In an interview with Kathy Acker in 1986, Alasdair Gray mentions key personalities that influenced his artistic development. Among the books he read early in life are those by George Orwell, Franz Kafka and James Joyce. Timeless classics such as 1984, The Trial and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man made a big impression on the formative mind of Gray. These writers were cultural icons in their own right as they were recognized for their socio-cultural comment as much for their literary genius. Today, their thought is well-assimilated into Scottish public discourse. Gray’s influences go further back in history, as he even drew inspiration from the Greek classics and epic folk narratives. Considering that ancient Greek thought is integral to Western academia, it is not unfair to claim that the intellectual traditions of the Highlands and Islands have drawn considerably from the former. Likewise, Gray’s adaption of key literary genres, forms and devices from across history says something of Scotland’s literary culture. Reminiscing of his stylistic development, Gray notes,
“I was scribbling notes or passages for a Kafkaesque novel set in a modern vision of hell. Then, when nineteen or twenty, I read a very good book by Tillyard on the Epic. In discussing the Epic genre he started with the great poems of Homer and Virgil, but said many works of prose were planned as epics: Herodotus’s Histories, for example, Bunyan’s Holy War, and Gibbons’ Decline and Fall. He thought that the Scottish novels of Walter Scott, read together, amounted to a Scottish Epic.” (Gray as quoted by Acker, 1986)
Poets Marion Angus and Violet Jacob are key figures in early twentieth century Scottish literature. Speaking for herself and on behalf of her contemporaries, Marion Angus noted in 1920 that capturing the ‘spirit of place’ and ‘giving voice to Scotland’s great adventure of the soul’ should be the primary preoccupations of writers of her generation. This comment indicated that she felt Scottish literature had not yet flowered to its full expression. Angus also felt that the natural scenic beauty of the Scottish Highlands and Islands are proper material for literary exploration. In a way, she assigned iconic status to the geographic setting of Scotland, and urged fellow writers to celebrate this aspect of Scottish culture. It is in direct response to this clarion call that she and Violet Jacob produced several poems that
“explored the ‘spirit’ of North East Scotland, revealing the ‘elusive glamour’ of its landscape. Their poetry, read together, reveals the richness of their individual poetic careers and sheds light upon an important period of Scottish literary history. Writing mainly in the interwar years in both Scots and English, they looked forwards in their psychological portraits of people in conflict; they also were keenly aware of the rich tradition of Scots-language literature, integrating folk traditions and the language and imagery of the Scottish ballads into their poems.” (Gordon, 2006)
From the careers of Angus and Jacob we learn how history, tradition, geography and the vernacular combine to serve as icons of Scottish culture. But as scholar Ryan Shirley, who has done extensive critical analysis of literature from the Highlands and Islands, reminds us, the idea of what exactly constitutes Scottish culture and what are its icons can be a contested subject. This ambiguity, though, has played a constructive role in the past, as it made way for experimentation and evolution of the Scottish historical novel in the modern era. Equally, it has created anxiety for many writers who felt obliged “to advocate for a defined, scrupulously coherent cultural history. It is this impulse that has led to Scottish studies being more focused on canon-building and the construction of the national tradition, and too immersed in tradition-inspired approaches to take account of such theoretical developments as post-modernism.” (Shirley, 2007) In this sense, a strong identification with the cultural icons of the Highlands and Islands can be limiting if not stifling to creative development. Further, this tendency to identify what constitutes national literature by way of eliminating what is perceived as extraneous can lead to a form of cultural nationalism. This too is problematic, for