Alasdair Gray, Lanark

Niall O’ Gallagher (University of Glasgow)

Ed. by J. Derrick McClure, University of Aberdeen
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1981

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Alasdair Gray’s first novel Lanark is one of the major Scottish novels of the twentieth century and a significant contribution to the traditions of surreal and dystopian fiction. Lanark is many things. It is at once a “portrait of the artist as a young Glaswegian” and an exploration of the social world of capitalism and imperialism in a recognisable industrial city of the 1950s and 1960s. Though arguably less concerned with specifically Scottish politics than with the general social malaise of late capitalism and economic imperialism, it is an inescapably political novel, with a focus on the potential for emancipation from the social and political constraints on individual freedom which has been central to …

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3439 words

Citation: O’ Gallagher, Niall. "Lanark". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 October 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4127, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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