English Literature and culture Master’s Thesis
Dr. B.P. Moore Word count 17,845
Bella Caledonia:
How Alasdair Gray’s “Poor Things” Rethinks Scottish Nationalism through the Portrayal of Bella Baxter
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION 3-12
BORN AGAIN: How Bella Baxter integrates and subverts the Acts of Union 13-21
AHEAD OF YOUR TIME: How Gray rethinks the Victorian era through Bella/ Victoria 22-30
ACROSS TIME AND SPACE: How does dialogism shape Gray’s nationalism? 30-6
CONCLUSION 37-8
INTRODUCTION:
“WORK AS IF YOU LIVE IN THE EARLY DAYS OF A BETTER NATION”. These words echo through Òran Mór,1 a Parish church on the iconic Glaswegian Byres Road. Alasdair Gray, one of Glasgow’s most beloved and well-acclaimed artists,23 painted the text between ceiling murals which are unmistakably by his hand. This text is a fitting message for a town mostly known for its working class citizens and their positive attitude, predominant in the famous slogan “People make Glasgow”. But behind this encouraging message one can find a more bitter tone; a disapproval of how the nation is run today. A message definitely received by the pro-Scottish Independence magazine Bella Caledonia. Gray’s illustration of the same title is blown-up on their website next to the description of their goals: “Like Bella4 we are looking for a publication and a movement that is innocent, vigorous and insatiably curious” (Williamson, 2007). Bella’s popularity with pro-independence Scots is partly due to the fact that this novel was published at a time where Scottish independence was widely desired and fought for. Poor Things was first published in 1992, the same year “30,000 people [marched] to call for the creation of a Scottish Parliament” (BBC News, 2018). However, it is not just Bella Caledonia and its readership that see the protagonist Bella Baxter as a nationalist figure. Donald P. Kaczvinsky argues in "Making up for Lost Time": Scotland, Stories, and the Self in Alasdair Gray’s "Poor Things" (2001) “that an identification between Bella and Scotland is at the very heart of Gray’s novel” (Kaczvinsky, 2001). While Kaczvinsky’s essay and Neil Rhind’s “A Portrait of Bella Caledonia: Reading National Allegory in Alasdair Gray's Poor Things” (2011) do explore the connection between nationalism and the character named Bella, few have discussed how the novel’s use of history affects the nationalism portrayed in the novel. I argue in this thesis that Bella’s contribution to Scottish nationalism heavily relies on the historical framework of Poor Things (1992), and the liberties it takes with said history. In order to do the novel and the character justice, an in-depth analysis of nationalism in relation to these elements is needed. Especially considering the fact that Bella, being a modern and feminist character, also serves as a way of exploring patriotism. Through the portrayal of this character Gray raises questions such as: can nationalism be modernised? How fixed or fluid is nationalism? To what extent is patriotism constructed by society, and to what extend does nationalism affect the society it reflects? My thesis used the idea that nationalism like other ideological institutions is created by a society and simultaneously affects said society as a springboard to explore these questions. The contention of this thesis is that Gray exposes the forced and temporary nature of a national identity 1 Òran Mór can be translated from Scots Gaelic to “Great Melody of Life” or “Big Song” in English. One may call this church a poetic location for this call to action. (Argyll Hotel, 2011)
2 Councillor David McDonald, Deputy Leader of Glasgow City Council, said that “Alasdair Gray is widely considered to be Scotland’s greatest living artist”(Dalziel, 2018).
3 Gray is “described as ‘the greatest Scottish writer since Sir Walter Scott’ by Anthony Burgess” (Scotsman, 2018)
and its ability to transform through the portrayal of Bella as the embodiment of Scotland. To further elaborate on this, this chapter will focus on the tools Gray uses to construct Bella. Firstly, Gray relies on larger historical Scottish nationalist narratives to shape his own version of a Scottish national identity, while defying traditional nationalist narratives as described by Benedict Anderson in
“Imagined Communities: Reflection of the Origin and Spread of Nationalism” (1983). Secondly, Gray’s nationalism foregrounds its constructed nature through the depiction of nationhood as a figure reminiscent of Frankenstein’s monster. By doing so, Gray breaks with conventional nationalism as defined by Anderson which presents itself as natural. Thirdly, Gray’s use of three different time periods in the novel Poor Things (1992) and how Gray chooses to present these time periods is crucial to Gray’s exploration of national identity.
The use of Scottish nationalist narratives:
Gray’s own form of nationalism relies on older Scottish nationalist narratives, while also subverting the traditional form of nationalism. This thesis uses Benedict Anderson’s “Imagined Communities: Reflection of the Origin and Spread of Nationalism”(1983) as a basis for the traditional definition and portrayal of nationalism. Besides Anderson arguing that national identity is a constructed idea formed by a community, Anderson describes nationalism as following two distinct rules both of which are broken in this nationalist depiction of Bella Baxter. The presentation of nationalism as the opposite of “evolutionary/progressive styles of thought”, and the presentation of a national identity as “natural” (Anderson, 10-143).Which begs the question: how can a character that subverts traditional notions of nationalism be considered a nationalist figurehead? This is a question I hope to be able to answer by the end of this introduction.
Firstly, let us consider how Gray uses Scottish nationalist narratives to present a version of nationhood that breaks with Anderson’s first rule: Nationalist narratives are the opposite of “evolutionary/progressive styles of thought”(Anderson, 10-1). Besides describing nationalism as traditional, Anderson also describes it as a divisive and hateful line of thought as it has “its roots in fear and hatred of the Other” (Anderson, 141). In short, Anderson describes nationalism as the conservative and powerful deciding who is accepted and who is cast out of an imaginary community. If Gray were to align himself with this notion of nationalism, we would expect a rich conservative white man to be the hero of his story. Instead, our protagonist is a rather exceptionally progressive young woman who goes against the grain of a sexually repressed Victorian society. Our protagonist Bella Baxter is a Victorian woman who has been revived by Godwin Baxter by putting the brain of her unborn baby into her own skull after she committed suicide. Reborn into her new identity, she
engages in sexual affairs with numerous men and displays a complete disregard for established authority and societal rules. Micale credits Freud with claiming that the societal rules of the Victorian era were so strict that they affected the well-being of Victorian citizens: “the prevailing social and moral conditions of his age were exacting an inordinately high degree of sexual repression and in the process were producing a race of neurasthenic men and hysterical women” (Micale, 499). Freud addresses the connection of sexual suppression to hysteria in Part Three of General Introduction to Psychoanalysis: General Theory of the Neuroses chapter XXV. Fear and Anxiety (1920) where he argues that “suppression” replaces the normal emotions people feel with “fear, regardless of its original quality” and that in “hysteric conditions of fear, its unconscious correlative may be […] shame, embarrassment or positive libidinous excitation” (Freud, 22). Bella’s sexual behaviour is explicitly mentioned by her former suitor who describes her as “his mistress, … the mistress of Robert Burns, Bonnie Prince Charles and a string of celebrities back to the garden of Eden” (Gray, 211). This description echoes the attempts of Scottish historicists to establish a strong and long lineage of Scottish rule in their nationalist propaganda, as described in a book partaking in literary nationalist warfare with Scottish writers The Invention of Scotland (2009) by Hugh Trevor-Roper: “the newly established history of the Scottish monarchy […] would be exploited, and confirmed, as an ideological weapon in the war of independence against the English” (13). Trevor-Roper’s book provides an interesting view on how this nationalist dialogue between England and Scotland has evolved over the years as his novel is unapologetically pro-English and pro-Union. Trevor-Roper argues that the Scots went as far back as they could with this “devised” lineage: “the Scots had to carry their dynasty back beyond Brutus, and discover an eponymous hero earlier even than the Trojan War.”(Trevor-Roper, 12). The phrase “back to the garden of Eden” used by Gray is a playful nod to this Scottish nationalist tradition of evoking a long lineage to establish an argument. Besides adhering to this larger Scottish nationalist tradition, the men mentioned, Robert Burns and Bonnie Prince Charles, are also of Scottish historical importance. Robert Burns is a renowned Scottish poet who
positioned himself partway between critiquing the cultural hegemony and participating in it. His poetry draws attention to the differences within the nation as well as indicating the acts of poetic and readerly imagination which are necessary to create a sense of national identity. (Davis, 107).
Considering Bella’s upbringing and moral and cultural development in British high society, which she openly opposes but which undeniably shape her, Bella too can be found “partway between critiquing the cultural hegemony and participating in it”. Burns is a poet most commonly known for his
nationalist poetry, which has been “repackig[ed] by Scottish literati anxious to promote their own version of a strong Scottish cultural nationalism within a united Britain” (Davis, 107). By suggesting that Bella has been intimate with a prominent poet in Scottish nationalism, who is credited with
creating a sense of Scottish identity, Gray is positioning Bella in a nationalist framework. Gray
positions his own fabrication of national identity on equal footing to a well-established figurehead of Scottish nationalism. Bella is also mentioned as a former bedpartner to Bonnie Prince Charlie. “Bonnie Prince Charles” refers to the Stuart heir whom many highland troops attempted to restore as ruler of Britain during the Jacobite Uprisings of the 1740’s, the final battle of which was lost by the Scots at Culloden. After their loss, parts of Highlander culture were forbidden and historical texts describing Scottish history were taken away in an effort to temper Scottish nationalism. Hugh Trevor-Roper defends this ban on Highlander culture and erasure of Scottish history as “an attack in depth: an attempt to transform a whole social system; and it necessarily entailed an attack on the symbolism as well as the substance of that system” (Trevor-Roper, 194). Bonnie Prince Charlie was the name given to this heir by his allies, and his face was used as a symbol of Scottish nationalism and a sign of resistance. Scottish museums such as the National Museum of Scotland still display Jacobite
memorabilia, like glasses and dressing pins, with Prince Charles’ face on them. In short, Bonnie Prince Charlie is a well-known embodiment of pro-independence nationalism in Scottish history whose defeat marks the end of a prominent period of Scottish culture. Bella’s intimate relation to this bittersweet historical figure shows how Bella does not only relate to nationalist literary narratives but also to nationalist historical narratives. Hereby reinforcing the connection between literature and history in shaping Gray’s own nationalist identity expressed through Bella. Bella’s progressive sexual attitude is a clear breach from traditional forms of nationalism that advocate conservative thought, and her sexual past with both a writer and a political leader that have shaped nationalism paints Bella as a reinterpretation of the collective national memory which encapsulates both fiction and historical fact. But it is also a satirical display of nationhood. The expression that Bella has been intimate with these men places Bella in a nationalist narrative, but also has a clear comedic value. This use blend of comedy and nationalist narrative is one of Gray’s signature writing tropes. As he himself claimed that his stories are “propaganda for democratic welfare-state Socialism and an independent Scottish parliament” which is aimed to persuade the reader through [disguising] “themselves as sensational entertainment” (Brown, 1966).
The construction of national identity through the Frankenstein’s monster metaphor:
Through the portrayal of Bella, Gray breaks Anderson’s second rule of nationalism. Anderson argues that nationalism presents itself as “natural” and “nation-ness is assimilated to skin-colour, gender, parentage and birth-era – all those things one cannot help” (Anderson, 143). However, the main characteristic of Bella’s existence is that she is not a natural person. Like Victor Frankenstein’s creation
in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), Bella is stitched together from different bodies and then brought to life with electricity by the brilliant scientist Godwin Baxter. Gray addresses the similarity to the famous novel in Victoria’s, also known as “Bella’s”, epilogue where she describes the story as “a sufficiently strange story stranger still by stirring into it […] additional ghouleries from the works of Mary Shelley” (Gray, 272). The connection to Frankenstein is also echoed in the names of Godwin Baxter and Bella’s former self. Bella’s formerself was named Victoria, which is the female version of the name of the brilliant scientist Victor Frankenstein in Mary’s novel. Gray’s brilliant scientist’s first name is Godwin, which is the surname of Mary Shelley’s father William Godwin. This connection to Frankenstein is a metaphor for Gray’s new proposed national identity, which is stitched together from various historical events and points of view, and a reminder that nationhood is always constructed and unnatural. Gray makes no attempt to hide the fact that Bella is a “surgical fabrication”(Gray, 35). Instead, Gray draws attention to the unnatural and abhorrent nature of Bella’s birth through the reaction of the character Archibald McCandless. When Archibald realizes how Bella came to be in his conversation with her creator Godwin, he becomes ill:
“Six months ago she had the brain of a baby.”
“What reduced her to that state?”
“Nothing reduced her to it, she has risen from it. It was a perfectly healthy little brain.”
His voice must have had hypnotic qualities for I suddenly knew what he meant and believed him. I stood still and clutched the banister feeling very sick. I heard my voice stammer a question about where he got the other bits. (Gray, 30)
Archibald’s reaction is reminiscent of Victor Frankenstein’s narration where he says that as “the dull yellow eye of the creature open[ed]” Victor was disgusted, “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?” (Shelley, 50). Not only is this birth described as an outright “catastrophe”, the life that has been created is immediately stripped of its personhood by naming it “the wretch”. Victor’s disgust is so powerful that he is “Unable to endure the aspect of the being” and he “rushed out of the room” (Shelley, 50). This initial response is the same reaction Archibald has, although he is not successful as Godwin restrains him: “As my feet left the carpet I thought I was in the grip of a monster and started kicking. I also tried to yell but he put a hand over my mouth” (Gray, 31). The manner in which Archibald feels himself disconnected from his body, reflected in “I heard my voice stammer a question” and “as my feet left the carpet”, is similar to Victor’s response (Gray, 30). Both men are so overwhelmed with horror at the supernatural reanimation of these constructed beings that they feel the need to retreat. Gray’s monstrous depiction of the birth of Scottish identity echoes the sentiment
expressed by Tom Nairn in The Break-up of Britain (2015) that “Scottish society and history are monstrously misshapen in some way” (Nairn, 112). But on another level, the artificial nature of Bella’s birth is crucial in exposing the fabric of nationalism as a whole. Rhind notes that “since the only means of making a nation ‘real’ are artificial, [Bella] cannot be set in opposition to an ‘authentic’ organic identity, which is itself illusory” (Rhind, 3-5). Rhind’s notion of nationhood falls in line with Anderson’s take on how a national identity is created through fiction as “fiction seeps quietly and continuously into reality, creating the remarkable confidence of community in anonymity which is the hallmark of modern nations” (Anderson, 36).
