“We’re all on leading strings out of the past”: memory in Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s A Scots quair

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to analyze issues of memory in Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s trilogy A Scots Quair (1932-4). Composed by the novels Sunset Song, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite, this work recounts the coming of age of the protagonist Chris between 1911 and the 1930s, also representing the impact of historical events such as the First World War and the Great Depression on Scottish society. In addition, the trilogy depicts the transition from a rural to an urban setting as the action shifts from the village of Kinraddie to the town of Segget and later to the city of Duncairn. All these places are fictional, but clearly located in the northeast of Scotland. The role of traditional songs and narratives in A Scots Quair is explored, as well as the changes in the characters’ relation with these elements through time. Besides, the analysis focuses on the landscape in relation to the duality between permanence and change that permeates this work since the land is both a witness to history and the surface upon which communities from different ages inscribe their marks. These vestiges from the past remind the characters both of their personal stories and of events that are relevant to the group to which they belong. Finally, the impact of the memory of the First World War in the following decades is investigated. The trauma caused by this conflict endures for years in the lives of the former combatants and of their family members. The creation of memorials is a strategy to deal with the pain inflicted by loss and to try to make sure that the memory of the fallen does not vanish. Soldiers’ experience is also understood within a broader context of violence and trauma, which is related to their ancestors, but also to the generations that come after them