Stigmatised health conditions in post-devolution Scottish fiction and the press

Spence, Fred Shepherd (2021) Stigmatised health conditions in post-devolution Scottish fiction and the press. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis examines stigmatised health issues in post-devolutionary Scottish literature and the press (1997-present). It centres around the ‘Glasgow effect’, a public health term describing the phenomenon of poor health and high mortality in Scotland, even after accounting for socioeconomic factors. I focus on mental distress, alcoholism and to some extent fatness or obesity, the stigmatised health issues associated with the ‘Glasgow effect’. The Introduction outlines Scottish studies and the medical humanities and illustrates the benefits of bringing these fields together. Chapter One discusses the terms ‘Glasgow effect’ and ‘Scottish effect’. It explores how the press, academics and art projects mobilised the term ‘Glasgow effect’ to serve various agendas, often discussing Scottish nationhood and culture as much as public health. I argue that the ‘Glasgow effect’, the myth of a culture uniquely sick and uniquely artistic, emphasises Scottish exceptionalism and became popular amidst renewed optimism and anxiety about the country’s future post-devolution. Chapter Two examines (postnatal) depression, intergenerational trauma and anorexia. I discuss attachment theory, childrearing ideology and symbolic politics in Sarah Moss’s Night Waking, and celebrity culture and Scots-Italian historical trauma in Andrew O’Hagan’s Personality. Chapter Three, on alcoholism, explores neoliberalism, national pathology and postmodernism in Ewan Morrison’s Distance, and analyses A.L. Kennedy’s idiosyncratic approach to religion and suffering in Paradise. In the extended Conclusion, I reflect on the relevant absence of Scottish novels on fatness. I further theorise on the ‘Glasgow effect’ to account for the term’s unusual endurance and appeal. My novels offer nuanced portrayals of illness, engaging with a broad range of discourses not typically present in discussions of Scottish public health. This disconnection highlights debates or tensions in post-devolution Scottish culture over public health and the politics of health. The ‘Glasgow effect’ does not provide a useful category of literary analysis and may in fact obscure the richness and diversity of contemporary Scottish fiction.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Funder's Name: Wellcome Trust (WELLCOTR)
• Supervisor's Name: Miller, Dr. Gavin and Coyer, Dr. Megan
• Date of Award: 2021
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2021-82653
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 28 Jan 2022 14:19
• Last Modified: 06 Nov 2025 12:42
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.82653
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/82653