Gray, Alasdair. (b. 1934).

W o r k

- a Scottish novelist, short story writer, painter, illustrator, non-fiction writer, dramatist, and screenwright

- often combines his diverse artistic talents within single works: composes paintings with words and letters, punctuates novels with paintings

- preoccupied with his native Glasgow, examines Scottish identity, but at the same time enlarges his scope to encompass universal problems

Lanark (1981):

- a postmodern epic: fragmented yet all-compassing, mingling word and design, and blending the seemingly incompatible literary genres of satire x tragedy, realism x fantasy, etc.

- alternates a realistic narrative of the young artist Duncan Thaw in Glasgow x a dystopian fantasy of Lanark, an adult version of Thaw, in the city of Unthank

1982, Janine (1984):

- his most controversial novel: in subject an exploitation of pornographic fantasy, in form an explosive experiment in style, layout, and typography

Poor Things (1992):

- a novelistic excursus from his usual subject-matter of Glasgow reality and fantasy to the Victorian period

- centres on a female protagonist and deals with social inequalities, relationships, memory, and identity

- takes Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as a starting point x but: does not imitate, rather writes back to it

The Book of Prefaces (2000):

- non-fiction, a literary history "Edited and Glossed" by Gray

- covers the development of literature from 7^th to 20^th century in England, Ireland, Scotland, and the US

- serious in subject x but: playful in form, with Gray's characteristically idiosyncratic illustrations, design, and typography