Actants and Networks in 'Skagboys' – Thatcher, Crime and Mundane Artifacts as Mediators
2020 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
While Skagboys portrays the descent into heroin addiction of young, working class Scots during the Thatcher era, shifting the analysis from a strictly human perspective to one focusing on the agency of objects opens up the novel to new readings wherein morality emerges through nonhuman actors. Welsh’s work has traditionally been hailed as Scottish working-class realism that portrays its characters unideologically, to the point that the novels, through the characters, appear without morality. Drawing upon Latour’s notion of Actor-Network Theory, ANT, reveals a Thatcherite materiality permeating the story, prescribing the moral behaviour which the characters of Skagboys repeatedly clash with as their heroin addiction and junk desperation grows. The impacts of the security camera, the smoke detector and the collection tin provide the basis for the analysis. This highlights two types of marginalization for the characters. Firstly, in the characters’ hopeless prospects with regards to employment due to Thatcher’s neoliberal politics, and secondly as objects of detection and control exerting agency in the world which the characters navigate. These objects presuppose and foil crime, effectively becoming extensions of Thatcherite morality, keeping the criminal and unemployed in check.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle , 2020. , p. 34
Keywords [en]
Skagboys, ANT, Actor-Network Theory, Thatcher, Crime, Heroin, Irvine Welsh, Bruno Latour, Mediator, Trainspotting, Literature, Scotland, Edinburgh, Agency, Detection, Objects in literature
National Category
Humanities and the Arts
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21757Local ID: 31939OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-21757DiVA, id: diva2:1481665
Educational program
KS K3 English studies
Supervisors
Examiners
2020-10-272020-10-27Bibliographically approved