Exile and Expatriates in Robin Jenkins’ Novels
Robin Jenkins (1912-2005) is one of the most distinguished novelists of post war Britain. In a career which lasted some fifty years, he became a perceptive, though disenchanted, observer of Scottish society.However, we are less familiar with a second aspect of his work, nine novels and collections o...
Enregistré dans:
| Dans: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/etudesecossaises, |
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| Auteur principal: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Anglais |
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Études écossaises
2011
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| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | Robin Jenkins (1912-2005) is one of the most distinguished novelists of post war Britain. In a career which lasted some fifty years, he became a perceptive, though disenchanted, observer of Scottish society.However, we are less familiar with a second aspect of his work, nine novels and collections of short-stories which are set abroad and find inspiration in the author’s own experience as a teacher in Afghanistan, Catalonia and Malaysia in the 1960s.For Jenkins this withdrawal from the Scottish scene offered a much needed distance at a time when he was increasingly dissatisfied with Scottish society and the lack of vitality of the literary scene. It also gave the opportunity for a discovery of new cultures and territories.What the books have in common is the experience of a majority of Scottish expatriates abroad, their mixed feelings, ambiguities and cowardice in front of the Other. Titles like The Expatriates, A Far Cry from Bowmore, Dust on the Paw, The Sardana Dancers, among others, offer a complex literary discussion of themes of exile and possible return, the pain of separation, the tensions between home and abroad, the vulgarity of the Scottish and English communities overseas. Inevitably, expatriation or exile is integrated into Jenkins’ spiritual quest for values until it merges with a possible experience of rebirth and self-discovery. |
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