Social Mobility in James Kelman’s A Disaffection

Abstract

Though social mobility in the post-industrial society of Scotland has helped changing social class structure, Scottish working class still suffers from cultural devaluation. That is to say, in a post-industrial society, knowledge is not really the main human capital. The purpose of this study is to explore Kelman’s untraditional cultural and social representation of the Scottish working class individual and his everyday experiences. Based on the novelist’s individualization of the Scottish working class characters, the study argues that in the post-industrial times in which social mobility can be achieved, contemporary societies like Glasgow still suffers from class division and cultural fragmentation. This article discusses Kelman’s novel A Disaffection (1989), exploring the character of Patrick Doyle, a bitter and alienated schoolteacher whose portrayal raises questions about the role of education in social mobility, issues of cultural and class estrangement, which form a major factor in reconstructing or deconstructing the working class identity.

Keywords

• Education
• Mobility
• Class
• alienation
• ambivalence
• State