Littoral Impressionism in The Wreck of the Archangel by George Mackay Brown

Halszka Leleń

Instytut Literaturoznawstwa UWM


Abstract

Abstract: George Mackay Brown’s poetic renderings of northern archipelagic world have never been considered in the context of the techniques of literary Impressionism as deployed to attain the aesthetic effect of reader engagement. It is possible to view the author’s mature collection of poetry The Wreck of the Archangel as composed on the principle of littoral Impressionism that expands Joseph Conrad’s idea of art as expressed in the Preface to The Nigger of the “Narcissus”. This article will examine Brown’s ecosophy of community that emerges from his major aesthetic principles used to give the reader the literary experience of the seatangled multiperspectivity. Brown’s unique lyrical-narrative insights into multiplicity of qualia and ecopoetic focus result in particular aesthetic effect of phenomenological immediacy. Adopting such perspective on the Orkney author might be an important point for reassessment of his position in the history of Scottish and British literature.


Keywords:

seatangled multiperspectivity, Conrad’s idea of art, northern archipelagic world, qualia and ecopoetic focus, ecosophy of community


Allen, N. (2021), Ireland, Literature, and the Coast: Seatangled. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Baker, T.C. (2009), George Mackay Brown and the Philosophy of Community. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Bate, J. (2001[2000]), The Song of the Earth. London: Picador.   Google Scholar

Brown, G.M. (1998 [1997]), For the Islands I Sing: An Autobiography. London: John Murray.   Google Scholar

Brown, G.M. (1989a), Introduction: The Wreck of the Archangel, MS 3115/3f, Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh Library.   Google Scholar

Brown, G.M. (1989b), Introduction. In: Idem, The Wreck of the Archangel. London: John Murray: 4–5.   Google Scholar

Brown, G.M. (2006 [2005/1989]), The Wreck of the Archangel (1989). In: Bevan, A./Murray, B. (eds.), The Collected Poems of George Mackay Brown. London: John Murray: 223–290.   Google Scholar

Carruthers, G./McIlvanney, L. (eds.) (2012), The Cambridge Companion to Scottish Literature. Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Classen, C. (1993/2023), Worlds of Sense: Exploring the Senses in History and Across Cultures. London: Routledge. https://books.google.pl/books?id=mnCpEAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false [accessed: 28.02.2023].
Crossref   Google Scholar

Conrad, J. (2018 [2006/1897]), Preface: The Nigger of the “Narcissus”. Project Gutenberg eBook. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17731/17731-h/17731-h.htm [accessed: 28.02.2023].   Google Scholar

Day, J. (2020), Novel Sensations: Modernist Fiction and the Problem of Qualia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Dawson, M.R.W./Medler, D.A. (2010), Qualia. In: Dawson, M.R.W./Medler, D.A. (eds.), Dictionary of Cognitive Science. University of Alberta. http://www.bcp.psych.ualberta.ca/~mike/Pearl_Street/Dictionary/contents/Q/qualia.html [accessed: 28.02.2023].   Google Scholar

Delmaire, D. (2012), The Subject and his Stories: Lyricality in the Narrative Poetry of George Mackay Brown. Temporel: revue littéraire et artistique13. https://temporel.fr/The-Subject-and-his-Stories [accessed: 28.02.2023].   Google Scholar

Fergusson, M. (2008), George Mackay Brown: The Life. London: John Murray.   Google Scholar

Ferguson, R. (2011), George Mackay Brown: The Wound and the Gift. Edinburgh: St Andrew Press. Kindle Edition.   Google Scholar

Freeman, M. (1989), George Mackay Brown: The Wreck of the Archangel Review. PN Review (1 January) 16/4: 59‒60.   Google Scholar

Genosko, G. (2009), Félix Guattari: A Critical Introduction. London: Pluto Press.   Google Scholar

Hartner, M. (2014 [2012]), Multiperspectivity. In: Hühn, P. et al. (eds.), The Living Handbook of Narratology. Hamburg: Hamburg University. http://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/
Crossref   Google Scholar

[accessed: 28.02.2023].   Google Scholar

Henry Moore OM, CH Gallery Label (2004), Moore, H. Woman Seated in the Underground (1941). https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/moore-woman-seated-in-the-underground-n05707 [accessed: 20.02.2023].   Google Scholar

