space and identity in irvine welsh

8/13/2019 Space and Identity in Irvine Welsh

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HĂPĂIANU (ANDRIEŞ) DANIELA

MA STUDENT, 1ST

YEAR, CCBCG

1

Space and identity in Irvine Welsh’s ‘Kingdom of Fife’

Identities are constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed according to various

factors. They are not fixed but fluid constructs that take into consideration the social relationsin a certain economic and political time developed in a certain place where the individual

leads his/her life. A place as part of a space is more often than not endowed with meaning

depending on the feelings an individual expresses towards it. Individuals and places rely on

each other in their attempt of defining and redefining their identity. It is always a process in

change and each day that brings about new challenges helps both the individual and the place

define and redefine each other.

As the author himself specifies in the afterword, the places he has mentioned in

the book are constructs of his imagination as well as the individuals who are involved. The

mechanism of constructing their identity is more important than the veracity of their trueidentities. However, these constructs come to present a state of fact that of Scotland‟s

situation within the United Kingdom, a multicultural society accompanied by a plural identity.

Its cultural importance is not denied by the author, quite the contrary he states that it is

“spiritually vast”1. The way in which Scotland “alters according to its relations with the rest

of the world, not least the rest of Britain, changing and being changed by interaction with

other cultures and communities”2 the same way the protagonists of this short story undergo a

serious change, their identity being shaped in time due to their life experiences. Being an

ongoing process, it is wrong to claim that we can speak of a well-defined identity; it is only a

consequence of their endeavors in life.

The characters‟ life seems to spin around Cowdenbeath, a town in west Fife,

Scotland. The main places that seem to shape the identity of the individuals are: the Goth, the

pub or the ”local boozer”, the leisure center , ”the pride and joy ay the Beath”, 3the Spider‟s

Web Tattoo Parlor, the Central Park Cafe and last but not least the place where the Scottish

Table-Football Cup Championship is organized. The change that the place and characters (and

I will refer mainly to the two main characters, Jason King and Jenni, who are also the

narrators of the story) undergo is obvious. On the one hand, they try and fit in this place and

on the other hand the place is in continuous transformation due to various reasons, one of

which is globalization. It is a continuous circle movement which both Jason and Jennysucceed to escape as they leave it to lead a better life in Spain, doing what they love most,

taking care of horses, continuing their own way of constructing their identity.

To begin with, Jason seems to be a character who belongs to this place, a local

in every aspect of his life, whereas Jenni does not have almost anything to cling to feel that

she belongs to it except her horse, Midnight. The moment her horse dies, she seeks ways of

1 Welsh, Irvine, 2008. ‘Kingdom of Fife’. If You Liked School, You’ll Love Work. London: Vintage Books: 203–389:

2008:2007. (p. 391)2

Susan Bassnett, Studying British Cultures, Routledge, New York, 2003 (p.96) found onhttp://www.questia.com/reader/action/next/104244678title3 Ibid. 1 (p.212)




MA STUDENT, 1ST

YEAR, CCBCG

2

escaping and eventually chooses to go to a better place to turn a new leaf. Choosing solitude

over bad company, Jenni pities her parents who have grown distant, experiencing alienation

because of the new social order: her father strives to earn as much money as he can in order to

let his children practice their hobbies, activities that instead of unifying the family separate

them even more, pushing them to perform their identities, a thing that Jenni refuses to do up

to a point when she tries to become a “local”. When Jason succeeds to qualify himself for the

final table-football competition, Jenni experiences for the first time identification with the

place she lives: “For the first time, I realize, I really feel like I‟m part of my own town, like I

belong […] enjoying myself with a bunch of strange permanently pre-adolescent misfits at a

table-football tournament.” (p.369) Unlike Jason, she constructs her identity by comparison to

her so called ”best friend”, Lara, who is everything that she is not, beautiful and successful

both in her private and professional life. Intelligent enough to differentiate between an

apparent and an essential thing, Jenny grows to despise Lara for her identity performance and

to appreciate Jason for his way of acting and reacting in the key moments of his life.

The process that Jason undergoes is reversed as compared to that of Jenni‟s as

he starts by deconstructing everything he is, an ex- jockey and a talented football-table player.

However, his problems start when he is blamed by his opponent, Mr. John Mossman for his

“unacceptable behavior ” and he is banned for two years from all the association‟s

competitions. Moreover he is the scapegoat when the association receives complaints about

damage to Fife Council property as a notice board has been torn ”from its mountings in a

senseless act of vandalism” (p.234) Jason feels the constraints he is subjected to as a

consequence of globalization, of uniformizing behaviors and identities. The control is sensed

as a way of banning the individual freedom and making him fit to the new standards of life.

Jason‟s cry of dissatisfaction is eloquent in this sense: “Ah‟m bein punished cause ahm a

purist, an idealist oot ay time!” (236) His meditation on Scotland‟s situation within the United

Kingdom gives way to a more cruel reality, the English control is sensed as being oppressive

and in favor of the rich people who have the power to do what they want. Because of this

situation, Jason feels that he does not belong to this place any more.

The allusion to the acts of vandalism appear several times (a way of

entertainment for the adolescents and at the same time a way of manifesting their desire for

doing forbidden things) as they are to blame as well when the motorcycle accident takes place

and Ally Kravitz loses his life. Blaming himself for this dreadful accident, Jason realizes thatin his race to fame – as Kravy gives him a lift to Perth to attend a table-football competition –

has lost his best friend, a prize too high that will be determinant in his decision to leave to

Spain and lead the life he is dreaming of as a free spirit like Kravy was.

He evolves from a performed identity – he complies easily when he is asked to

dress as a woman just to please the one who is superior to him and who has the decisional

power - to a chosen identity, being capable of overlooking his needs and making everything

possible to find his late friend‟s head and turning it into a shrine. Suffocated by the way that

authorities impose their power on people who are often judged by the appearances and

stereotypes, national symbols cease to mean anything for him: declared the winner of thefootball game that qualified him for the final competition, he chooses to give away his right to




MA STUDENT, 1ST

YEAR, CCBCG

3

his competitor, expressing his disapproval for the way in which authorities involve themselves

in these kind of competitions: ”-Ah hereby forfeit this game in favour ay ma very gifted

opponent, Murray Maxwell.” Jason explains his deed in a hilarious way: It‟s a bairn‟s game

fir retards”4, thus gaining his father‟s admiration for what he has succeeded to become: a

courageous and at the same time intelligent young man who is able to defend his ideas. Irony

is employed successfully throughout the whole short story, the author seems to have guided

himself after the saying, many a true word is spoken in jest, making his story more appealing

to the readers.

Once a kingdom, Fife has become a common region that seems to have nothing

special and particular and that is why the narrator has chosen to modify the proper noun as if

it were a common one referring to it as being “the Fiefdom ay King”. On the other hand, this

new word may allude to the freedom Jason longs for and that he finds only in his “voluntary

exile” in Spain.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Welsh, Irvine, 2008. „Kingdom of Fife‟. If You Liked School, You‟ll Love

Work. London: Vintage Books: 203 – 389: 2008:2007. (p. 391)

Susan Bassnett, Studying British Cultures, Routledge, New York, 2003 (p.96)

found on http://www.questia.com/reader/action/next/104244678title.

4 Ibid. 1 (p.371)

space and identity in irvine welsh

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