Stony Cross : a novel and critical commentary

Abstract

This thesis comprises a novel, Stony Cross and a critical commentary that suggests the novel's contribution is elucidated through an examination of its illustration of ideological interpellation.
Stony Cross is set in an eponymous mining village in central Scotland. It charts the life of a teenage boy as he is positioned within networks of working-class Protestant culture. In the opening chapters, his mother dies and his parentage is called into question, leaving him partially removed from his familial relationships. As a result, he falls under the influence of a drugs gang, and is incorporated into a world that becomes increasingly violent.
The critical part of the thesis argues that growing up in a working class mining community constructed a desire within the author that ultimately brought him to crisis. This account is analysed through a framework constructed using the theory of Louis Althusser and Jaques Lacan in order to unpack the strands of ideology that intersect within the body of the protagonist of Stony Cross and constitute a desire for agency which partly manifests in a fantasy narrative. The protagonist's relationship with his fantasy illustrates the individual's relationship with ideology.

Date of Award	Jun 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Bangor University
Supervisor	Graeme Harper (Supervisor)