Hidley, K. (2016), Sight and Understanding: Visual Imagery as Metaphor in the Old English “Boethius” and “Soliloquies”. In: Kern-Stähler, A. et al. (eds.), The Five Senses in Medieval and Early Modern England. Leiden: Brill: 19–35.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1970 [1900]), Logical Investigations. Trans. Findlay, J.N. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.   Google Scholar

Incantation. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incantation [accessed: 28.02.2023].   Google Scholar

Kern-Stähler, A./Scheuchzer, K. (2016), Introduction. In: Kern-Stähler, A. et al. (eds.), The Five Senses in Medieval and Early Modern England. Leiden: Brill: 1–19.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Leleń, H. (2015), Semiotics of Archipelago in George Mackay Brown’s Narratives. In: Szuba, M. (ed.), Boundless Scotland: Space in Contemporary Scottish Fiction. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego: 137–153.   Google Scholar

Leleń, H. (2020), Narrative Displacement and Paradigms of Sanctity in Selected Short Stories of George Mackay Brown. In: Eadem (ed.), Sanctity as a Story: Narrative (In)Variants of the Saint, vol. 17 of Mediated Fictions: Studies in Verbal and Visual Narratives. Berlin: Peter Lang 2020: 59–84.   Google Scholar

Lewis, C.I. (1929), Mind and the World-Order: An Outline of a Theory of Knowledge. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.   Google Scholar

Madsen, P. (2023), Deep Ecology. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/deep-ecology. [accessed: 29.03.2023].   Google Scholar

Merleau-Ponty, M. (2005 [1962]), Phenomenology of Perception. Trans. Smith, C. London – New York: Routledge.   Google Scholar

Moore, H. (1941), Woman Seated in the Underground. Tate Britain, London, catalogue number N05707.   Google Scholar

Murray, R./Murray, B. (2008 [2004]), Interrogation of Silence: The Writings of George Mackay Brown. London – Edinburgh: Steve Savage.   Google Scholar

Naess, A. (1990), Ecology, Community and Lifestyle: An Outline of Ecosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Nye, R. (1989), Shout of the wind, smack of the sea. Poetry. The Times (14 Oct.) . Gale Academic OneFile. link.gale.com/apps/doc/A117084807/AONE?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=ebb3aeb7 [accessed: 28.02.2023].   Google Scholar

Oppermann, S. (2019), Storied Seas and Living Metaphors in the Blue Humanities. Configurations 27/4, (Fall): 443–461.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Pearson, M. (2006), Littoral Society: The Concepts and the Problems. Journal of World History 17/4: 354.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Peters, J.G. (2004 [2001]), Conrad and Impressionism. Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press.   Google Scholar

Purdy, E. (2022), The Weight of Water: Some Implications for Textual Fluidity for the Study of Comparative Literature. Revue de Littérature Générale et Comparée 14/56. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/trans.6889 [accessed: 28.02.2023].
Crossref   Google Scholar

Rembowska-Płuciennik, M. (2012), Narrative Models of Intersubjectivity. Trans. Skotnicka, M. Teksty Drugie 2: 202–225.   Google Scholar

Schmid, S. (2003), Keeping the Sources Pure: The Making of George Mackay Brown. Oxford et al.: Peter Lang.   Google Scholar

Smith, J. (2013), The Archipelagic Literature: Re-framing the “New Nature Writing”. Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism 17/1: 5‒15. DOI: 10.1080/14688417.2012.750840 [accessed: 28.02.2023].
Crossref   Google Scholar

Stachura, M. (2011), Making it New: Imagism and George Mackay Brown’s Runic Poetry. International Journal of Scottish Literature 8. https://www.ijsl.stir.ac.uk/issue8/stachura.htm [accessed: 28.02.2023].   Google Scholar

Szuba, M. (2021 [2019]), Contemporary Scottish Poetry and the Natural World: Burnside, Jamie, Robertson and White. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.   Google Scholar

The Wreck of the Archangel. Review. (1995), Publishers Weekly 242.26 (26 June): 103. Gale Academic OneFile. link.gale.com/apps/doc/A17163250/AONE?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=e92f41a9. [accessed: 28.02.2023].   Google Scholar

Tye, M. (2021), Qualia. In: Zalta, E.N., The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=qualia [accessed: 28.02.2023].   Google Scholar

Download


Published
2023-06-23

Cited by

Leleń, H. (2023). Littoral Impressionism in The Wreck of the Archangel by George Mackay Brown. Acta Neophilologica, 1(XXV), 99–115. https://doi.org/10.31648/an.8814

Halszka Leleń 
Instytut Literaturoznawstwa UWM