Bella’s artificiality is also embedded in the structure of the novel. Throughout the novel the reader is presented with several stories that all claim to be telling the truth about who Bella/Victoria is. Gray presents himself as the “editor” of a collection of written works which he received from local historian Michael Donnelly, who found them in a museum. In reality we know that Alasdair Gray wrote the entire novel, but within the novel he is only accredited for the Introduction and the Critical and Historical Notes. The rest of the novel consists of two contradicting versions of Bella’s life. The supposedly autobiographical novel entitled Episodes from the Early Life of a Scottish Public Health Officer by Archibald McCandless M.D, where Archie details the life’s story of his wife Bella as a creation of Godwin Baxter. Plus a letter from Victoria McCandless M.D. to her eldest surviving descendant in 1974 correcting what she claims are errors in EPISODE FROM the EARLY LIFE of a SCOTTISH PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER by her late husband Archibald McCandless M.D., where Victoria refutes her ex-husband’s claims and argues that he wrote this fictional novel because he was jealous: “As locomotive engines are driven by pressurized steam, so the mind of Archibald McCandless was driven by carefully hidden envy” (Gray, 273). These competing narratives around Bella/Victoria hint at heated debates around the history of Scotland, which further aligns Bella with Scotland as they have both encountered many different claims concerning their origin. Colin Kidd states in The Strange Death of Scottish History Revisited: Constructions of the Past in Scotland, c. 1790-1914 (1997) that “William Robertson's History of Scotland (1759) presented a negative picture of Scotland's feudal backwardness which subsequently became the defining cliché of Scottish historical writing” (87). The phrases “feudal backwardness” and “cliché” reflects the tone of the debate, where each side was attempting to tear down the credibility of their opponents through every available tool, including the framing of the debate and their opponents personality. While Kidd documents this trend as
prominent throughout the end of the eighteenth century and the start of the twentieth century, an example of this can also be found in the early twenty-first century book the Invention of Scotland (2009), where Trevor-Roper tears down the reputation of the people he does not agree with in the debate on Scotland’s heritage. One example of this is Trevor-Roper’s description of James
Macpherson’s birthplace as “a remote and unlettered valley” and Macpherson himself as “naïve” (Trevor-Roper, 89-93). Another is the fact that Trevor-Roper attempts to dismiss all Scottish scholars by seeking to confirm the following statement by H.T Buckle which simultaneously discredits the Scots and validates the English: “the Scottish intellect, even in its most enlightened period, was not inductive, like the English, but deductive: that it reasoned not empirically but a priori.” (Trevor-Roper, 94). Just like the historians attacked each other’s credibility to undermine their views, so too does Gray attack Victoria’s credibility to undermine her version of events. But he does not stop there. In the introduction Gray tells us why he has put Archibald’s account in front of Victoria’s version of events:
I print the letter by the lady who calls herself ‘Victoria’ McCandless as an epilogue to the book. Michael would prefer it as an introduction, but if read before the main text it will prejudice the reader against that. If read afterward we easily see it is the letter of a disturbed woman who wants to hide the truth about her start in life. (Gray, xiii)
The phrase “who calls herself ‘Victoria’ McCandless” frames Gray’s introduction of Victoria as a woman who cannot even be trusted to tell her own name. In “if read before the main text it will prejudice the reader against that” the editor shows awareness of the fact that how Archibald McCandless’ story is framed affects its credibility. In these lines we see how the editor’s personal interest is placed above the historian’s preferences. Gray’s preference is indicated by the fact that he discredits Victoria as a “disturbed mad woman” and her version of the truth as an attempt to “hide the truth about her start in life”. These lines show us how the editor can abuse its power to frame stories as they see fit. By adopting the role of the subjective editor, Gray has the opportunity to parody the tone of the debate surrounding Scotland’s origin and the role of the editor as a whole. This also grant him the chance to illustrate how history is constantly reframed and re-interpreted by historians and editors alike. This perspective on fiction and history both being subjective accounts of events, and having the same ideological weight in the construction of nationhood, is vital to Gray’s writing. This view of fiction and history being of equal importance echoes the sentiment expressed by Anderson that “Communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined” (Anderson, 261).
Bella’s artificial birth is directly linked to Scotland, hereby exposing the mechanism of the fabrication of nationhood:
As my feet left the carpet I thought I was in the grip of a monster and started kicking. […] I suddenly felt that Baxter, his household, Miss Bell, yes and me, and Glasgow, and rural Galloway, and all of Scotland were equally unlikely and absurd. I started laughing. (Gray, 31)
Archibald attributes the unearthly qualities of reviving the dead to Scotland’s most populated city “Glasgow”, to a historically important area of the Scottish Highlands “rural Galloway” and reunites all these places in “all of Scotland” (Gray 31). Gray is connecting Bella’s construction to the fragmented nature of Scottish modern identity and Scottish History. By describing Scotland as ranging from the distinctly urban Lowland city Glasgow to the almost mythical rural Galloway, the site of Culloden, Gray presents Scotland as multi-faceted, with distinct sub identities that eventually are encapsulated in “all of Scotland” (Gray 31). This passage resonates well with Gray’s personal nationalist views as “Gray’s nationalism strives for a socialist, inclusive Scotland, one in which art and life are interwoven and synonymous, and in which all of Scotland -living, breathing, working Scotland, not only the fantastical Highland vision – gets the recognition it deserves”(Patterson, 2016). Once again, this constructed identity is depicted as something comedic. Archibald says that they and “all of Scotland were equally unlikely and absurd” and “[starts] laughing” (Gray, 31). The notion of national identity is equated to the identity of fictional characters, exposing that nationalism is just as unrealistic and constructed as fiction. Gray advocates a new approach to nationalism, an approach that foregrounds its constructed origin and can laugh at its own absurdity. As previously stated Gray is known for interweaving his humour with his political views. This balance between ideological seriousness paired with a satirical delivery is well formulated by Len Platt in ‘How SCOTTISH I am’: Alasdair Gray, Race and Neo-Nationalism (2015) where Platt described Poor Things (1992) as “one masterpiece of political discourse and rhetoric, posing with irony and no shortage of seriousness, as new national culture” (Platt, 196).
So in conclusion, Gray subverts Anderson’s second rule of nationalism, which is nationalism needing to present itself as natural, by depicting a national identity that is undeniably artificial and constructed in nature. By eradicating the need to pursue a pure and whole presentation of a nation, a more self-aware and complex national identity can be created. A national identity which does not take itself too seriously, but whose political views on Scottish socialist independence are no joke.
The use of three time periods within the novel:
Now that we have discussed how the character Bella Baxter represents a reimagining of Scottish nationalism through the use and alteration of historical events and traditions, I would like to discuss how the three different time periods used in the novel play into this. Poor Things (1992) uses three time periods in the construction of its narrative. Firstly, the overarching narrative of Bella/Victoria’s life present in all accounts of her life is adopted from William Wright’s satirical nationalist pamphlet The Comical History of the Marriage-Union betwixt Fergusia and Heptarchus (1709) which opposes
the union between England and Scotland. This pamphlet was spread throughout Scotland shortly after the Acts of Union of 1707 had taken effect. In this pamphlet, Scotland is embodied through Fergusia, and her suffering at the hands of her English husband Heptarchus is a metaphor for how the Scottish people have suffered under England. Bella/Victoria her relationships with characters that embody Britain also denounce the Union and expose how the Scottish people have suffered under the British monarchy. However, there are also crucial differences. In Wright’s pamphlet Fergusia is a damsel in distress who begs the Scottish people and the Scottish Senate to save her. In Gray’s novel Bella/Victoria is responsible for her own fate and the men she associates with are more distressed than she is. This feminist reimagining of a traditional nationalist narrative partly pays tribute to traditionalist narratives, and partly tears them apart to create a new national identity. An identity that foregrounds how it stitches together pieces of the past, both fictional and historical, to create a new Frankenstein-esque revived constructed national identity which is simultaneously old and new.
