Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Tartan Noir Intro
Tartan Noir Intro
Scotland
Contrast (Jekyll & Hyde) Crime story as social (lvarez Saar 2088) real vs. tourist site (Leishman 2010, Plain 2002)
document
Scottish Cities
Scottish History
1560: Scottish Reformation 1603: Union of Crowns 1707: Act of Union 1745: Rebellion of 45. Charles Edward Stuart (1720-88)
The Order of Release, Millais, 1853
Tartan sash
dirk
sgiandubh
kilt
Sporran6 (purse)
Scottish History
c. 1760s/80s-1820s/40s: First Industrial Revolution (only some e.g. Scottish inventions) Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations (1776) James Watt : Steam Engine (1781) John McAdam: macadamised roads (basis for tarmac, 1816)
Empire Robert Burns (17591796) Walter Scott (1771-1832) Victoria (Balmoral, 1856). Neo-Gothic
Kirkpatrick Macmillan and Thomas McCall: Pedal bicycle (1839) Coal, steel, shipbuilding
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Referendum
Contemporary Issues
1997: Referendum Devolution = Scottish Parliament
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/co mmons/lib/research/briefings/snpc03000.pdf
Globalization of crime
Scottish independence referendum, 2014
Scottish traits
SELF-PERCEIVED SCOTS TRAITS (LINDSAY 1979)
Friendly/Warm/Kindhearted Patriotic/Nationalistic/Proud Humourous/Good Fun Direct/Down to Earth Low Self-Esteem Aggressive/Paranoid Honest/Unpretentious Political/Socialist/Anti-Tory Rough, dour
Drinking
&
thrift:
http://www.scotlandvacations.com/JokesPage1.htm
Callum decided to call his father-inlaw the "Exorcist" because every time he came to visit he made the spirits disappear A farmer's wife, who was rather stingy with her whisky, was giving her shepherd a drink. As she handed him his glass, she said it was extra good whisky, being fourteen years old. "Weel, mistress," said the shepherd regarding his glass sorrowfully, "It's very small for its age. Sex: Why do Scotsmen wear kilts? So the sheep won't hear the zipper. Soccer: An English silver expert travelling in Scotland was asked if he would like to look at the trophies won by the Scottish national soccer team. He replied that he wasn't interested in antiques. http://www.digitalkaos.co.uk/forums/f6/worlds-best-scottish-jokes- 10 32825/
Scottish Society
DIET
The average Scottish diet is low in cereals, vegetables and fruit but high in confectionery, fatty meat products, sweet and salty snacks, cakes, and excessive amounts of sugary drinks and alcohol.
http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/the_footpri nt_of_scotlands_diet.pdf
LANGUAGE
Scots = Gaelic & form of Northern English (Scandinavian influences) used in Scotland.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cENbkHS3mnY (lecture)
Good Scottish food: porridge, shellfish and smokies; salmon, cod, heather honey, raspberries, lamb, beef, venison, and game and meat pies
Scots became Anglicizised (OCEL) 1. Hame = home 2. Hoose = house 3. Baw = ball 4. Loch /x/ voiceless velar fricative 5. Nicht /xt/ 6. Tapped /r/
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-do-a-scottishaccent 11
Tartan Noir
Coined by James Ellroy (b.
1948) L.A. Quartet (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz).
Ian Rankin "The progenitorand king of tartan noir." (Let It Bleed, 1996).
(Donaldson, 2012) http://www.list.co.uk/article/46468-tartan-noiran-a-to-z-of-scottish-crime-writing/ ) Crime Culture http://www.crimeculture.com/21stC/interviews 2011/len_wanner.html (quote, right)
"Tartan Noir well, theres no tradition of crime fiction in Scotland but there is a great tradition of quite dark, psychological, Gothic horror stories. Specifically in the 70s, I think in Glasgow, there was a move towards a kind of realistic school of writing about working class life, writing about hard men, writing about hard lives, and writing about urban experience. So it was a move away from the romanticised view of Scotland. I think crime fiction tapped into that very nicely, and because there was no tradition of crime fiction in Scotland it meant a completely level playing field. Nobody had to be worried about writing in a certain tradition, and most of us werent influenced by the English. (Rankin 2011)
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There is a quote about the weather in Scotland being so bad that people envy the dead Were just going into autumn and the growing realisation that months and months of darkness lie ahead. A lack of sunshine definitely works on the psyche. And you get a lot of work done, which is maybe where the storytelling comes from. (Louise Welsh, wrote The Cutting Room). Scottish writers are more concerned with why someone did the crime, as opposed to who did it We are attracted to why people are deviant. That makes us good at dark stories. (Denise Mina, wrote Still Midnight) Scotland has the second-highest murder rate in Europe (second only to Finland
http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/2011/09/08/the-past-presentand-future-of-tartan-noir/
Literary heritage: Robert Louis Stevensons fascination with gothic Edinburgh, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde James Hoggs spooky Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner National love of old tales of terror (story of Burke and Hare, murderers who sold bodies to Edinburghs anatomists). Sherlock Holmes mysteries (young Conan Doyle studied medicine in Edinburgh). Forerunner William McIlvanney Laidlaw (1977) There is a duality in Scotland: respectable people harbouring deep dark secrets; truth and justice alongside a wonderful vein of criminality. If you have a literary heritage that includes such great characters as Jekyll, Hyde it is not surprising that writers might pick up on some of that. (Gill Plain)
http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/bookfeatures/when-crime-pays-1.919536 13
Denise Mina
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