| الوصف: |
This thesis investigates the various different representations of the Scots Girls, an itinerant female labour force who travelled on an annual basis from the North East of Scotland, Lewis and Shetland, following the herring fishing southwards, with Great Yarmouth in the south east of Norfolk as their main destination. This annual migration took place from the mid-to-late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Yarmouth itself was an attractive place to the Scots Girls, their experience reflected in the many stories of their times there which they told in later life. A flavour of these comes through in the oral history interviews which form a key ingredient of the research material. The Scots Girls themselves were a source of immense fascination to local people in Yarmouth, and further afield, with people coming to the town specifically to go down to the gutting yards in the South Denes of Yarmouth to watch the women at their work. Their attraction was also manifest in various media representations, such as documentary film and newsreels. The popular appeal of the Scots Girls was not only historical. They continue to be a deep source of interest today, as is shown by their representation in contemporary romance fiction, and in the mural paintings recently created in the town. The thesis looks at both the historical and contemporaryr epresentationsin their diversity, attempting to characterise their individual features while also considering them in combination with each other, as an overall narrative ensemble. It uses various analytical concepts and tools, such as abjection and the uncanny, in order to unpick and tease out the varied and complex meanings which are in play in this ensemble. The thesis attends to the major features and conventions of the various forms in which the Scots Girls are represented, while also trying to gain some analytical grasp on the source of their boundless fascination. |