The second time period used in the novel is the period of time in which the story of Bella is set, the Victorian era. Since this is a particularly prosperous and romanticised period for many nationalist Scots, it forms a viable setting to create the character Bella. Gray reimagines the Victorian era through his depiction of Bella/Victoria which is in line with “neo-Victorian writing” as described by Dana Shiller’s “The Redemptive Past in the Neo-Victorian Novel” (1997). The way in which the past is reimagined through a modern-day lens will lay bare what ideological constructs are condemned throughout the novel, which greatly informs the nationalist ideology embedded in the depiction of Bella/Victoria. Leith Davis’ “Acts of Union: Scotland and the Literary Negotiations of the British Nation, 1708-1830” (1998), Colin Kidd’s "The Strange Death of Scottish History. Revisited:
Constructions of the Past in Scotland, c. 1790-1914” (2018), and Kate Hughes’s Gender roles in the 19th century (2014) will provide the needed historical information on the Victorian era so the transformation of societal values can be analysed. This reimagining of the past through a modern lense not only exposes the underlying ideology of Gray’s nationalism, it also exposes the temporary nature of nationalist identity as a whole. So too as Bella was formed by reimagining past ideological constructs, so too can Bella be taken apart and stitched back together with other bodies of text to form a new constructed Scottish identity.
The third time period used in the novel is the modern day of the time of publication, which is the end of the twentieth century right before the General Election where the Scottish people could vote to leave the United Kingdom and become an autonomous nation. The twentieth century penetrates the novel in several ways. Firstly, through the fictional construction that the novel was written by Victorian citizens and has been edited and interpreted by a twentieth century editor. Secondly, the twentieth century penetrates the novel through the historical notes Gray writes to
accompany the texts supposedly written by Victoria McCandless and Archibald McCandless. Gray’s historical and critical notes rarely provide any historical context and mostly provide a modern context. For example, Gray provides the reader with the following note to interpret the line “I arranged to sell my Scottish Widows and Orphans shares” (Gray, 88):
It was improvident of Wedderburn to do so since this insurance company (now called Scottish Widows) is still a highly flourishing concern. In March 1992, as part of Conservative publicity preceding a General Election, the chairman of Scottish Widows announced that if Scotland achieved an independent parliament the company’s head office would move to England. (Gray, 286).
Here we see Gray provide a “critical and historic note” which does not provide any useful information with regards to the story. Instead, it provides an insight into how companies have attempted to blackmail the Scottish people from an economical perspective to vote against a Scottish Parliament. Since this book was originally published the year of the General Election where Scottish citizens were demanding a Scottish Parliament, this critical note does little other than highlight the novel’s political motivation. Thirdly, the twentieth century penetrates the novel through Gray’s signature writing style and twentieth century nationalist ideology which encapsulates various points of view, some of which contradictory. In order to understand how seemingly paradoxical qualities are united within
Bella/Victoria, and within the overall pro-independence argument of the novel, Bakhtin’s “The Dialogic Imagination” (1981) will be related to both Gray’s novel Poor Things (1992) and his own nationalist pamphlet How We Should Rule Ourselves (2005). Gray’s highly-self-aware, contradicting and conceptual national identity shows how his Frankenstein-esque creation is falling apart at the seams. And how this fragile depiction of nationhood must serve an immediate political aim as “Nothing is forever in politics. Government is shaped – and can be re-shaped – by its people” (2005. Gray, 36). Considering the timing of the publication the novel, its immediate political aim could very well be persuading Scottish voters to vote pro-Scottish independence.
In conclusion, I hope to find be able to prove that the use of three different time periods shape the character Bella Baxter and create a unique form of Scottish nationalism. Once this has been established, I will further elaborate on how Gray illustrates the flexible nature of nationalism and how a nationalist identity does not need to present itself as lasting to influence politics.
The first time period used in the novel Poor Things is the early eighteenth century, more specifically the period of the Acts of Union in 1707 and the Scottish nationalist literary tradition that originated from it. When Scotland and England joined forces and created the United Kingdom, many Scots opposed the union. Many wrote national pamphlets to inspire political and economic arguments against the union. “As the printed word become increasingly important in reflecting and subsequently influencing economic and political concerns; the possibilities for the dissemination of public
information and debate were now greater than at any other time previously” (Davis, 20). The popularity of these Scottish nationalist pamphlets is reflected in William Ferguson’s Scotland’s Relations: “Demand for this literature of contention did not need to be created. The large number of pamphlets produced, some of them hefty tomes, is indicative of a keen public interest” (122). But besides these pamphlets having a direct social aim, they also served an important ideological function as they “shaped the self-image of the nation in the years following the union” (Davis, 22). Although Davis means the self-image of Britain as a whole, the same can be said for Scotland. Especially considering the fact that Davis claims that the current British identity is “an ambiguous construct” where the British people view themselves as simultaneously fragmented and whole (Davis, 4). The construction of “the self-image of the nation” is where I take a particular interest in one of the most famous Scottish nationalist pamphlets; namely William Wright’s The Comical
Marriage-Union betwixt Fergusia and Heptarchus (1708). In this chapter I explore how Gray has built on the tradition originating from Wright’s nationalist narrative, and how Gray simultaneously subverts Wright’s narrative to create his own embodiment of Scotland. A national identity which does not pretend to be virginal or simple, but a presentation which embraces and celebrates its complexly constructed and perverted nature.
William Wright’s pamphlet tells the story of Fergusia (Scotland), “a Lady of venerable Antiquity, of a competent Estate and Fortune, and a Sovereign over a bold and hardy people”, who is forced to marry Heptarchus (England) who is “Young, and Lusty” and due to the fact that he was “of old very much Oppressed, and entirely subdued” has “all the Blood of these annexed People in his Veins, and also all their conquering vigour”, which leads him to do “nothing but commit Rapes” (Wright, 1-7). This strong contrast of age, character and purity of genealogy encourages the reader to question the nature of the union. Who could think of a pair less suited to marry? Heptarchus “after a great many Civilities and handsome Compliments” exclaims that he is “passionate to possess that shining Beauty and Virtues I have so long beheld and Admired in you”. At first Fergusia keeps her distance as “an Age of Complements, […] is the usual method of the Beaus to cajole innocent Ladies with pretended passion” and as she has been warned by Heptarchus’ sister Juverna (Ireland) “whom he has kept as a
conquered Slave for some Ages” that he is “so strong, that Parchment will not bind him” (Wright 7-9). Fergusia tries to negotiate with Heptarchus, but he will not be happy until they are “entirely
Incorporated” (Wright, 14). Fergusia does not want this. She says “You’d devour Me, and burie Me in the midst of Your self, and I be turned into Your very Flesh and Blood” as “there is no Balance of Power in my Hand, as it will be in yours” (Wright, 14-7). Fergusia then presents the reader with various reasons why she should not marry Heptarchus. The pamphlet ends with Fergusia addressing her “Sons to be Cautious of England” and to not make the same mistakes she did and she begs the senate to reconsider the union (Wright, 28). Fergusia, although she is very clever and honourable, is portrayed as a damsel in distress who now needs to be saved by the Scottish people. This pamphlet started a larger literary tradition of representing Scotland as an idealised woman, and her
troublesome relationships to English men as a metaphor for how the Scottish people as a whole have suffered at the hands of the English.
