Kelman, James. (b. 1946).
W o r k
- a libertarian socialist/anarchist: committed to issues of social justice and traditional left-wing causes
- preocuppied with labyrinthine struggles with authority, the search for specific local identity, and the effects of the global on the regional
- concerned with anti-heroic rebels who alienate themselves from society
- writes first person internal monologues in the Glaswegian vernacular
A Disaffection (1989):
- a working-class character enters the world of the middle-class through his teacher education x but: recognizes the repressive power of the system and deliberately quits his job to return to his original environment
How late it was, how late (1994):
- follows an ex-convict from his coming to consciousness after a two-day drinking marathon, through his being arrested and beaten up, to his finding out he was blinded and his coming to terms with the difficulties it brings
> won him the Booker Prize
The Good Times (1998):
- a collection of short stories
Quote
"Ye wake in a corner and stay there hoping yer body will disappear, the thoughts smothering ye; these thoughts; but ye want to remember and face up to things, just something keeps ye from doing it, why can ye no do it; the words filling yer head: then the other words..."
The opening of How late it was, how late (1994)
Basics
(Photo: Douglas Robertson).
-
Author
James Kelman. (b. 1946). Scottish. -
Work
Novelist. Short story writer. Playwright. Essayist. Author of How late it was, how late (1994). -
Genre
Postmodernism. New Scottish Renaissance of 1980s and 1990s.
Sources
"James Kelman".
Contemporary Writers. The British Council.
"James Kelman".
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation.