"Might Is Right"?: Colonisation as a Historical Fact and Literary Metaphor in Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F70883521%3A28150%2F16%3A63517626" target="_blank" >RIV/70883521:28150/16:63517626 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="http://conference.uaa.utb.cz/tp2015/FromTheoryToPractice2015.pdf#page=51" target="_blank" >http://conference.uaa.utb.cz/tp2015/FromTheoryToPractice2015.pdf#page=51</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
—
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
"Might Is Right"?: Colonisation as a Historical Fact and Literary Metaphor in Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares
Original language description
This paper focuses on the theme of colonisation interlocked with a specifically-male desire for power in Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares (1995). The novel elaborates in fictional and historical terms on the then Prime Minister John Major's policy on violent crimes in general and juvenile delinquency in particular, encapsulated in his statement used as the book's motto: "We should condemn more and understand less." The novel's narrator/protagonist, Roy Strang, is reduced to an apparent vegetative state after a failed suicide attempt committed as a result of guilt over his active involvement in a brutal gang rape of a young woman. Imprisoned in his unfeeling body, his mind seeks to assume control by conjuring up heroic fantasies of his hunting down and killing a specimen of marabou stork, a symbolic embodiment of evil. Intruding in his fantasy are memories of his time spent as a teenager in South Africa, where he first experienced the sensation of power as a member of the white colonisers, who were by default considered superior to the local black population. In the broader picture of national histories, Roy witnesses the exploited natives revolting and taking revenge on their oppressors, including the killing of Roy's uncle. On the small scale of individual lives, Roy sees the woman whom he raped taking an equally-violent revenge on her tormentors, including Roy himself. While the novel does not profess to offer an alternative solution, it illustrates that revolution does not equal revenge, which merely replaces one form of violence with another.
Czech name
—
Czech description
—
Classification
Type
D - Article in proceedings
CEP classification
—
OECD FORD branch
60204 - General literature studies
Result continuities
Project
—
Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2016
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Article name in the collection
From Theory to Practice 2015 (Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Anglophone Studies)
ISBN
978-80-7454-633-4
ISSN
1805-9899
e-ISSN
neuvedeno
Number of pages
7
Pages from-to
51-57
Publisher name
Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve Zlíně
Place of publication
Zlín
Event location
Zlín
Event date
Sep 3, 2015
Type of event by nationality
WRD - Celosvětová akce
UT code for WoS article
000409395300005