This metaphor of suffering is adopted in the main plot of Poor Things (1992) as Bella used to be Victoria in her previous life, a woman who was trapped in an abusive relationship with a very wealthy English General. Victoria could only escape this relation by throwing herself off a bridge and killing herself, to be reborn as the strong independent Bella. In short, Bella’s backstory conveys the larger metaphor of how Scotland has suffered at the hands of the English but with a radically different ending. Although Bella and Fergusia lead a similar life, the two women are presented in radically different ways. Gray has revamped the older literary tradition by portraying Bella as an independent, strong-willed and capable woman: Bella becomes a doctor, writes a book on economics, and is a self-proclaimed suffragette (Gray 20-351). Bella’s independent life after her life as Victoria shows how Scotland is a powerful nation that can stand on its own once it breaks free of Britain. This feminist representation of Scotland also invokes a more inclusive narrative than the misogynistic historical nationalist narrative of Wright where Fergusia is controlled by the men in her life.
Leith Davis has interpreted the strong contrast between Fergusia and Heptarchus in Wright’s pamphlet as being an indication of Scotland’s “pure genealogy” in opposition to England, described as a “mongrel nation” (Davis, 27). Davis argues that this is a negative spin on “the mixed blood” which is responsible for England’s vigour, which is praised by Defoe in his poem True-born Englishman (1701) (Davis, 27). Davis argues that “similar images” are present throughout Scottish nationalism where Scotland is depicted as being of pure descent in contrast to its mongrel neighbours (Davis, 28). Gray has subverted this literary tradition by presenting Bella as impure of birth and the men she associates with, Duncan Wedderburn and General Blessington, as being of noble descent. Although these men now may no longer be portrayed as mongrels, they are still clearly portrayed as the
antagonists as they have some questionable morals which are condemned throughout the novel. Firstly, let us consider Victoria/Bella’s former husband General Blessington and his questionable morals which are openly condemned in the novel by Bella when she confronts General Blessington with the following: “I think the rottenest thing about you (apart from the killing you’ve done and the way you treat servants) is what Prickett calls the pupurity of your mumarriage bed.” (Gray, 238). Firstly, she mentions “the killing you’ve done” which refers to Blessington’s war accomplishments in the name of the British Empire, which denounces Britain’s colonial past. Secondly, she addresses “the way you treat servants” which refers to how Blessington impregnated a servant girl he fornicated with twice a week and then refused to support financially when she became pregnant as she “[was] no use to anyone now” (Gray, 228). This statement shows a clear denouncement of chauvinistic and classist behaviour in Victorian Britain. Thirdly, Bella mentions the “purity of his marriage bed” which refers to how Blessington nearly drove Victoria insane by refusing her physical affection. When Bella wanted to cuddle, sleep in the same bed as her husband, and have regular intercourse she was diagnosed with “erotomania” and eventually begged for a clitoridectomy to be relieved of her craving for “the most human experience” (Gray 217-8). This phrase denounces the vilification of female sexuality and shame culture prevalent in Victorian society, but it can also be seen as a condemnation of the overall demonization of female sexuality and power in any time period. This denouncing view of female sexuality forced Victoria to hate herself so much that she begged for her own physical mutilation and eventually leapt to her death. Victoria’s suicide paints a morbid picture of the future of Scotland if the union remains, one where Scotland loses its identity. Donald Kaczvinksy’s Making up for Lost Time (2001) has a similar reading: “Bella's marriage to the English Blessington parallels the marriage of Scotland and England on a national level. With the Act of Union in 1707, England and Scotland have been wedded politically, economically, and culturally, and Scotland's distinct identity has been all but lost” (Kaczvinsky, 780). The rebirth of Victoria as Bella, a strong and independent woman, shows the prosperous future Scotland could have if it were to break free of England. Gray has stitched together literary tradition and his own feminist social ideals to create new hybrid of Scottish embodiment: Bella/Victoria. Gray’s Scotland can stand alone once it breaks free from Britain, and Gray’s Scotland needs to do so in order to survive.
Secondly, let us consider how Duncan Wedderburn’s questionable morals are condemned in the novel. The economic union between England and Scotland which originated from the Acts of Union is denounced through Bella’s relation to Scottish Wedderburn. Neil Rhind argues that “Bella's 'marriages' to Blessington and Wedderburn may be considered in parallel. The fitness of Wedderburn as figure of the Empire almost matches that of Blessington, for although Scottish he is clearly an imperial beneficiary. Wedderburn's Empire is therefore, unlike Blessington's, neither a patriotic nor a
military concept, but an economic one, and one which recalls a second dimension to the union” (Rhind, 8). Wedderburn describes his initial relationship to Bella as Faustian, as “the Modern Man – that Duncan Wedderburn – is essentially double: a noble soul fully instructed in what is wise and lawful, yet also a fiend who loves beauty only to drag it down and degrade it.” (Gray, 77) Here we see a clear contrast in nobility within Wedderburn, as if he were to distance himself from his own poor morality akin to Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde, which roots Wedderburn in a larger Scottish literary tradition. Wedderburn also likens himself to “Rabbie Burns” (Gray, 80). This connection to famous Scottish writers such as Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson illustrates how Wedderburn is a metaphor for the presence of a domestic threat to Scottish independence, as he is clearly Scottish. Wright evoked the Scottish senate in his pamphlet to condemn the politically powerful who voted for the Union, and Gray is evoking the economically powerful in his novel, hereby adding a socialist element to the national identity of Scotland. Blessington and Wedderburn are very similar men in character and fortune. Gray’s portrayal of Bella’s marriages to both Wedderburn and General Blessington seem a denouncement of the economical side of the Acts of Union which “determined Scotland’s economic and social policies with an eye for what would benefit Britain as a whole, not Scotland” (Davis, 6).
In summary, Gray illustrates how Scottish nationalism can be reformed to fit a socialist and feminist political agenda rather than the more common conservative capitalist nationalism by reforming an older nationalist tradition. Gray denounces the military union to England expressed through General Blessington and rejects the economic union expressed through Duncan Wedderburn and suggest a more inclusive angle entirely. Gray illustrates how by using parts of a historical
narrative, and reshaping others, a new national identity can be forged to fit a new ideology which advocates for the same end goal of Scottish independence. Hereby showing that rather than
completely erasing other forms of nationalism, Gray chooses to engage with them in his construction of his nationalist narrative. Gray is the equivalent of a literary mad scientist, he digs up bodies of texts from the past to tear them apart and stitch them back together to bring his constructed embodiment of Scotland to life.
