Still the Gloaming: The Subversive Feminine in the Works of Sir Walter Scott and Lewis Grassic Gibbon

Abstract

This work seeks to introduce a new feminist interpretation of the national and historical projects of Sir Walter Scott and Lewis Grassic Gibbon (J. Leslie Mitchell) by analysing their uses of marginalized cultures, languages, and epistemologies. I explore the way feminine modes of time and language are utilized by both authors to refute the masculine, imperialist notions of “progress” in narratives of Scotland. Both authors use the Feminine to portray visions of Scotland that challenge Scotland’s inferior position in the Union. By celebrating feminine disruptions of traditional masculine narratives of progress and emphasizing “native” or non- Anglo-Saxon language and customs, Scott and Mitchell promote a Scottish literary identity that achieves status by utilizing the very “uncivilized” and “irrational” traits that English-centered progress discourses have sought to eliminate or ignore.