community is falling apart,leaving the reader with an uneasy feeling that Scotland’s young peoplehave been betrayed by their own community and by the political upholdingof the centuries-old class divisions of British society. Moreover,the reader is constantly made aware of the pitfalls of morality, ofhow a person’s or an organization’s determination to work for a “good”cause can ultimately lead to evil, which in turn becomes applicable tomore universal issues such as terrorism and world politics.
SN e-2530-8335
YR 2000
FD 2000
LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/30421
UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/30421
LA en
DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna
RD 17-may-2024