The power or lack thereof concerning female purity is an interesting contrast between Gray’s portrayal of Bella and Wright’s depiction of Fergusia. Where Fergusia was portrayed as pure and virtuous and therefore without agency, Bella is a satirical depiction of purity with more agency than her contemporaries. Godwin argues that Bella’s agency stems from the fact that she has escaped society’s harmful notions by maintaining a childlike purity regarding herself and her sexuality:
Bella has all the resilience of infancy with all the stature and strength of womanhood. Her menstrual cycle was in full flood form the day she opened her eyes, so she has never been taught to feel her body is disgusting or to dread what she desires. (Gray, 69)
When contrasted with Wright’s depiction of Scottish purity, Bella’s origin is satirically an extreme subversion of Scottish purity. She is a mixture of a mature and sexually awoken body with the mind and mental capabilities of a child. Although this unconventional conception has saved Bella from any misogynistic oppression regarding her desires, it also shows an interesting take on the seemingly mutually exclusive binary oppositions of the Madonna-Whore dichotomy. This theory was
popularised by Professor Sigmund Freud in the beginning of the twentieth century. In his essay Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory (1910) Freud argues that men encounter “psychic impotence” in relationships with loving women because they can only be aroused by women who can be defiled, which laid the foundation for the division of women in the infamous Madonna-Whore dichotomy in Western society (34). This mutually exclusive binary opposition is clearly defined as follows: “Where such men love they have no desire and where they desire they cannot love” (Freud, 182-3). However, this line of thought was already prevalent in the nineteenth century through the depiction of the dichotomy between the angel of the house and the fallen woman. The idealised depiction of a chaste woman’s place in the house was a cornerstone of Victorian society. So too was the depiction of the fallen woman, as documented by Nina Auerbach in The Rise of the Fallen Woman (1980): “[a] tenderly punitive note, […] , recurs again and again in Victorian treatments of the fallen women; her prone form becomes so pervasive an image that it takes on the status of a shared cultural
mythology”(29). Thus, Gray is reinventing the depiction of a eighteenth century embodiment of Scotland as a chaste and distressed woman through parodying the Victorian dichotomy of
womanhood and female sexuality. Gray seems to acknowledge the Victorian dichotomies but then decided to unite them within the depiction of Bella, painting Bella as a woman whose “purity” is a mixture of indecent sexual power, revealed in “the stature and strength of womanhood” and that the fact that she does not “dread what she desires”, with childlike innocent, revealed in “the resilience of infancy” and her lack of being taught “to feel her body is disgusting”. Throughout the novel, Bella is described by men through the unification of seemingly paradoxical descriptions. Wedderburn describes Bella as similar to “Mary Queen of Scots”, the biblical “Eva” and “Delilah”, “Venus,
Magdalena, Minerva and Our Lady of Sorrows rolled into one” (Gray, 83-125). By likening Bella to the controversial Scottish Queen “Mary Queen of Scots” whose several marriages caused a lot of unrest and violence within Scotland, Bella is framed as another problematic depiction of Scottish
nationalism. Wedderburn describes Bella as virginally chaste by likening her to “Our Lady of Sorrows”, the virgin Mary, but he also described Bella as dangerously sexual by comparing her to “Eva”, who caused men’s fall from paradise, “Delilah”, who betrayed Samson, “Magdalena”, the whore that accompanied Jesus with his apostles, and “Venus” the goddess of desire and fertility. This duality of sexual purity being offset against sexual agency and power shows how Bella embraces both sides of
the Madonna-Whore dichotomy which makes her impossible to resist and impossible to control. Blessington describes her as divinely seductive as “She had the soul of an innocent child within the form of a Circassian houri – irresistible” (Gray, 215). These mythical descriptions of Bell’s sexuality are an homage to Wright’s contemporaries as “the Scottish anti-Union pamphleteers’ image of the Scottish Nation, [was] one which draws on the mythic or historical past” (Davis, 19). The fact that these descriptions of Bella ultimately aim to be satirical is revealed through Harry Astley. When Harry Astley asks Bella to marry him, he learns of her engagement to Archibald and sexual escapades with Wedderburn and calls her “the purest aristocrat he had met” (Gray, 153). Behind the pure comedic value of this satirical display of values and sexuality, there is also an implied rethinking of Scotland’s power as a nation. If we apply this line of thought to the depiction of Bella as an embodiment of Scotland, we see how Gray shows us that an impure genealogy is a source of power for Scotland. This is also revealed through the fact that Bella’s sexual adventures do not make her a “fallen woman”. Instead, the men in her life are ruined after being with her. Instead of Bella being left in shambles by men as would be similar to Wright’s pamphlet, Bella breaks these men down. Blessington kills himself when he realises Bella will not return to him, and Wedderburn goes mad and is incarcerated in an asylum after his elopement to Bella (Gray, 102-239). Bella is shows as being inherently more powerful than her suitors because even “with all his advantages Wedderburn is a poor creature. Bell is
not.”(Gray, 99). Gray’s satirical display of the notion that Scotland is pure through Bella’s
unconventional birth and her sexual escapades and agency, shows in fact that Scotland’s impure nature is the source of its power. As no nation can be truly pure we need not aspire to be so, but rather aim to embrace our impurities as these are what make up the fabric of the nation today. Gray’s depiction of Scottish identity does not attempt to gloss over the fact that Scotland is constructed of many different sub identities that are stitched together, but embraces and foregrounds this forced construction. By doing so, Gray is advocating for a unification of subcultures and identities within a larger national narrative hereby once again advocating for a more complex national identity.
The final comparison to Wright’s pamphlet concerns the ending of Poor Things (1992). In The Comical History (17080, Fersgusia ends with an urgent call to action to her fellow Scotsmen to take their time in considering whether they want to support the Union: “I have begged […] Let me have time to deliberate upon things that are of the last Consequence to all my most precious Interests: and do not preposterously cram down my Throat, what requires the greatest Deliberation” (Wright, 28). Wright’s pamphlet ends with an immediate action to protect themselves. Gray’s novel ends with a letter from Victoria to her future offspring which she ends with a hopeful message where Bella boasts about the bright future of “the International Socialist Movement” and how
the moral and practical control of the great industrial nations will have passed from the owners to the makers of what we need, and the world YOU will live in, dear child of the future, will be a saner and happier place. Bless you. (Gray 276)
Since these final lines form the last impression the reader directly gets from Victoria, and seeing as they are heavily ideological, they are worth dissecting. Here Bella defines true agency as “moral and practical control”, highlighting what is needed in order for Scotland to achieve true independence from Britain. By including morality this depiction of nationalism transcends a debate purely about borders and democracy which would be encapsulated in “practical control”. In combination with “International Socialist Movement” and the switch of power “from the owners to the makers”, Gray clearly denounces capitalism and the morality of superiority and exclusion attached to it. Here, we hear a cry for a more inclusive and socially oriented Scotland. This socialist argument is made directly to the reader, engaging the reader in direct discourse with the ideology of the characters. The
phrasing “what we need” creates a sense of community with the reader and Bella/Victoria, the following “the world YOU will live in, dear child of the future” and “bless you” further strengthens this bond by the use of familiarities. This passage illustrates how Wright’s more general nationalist ambition of the eighteenth century is replaced by Gray’s own more modern socialist nationalist ideals. Poor Things(1992) was published during the year of the General election which gave Scottish voters the right to grand Scotland and independence and subsequently a smaller democratic system. This interpretation of Bella echoes Gray’s wish for Scotland to be in close control of their body by means of a smaller democracy as described in Songs for Scotland’s “Of Alasdair Gray and Scottish Civic Nationalism” (2016): “Scotland has a unique opportunity to successfully reinvent genuine democracy in a small, English speaking country, thereby becoming an example to the world, and, very importantly, to the English speaking nations”. Through the portrayal of Bella, and subsequently a new national identity for Scotland, Gray attempts to persuade the reader of his nationalist ideals during the year of the General Election, in a call to action more implicit than the call to action advocated in Wright’s pamphlet.
Having discussed how Gray pays tribute to Wright’s Scottish nationalist literary tradition, while simultaneously subverting it I would like to discuss why this adherence to Scottish nationalism is relevant to our interpretation of Poor Things(1992) and the mechanics of nationalism as a whole. By taking liberties with Scottish nationalist traditions and historical context, Gray shows how we can reuse tradition and history to suit our modern ideological wishes. Gray reveals nationalism to be a fluid ideological construct rather than rigid. Gray takes the reader on a journey to explore nationalism
through the character Bella Baxter. Bella’s memory loss after her rebirth, and how she is told various versions of her past by several people with various personal claims behind their version of the truth, mimics how national identities disconnect from their past in moments of change, and how these gaps are to be filled by a national narrative: “All profound changes in consciousness, by their very nature, bring with them characteristic amnesia. Out of such oblivions in specific historical circumstances, spring narratives … Out of this estrangement comes a conception of personhood, identity… which because it cannot be ‘remembered’ must be narrated.” (Anderson, 204). Here the “specific historical circumstance” is the Acts of Union which “since its formal establishment in 1707,[…] has been a site of contest – not always on the material level, but certainly on the discursive level – between the nations from which it was constructed” and whose “consequences were dramatic for the Scottish national identity” (Davis, 1-6). Bella/Victoria is an embodiment of how nationalist narrative is constructed and how “…fiction seeps quietly and continuously into reality, creating the remarkable confidence of community in anonymity which is the hallmark of modern nations.”(Anderson, 36). Bella’s similarity to the monster in Frankenstein (1818) is the perfect analogy for Scotland’s
“chequered ancestry of this ‘entity’” (Anderson, 88-89). This analogy explores an argument presented by Tom Nairn that “Scottish society and history are monstrously misshapen in some way” (Nairn, 112). In Poor Things (1992), Bella explicitly discusses how the construction of national identities is done through literature: “He said Russia is as young a country as the U.S.A. because a nation is only as old as its literature. ‘Our literature began with Pushkin, a contemporary of your Walter Scott’ he told me ‘Before Pushkin Russia was not a true nation […] He made Russia a state of mind – made it real” (Gray 115-6). Here Bella learns how literature is crucial in the construction of a national identity, and that a nation only becomes “real” through storytelling. Gray also brings in Sir Walter Scott as an example of a great writer who can create a nation, the Scottish writer who is credited with “
legitim[izing] the communication of historical truths through fiction” which is what Gray is doing through Bella (Kidd, 91). Besides the genius use of the phrase “state of mind” it is worth noting that this vision of nationhood is eerily similar to Anderson’s definition expressed in Imagined
Communities, which is used as a point of reference for the definition of nationhood in this thesis. Gray addresses the importance of culture in the construction of a personal and collective identity: “People who care nothing for their country’s stories and songs,’ he said, ‘are like people without a past – without a memory – they are half people” (Gray, 115-6). Seeing as Bella herself lacks memory of her life as Victoria, this judgement of people without a past resonates with Bella, suggesting that Scotland as a whole lacks a strong collective recollection of their past and consequently of their identity as a nation. As Bella ponders her journey of self-discovery and self-improvement she expresses that “Perhaps, like Russia, I am making up for lost time” (Gray, 116). This phrase
encapsulates the purpose of the character Bella, and of the novel as a whole: to give Scotland a new sense of purpose and direction by creating a fictional past on which to build a brighter future.
In conclusion, the Acts of Union and the Scottish nationalist tradition that sparked from it was instrumental in the construction of Bella Baxter. The tradition served as a blueprint which was simultaneously followed and altered to fit a more contemporary and socialist form of nationalism than it initially substantiated. By showing a close knowledge of national history and literature, paired with the will to alter it, Gray exposes the mechanics of nation making and offers new ways of
rethinking and reshaping an ideological line of thought. The novel Poor Things (1992) puts into question the fabric of national identity by tearing it to shreds, and then sewing it back together again through the creation of Scotland’s favourite ragdoll Bella Baxter/Victoria Hattersley.
AHEAD OF YOUR TIME: How Gray rethinks the Victorian era through Bella/Victoria.
The story portrayed in Poor Things (1992) takes place in the second time period used in the novel: the Victorian era. During the Victorian era there was little Scottish nationalism present in everyday life as “new cultural and historiographical factors complicated the prominence of [the] anti-feudal argument and the historical picture” (Kidd, 91). Colin Kidd identifies four major issues for Scottish
nationalism advocating Scottish independence in The Strange Death of Scottish History (2018); Firstly “the French Revolution introduced anxieties about violent revolution and institutional upheaval later validated by the Reform crisis of the early 1830s” (Kidd, 91). These violent revolutions made many Scots and Englishmen fear a revolt against the established order, and prefer the safety of Union under the crown. Secondly, “the appearance of racial science […] had a major impact on Scottish
historiography” (Kidd, 91). These racially motivated narratives “forged a powerful natural connection between” the Lowlander Scots and the English against the Highlander Scots, which undermined the idea of uniting all of Scotland under one banner against the English (Kidd, 93). Thirdly, “the native pride in the marked Scoto-British contribution to the making of the second British Empire” gave way to a new form of patriotism which was pro-union, the “Unionist-nationalism” (Kidd, 91). Fourthly, the emergence of “intellectual and cultural history suggested alternative ways of celebrating Scottish distinctiveness” rather than traditional opposition to the Union to England. In short, Scottish nationalism which advocated for Scottish independence of the Victorian era was rather subdued if even there at all. The fact that there was no prominent nationalism at the time, actually makes it the perfect period to set a new pro-independence narrative in. Gray has free reign to imagine nationalist sentiments in his story without asking the reader to further extend their disbelief as there is little known or written about the subject. Furthermore, Poor Things(1992) highlights how the Victorian era was a wealthy time for the Scots as they prospered due to their colonies and their position at the forefront of Western innovation; “[In Glasgow] James Watt conceived steam engines […] here the best of these locomotives and ships are built. Here Adam Smith invented modern capitalism. Here Sir William Thomson devises the telegraph cables binding the empire together” (Gray 95-6). Because this was a time where Scotland was wealthy and renowned, the Victorian era is a source of pride for many Scottish nationalists and it is a fruitful setting for a story which advocates Sottish independence. What makes this time period particularly interesting is that by writing a postmodern novel situated in the past, Gray has the opportunity to rewrite the past informed by the present. Gray adheres to aspects of Neo-Victorian writing as identified by Dana Shiller in the Redemptive Past in the Neo-Victorian Novel (1997): “historical novel[s] with a revisionist approach to the past […] that explores how present circumstances shape historical narrative, and yet they are also indebted to earlier cultural attitudes towards history” (540). The fact that the writers of these neo-Victorian novels “appreciate the fluidity of a historical record that is perpetually open to reinterpretation and therefore constantly assuming different permutations” explains the liberties Gray has taken with historical narratives (Shiller 540). Gray is not the first to construct a Scottish national identity through historical fiction. Kucznierz noted in Imagining Scotland: National Self-Depiction in Sir Walter Scott;s Waverley, Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song, Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and Alasdair Gray’s Lanark (2008): “Just like any social entity, Scotland needed a device through the help of which it could see and construct
itself” which was mostly done by historical fiction “because it is an ideal medium for the perpetuation of myth” (Kucznierz, 7). Kucznierz shows how historical fiction has been embraced by Scottish
national identities before, even to the extent that fiction has replaced factual history in a society’s cultural memory. Thus illustrating how the reshaping of history in Poor Things (1992) forms a suitable medium for Gray to reshape Scottish identity and its political aim. A fine example of this is the depiction of Scotland as a reanimated creation of several corpses that have been brought to life by doctor Godwin as it is reminiscent of Scottish history and simultaneously British literature. The creation of Bella echoes the events of the Burke and Hare murders where these infamous Victorian serial killers murdered sixteen people in Edinburgh to sell them to Robert Knox for his anatomy class (BBC Scotland, 2018). These gruesome killings inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous The Body Snatcher (1884), and influenced the Scottish literary scene for good. Although in Poor Things (1992) Victoria’s pregnant corpse was fished out of the river and brought to the Medicine School, instead of being murdered, her origin does draw attention to Scottish macabre past. As Bella was reanimated with electricity by Godwin in a Frankenstein-reminiscent manner, her birth is also reminiscent of a larger British literary narrative that exploits Scottish history to present supernatural narratives. By mixing Scottish history with Scottish and British literature that reimagines Scottish history to create supernatural narratives, Gray’s depiction of Scotland is the embodiment of how history and fiction are inescapably intertwined. The novel also actively blurs the lines between fiction and history by mislabelling actual historical events. In Poor Things (1992) it is argued that “It is on record that in the 1820s one of your sort animated the corpse of a hanged animal, who sat up and spoke. Public scandal was only prevented by one of the demonstrators severing the subject’s jugular with a scalpel” (Gray, 212). This is a fantastical re-imagination of the scientific experiment done in Glasgow University on “murderer Matthew Clydesdale in an attempt to return his body to life, albeit without success” which “inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein” (Andréolle, 196). Gray provides the reader with the historical note that Professor Heinrich Heuschreke wrote “an exhaustive monograph” entitled “War Frankenstein Schotte?, Stillschweigen Verlag, Weissnichtwo, 1929” which translates to Was
Frankenstein Scottish? Published by Silent Press in Knownotwhere. Donna Spalding Andréolle argues in Women and Science, 17th Century to Present: Pioneers, Activists and Protagonists that by “gleefully blurring the boundaries between historical referentiality, exaggerated anecdotal folk tales and academic apocrypha, Gray may seem to be suggesting that, in a work of postmodern aporia, nothing is truly knowable” (Andréolle, 196). I interpret this blending and poking apart of fiction and history as a way of showing that it does not matter what really happened, as history as mentioned by Shiller is “perpetually open to reinterpretation and therefore constantly assuming different permutations” (Shiller, 540). Gray has himself in an interview shown that history is constantly used, reused, and reframed to fit different political agendas “Nobody writing a history of philosophy would ignore Plato,
but in fact Plato’s vision of the ideal state is a fascist one. Therefore, every conservative who writes approvingly of Plato has some reservations about some of his ideas. And the same has happened to Adam Smith” (Toremans, 578). Gray’s blend of different sources of history, some more fictional than others, exposes that history’s purpose is not to be factually understood but to be retold in a useful way. In this instance, history has value as it helps construct a new national identity as “communities are distinguished not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined” (Anderson, 261). Like a grave robber, Gray digs up bodies of text from the past to dissect them and stitch them together to bring his ideal embodiment of Scotland to life in the novel Poor Things (1992).
As described earlier on, Gray takes great liberties with the history of the eighteenth century, especially the Acts of Union and its representation in literature. This chapter will elaborate on how Gray takes liberties with the representation of the Victorian era in the novel, and how in doing so he subsequently affirms a fictional depiction of the Victorian era and reconstructs Scotland’s national identity on a forged historical narrative. By focusing on the style in which Gray reimagines the past, we can uncover the ideals that are underlying to Gray’s construction of Scotland’s national identity as any variation of the past shows either a condemnation or celebration of ideology. In Poor Things (1992) there are not much specific singular historical events that are mentioned or reshaped. Instead of reimagining different outcomes to historically significant events, Gray reimagines how larger societal dynamics were shaped and could be bent during the Victorian era through the lives of Victoria and Bella. The construction of the identity of Bella/Victoria and how her identity challenges misogynist and classist ideals, exposes how Gray’s construction of Scottish national identity advocates an independent, socialist, and feminist future for Scotland.
Gray advocates a feminist narrative of nationhood through the depiction of Bella/Victoria, and how she challenges Victorian’s oppressive society and its rigid gender normative and classist values. Gray’s rethinking of Scotland through the Victorian women Bella and Victoria is defined by the dichotomy of Bella/Victoria, the rejection of gender normative behaviour by both Victoria and Bella, and by a satirical depiction of classist ideals.
Firstly, let us explore how the dichotomy of Bella/Victoria impacts the depiction of Scottish nationhood. The duality of the embodiment of Scotland is a theme throughout the novel, and is most explicit in the title of Gray’s portrait illustration of Bella titled “Bella Caledonia” as the title “has at least two translations: ‘Beautiful Scotland’ but also, from the Latin, ‘Warring Scotland.’ Scottish character, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is a clashing of warring halves, though somehow contained in a single body” (Kazcvinsky, 794). This interpretation offered by Kazcvinsky reminds us that Scottish literature has a history of presenting characters as partially fractured and somehow still united, which
may can be seen as a reflection of Scottish identity being fundamentally made up of sub identities which define themselves as the opposite of the other as is prevalent in the Highlander-Lowlander dichotomy. Jonathan Hearn argues in Narrative, Agency, and Mood: On the Social Construction of National History in Scotland that Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (2002) is an “extreme and explicit example” of “the Caledonian antiszygy” which described “the pervasive interplay of opposites – […] supposedly characteristic of Scottish literature”, which has been “promoted by Hugh MacDiarmid, Scotland’s premier twentieth-century poet and an outspoken nationalist” (761). Thus, by presenting Scotland as essentially split and simultaneously united Gray is upholding a Scottish writing trope to advocate for a national identity that is not attempting to gloss over different sub identities for the sake of unification. Once again, Gray foregrounds the fact that his national identity is a stitched together fabrication of various points of view. Gray’s Scotland does not hide it fabricated nature, but foregrounds and celebrates the artificial rebirth of a nation.
Secondly, let us consider how Bella/Victoria challenges the rigid gender norms of the Victorian era. Kathryn Hughes writes in Gender Roles in the 19th century (2014) that “During the Victorian
period men and women’s roles became more sharply defined than at any time in history.” These restrictive norms were so distinct that married men and women ideally occupied “Separate Spheres” (Hughes 2014). The men could roam the “public sphere” whereas women were “best suited to the domestic sphere” as they “were considered physically weaker yet morally superior to men” (Hughes 2014). In Poor Things (1992) Bella/Victoria lives her life firmly outside the “domestic sphere” as she travels the world during her elopement with Duncan Wedderburn, works as a physician for the poor and devotes herself to women’s reproductive health and is an addiment suffragette (Gray, 197-315). Bella is also portrayed as being physically stronger than her suitors; she overpowers General
Blessington when he threatens McCandless with a pistol, carries the luggage for her “weary old Wedder”, and carries Wedderburn on more than one occasion (Gray 146 - 166). By having
Bella/Victoria break all these ideals of womanly behaviour of the Victorian period, Gray is illustrating how Scotland like any woman cannot be confined by the limitations imposed on them by their surroundings. Scotland is embodied by a strong independent woman who transcends the limitations imposed on her by the most rigidly misogynist period of British history. Bella/Victoria is a metaphor for how Scotland is ready for independence, and does not need to rely on its union to Britain for security of strength. The denouncement of the union between Scotland and Britain is also foregrounded through Bella’s divorce to General Blessington. Gray is giving “a twentieth-century answer to the Scottish question - divorce, something unheard of in Victorian times” (Kazcvinsky, 790). Through the act of neo-Victorian writing, and reimaging the past through a modern lens, Gray is able to rethink the construction of nationhood and advocate an independent future for Scotland. This modern reshaping of Victorian gender normative values regarding marriage does not stop there.
