E Dymock PhD thesis 08

324 Pages·2010·1.65 MB·English

The Quest for Identity in Sorley MacLean’s ‘An Cuilithionn’:
Journeying into Politics and Beyond

Emma Dymock

PhD
University of Edinburgh
August 2008
For my Gran Moffatt (1912-1991) and my mother,
two inspirational women with a love of history and literature,
who generously passed on that love to me.
Declaration

I declare that this thesis has been composed by me and that the work herein is my own and
has not been submitted in candidature for any other degree, postgraduate diploma or
professional qualification.
Abstract
This thesis aims to deepen our understanding of ‘An Cuilithionn’, which is generally
considered to be Sorley MacLean’s most important political poem, by examining the main
symbol in the poem, the mountain, in its interaction with the secondary symbols, and also the
historical-political figures who figure in the poem. Very little detailed work on ‘An
Cuilithionn’ has been carried out, and for this reason this thesis has to establish a sound
foundation for research on ‘An Cuilithionn’. A multi-disciplinary approach allows a fuller
understanding of the poem to emerge.

The specific aim of the thesis is to understand more fully how heart and mind interact in
MacLean’s vision of the hero on the mountain. I view ‘An Cuilithionn’ as MacLean’s
meditation on human nature and, because this poem was composed at a time when many of
the Scottish intelligentsia of which MacLean was part were assessing their own views on
action and pacifism, I also postulate that in ‘An Cuilithionn’ MacLean contemplates the
nature of his own identity in that light. The argument of the thesis is based on the premise
that in ‘An Cuilithionn’ politics significantly contribute to how MacLean views heroism and
his identity is defined by how he perceives figures of history such as Lenin, Dimitrov and
James Connolly. I use the psychological approaches of both Julia Kristeva and C.G. Jung as
well as the literary theory of Northrop Frye to gain a broader perspective on the topic.

In Chapter 1 MacLean’s literary influences as well as the contemporary literary and political
climate of Scotland in general are examined. In Chapter 2 and 3 I define the theoretical
framework of my inter-disciplinary approach to the subject. In Chapter 4 I speculate whether
the main symbols in the poem, the mountain and morass, originate from MacLean’s own
personal view of the universe and in Chapter 5 I examine the secondary symbols, the sea-
monster and stallion, which reflect the personal and political themes in the poem. The
dynamic, which I propose is present in the symbols that I have already looked at in the
previous chapters, is further considered in Chapter 6 in relation to MacLean’s ideal of the
self-sacrificed hero using, in particular, James Frazer’s meta-narrative of the dying and
reviving god and Northrop Frye’s literary myth of death and rebirth. In Chapter 7 I connect
the theme of self-sacrifice in ‘An Cuilithionn’ to MacLean’s use of Hugh MacDiarmid’s
poem, ‘If there are bounds to any man’, which he incorporated into Part V of ‘An
Cuilithionn’, and I show that MacLean’s socialist ideals are inextricably linked to his belief
in the eternal striving of the hero, which leads him towards a fuller understanding of the
course of mankind as a whole.

This thesis raises the question of how MacLean views the individual and the collective as
well as the personal and the political. It also explores MacLean’s responses to his major
influences such as Communism and religion and examines how he deals with these in both an
intellectual and emotional way.
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Contents

CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………………...........v

LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………..viii

ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………………………...viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………………ix

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………….1

1. AN OUTLINE OF SORLEY MACLEAN: THE MAN, HIS BACKGROUND AND
HIS INFLUENCES……………………………………………………………………….. 11
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………....... 11
1.1 A SHORT BIOGRAPHY AND TIMELINE……………………………………... 11
1.2 MACLEAN’S EARLY INFLUENCES……………………………………………. 18
1.3 MACLEAN AND LIFE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH…………….. 20
1.4 MACDIARMID: THE LITERARY RENAISSANCE AND SCOTTISH
NATIONALISM………………………………………………………………….. 25
1.5 SOCIALISM AND SCOTLAND…………………………………………………...30
1.6 MACLEAN AND THE INFLUENCE OF MACDIARMID……………………… 32
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………….... 36

2. SOURCES……………………………………………………….................................... 37
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………... 37
2.1 AN OUTLINE OF ‘AN CUILITHIONN’………………………………………… 37
2.2 SORLEY MACLEAN’S CRITICAL ESSAYS AND WRITINGS………………. 45
2.3 MACLEAN AND YOUNG’S CORRESPONDENCE DURING
WORLD WAR II………………………………………………………………….. 48
2.4 THE POET AS SUBJECT: CRITICAL ESSAYS ON MACLEAN……………… 58
2.5 ‘AN CUILITHIONN’: ENTERING INTO A FULLER STUDY OF THE TEXT.. 63
2.6 STUDIES ON DÀIN DO EIMHIR AND ITS RELEVANCE TO
‘AN CUILITHIONN’…………………………………………………………... 65
2.7 RECENT RESEARCH ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF ‘AN CUILITHIONN’…. 68
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………… 68

3. METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………………………….. 70
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………70
3.1 THE SELF: THE LITERARY PERSPECTIVE…………………………………... 71
3.2 THE SELF: THE PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE…………………………... 74
3.3 THE SELF: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE…………………………. 78
3.3.1 Freudian and Lacanian Theory of the Self…………………………………... 78
3.3.2 Jungian Theory of the Self…………………………………………………... 82
3.3.3 Kristeva’s Abjection of the Self……………………………………………... 84
3.4 MYTH: THEORIES AND APPROACHES………………………………………. 89
3.4.1 The Influence of Frazer’s The Golden Bough……………………………….. 91
3.4.2 Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism…………………………………………………. 95
3.5 IDEALISM AND MATERIALISM: POLITICAL APPROACHES TO ‘AN
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CUILITHIONN’………………………………………………………………….. 100
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………. ………………………104

4. THE EMERGENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL SELF: THE STRUGGLE FOR
IDENTITY………………………………………………………………………………... 105
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………… 105
4.1 ABJECT VISIONS IN ‘AN CUILITHIONN’……………………………………... 105
4.1.1 Crossing the Border of the Self………………………………………………. 105
4.1.2 The Mountain as (m)Other…………………………………………………....110
4.1.3 The Symbol of the Morass in ‘An Cuilithionn’: The Abjection of
the Primal…………………………………………………………………………... 118
4.1.4 The Morass as Maternal/Semiotic Domain: MacLean, Heaney
and the Other………………………………………………………………………. 123
4.2 JUNGIAN JOURNEYS FROM EGO-CONSCIOUSNESS TO THE SELF…….... 127
4.2.1 Ego, Shadow and Anima in the Skye Landscape……………………………. 128
4.2.2 Self on the Summit of the Cuillin……………………………………………. 133
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………… 135

5. THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY: PATTERNS OF MOVEMENT ON THE
MOUNTAIN…………………………………………………………………………….... 138
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………... 138
5.1 PATTERNS OF MOVEMENT ON THE MOUNTAIN IN PART I AND II……... 139
5.2 THE MOUNTAIN ENCIRCLED: THE SEA-MONSTER IN
‘AN CUILITHIONN’……………………………………………………………... 142
5.2.1 The Curly Snake in Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poetry…………………………..... 144
5.2.2 The Ouroborus and Its Meaning in the Wider Context of Myth
and Religion………………………………………………………………………... 151
5.2.3 The Symbol of the Serpent in MacLean’s Work…………………………….. 157
5.3 ENERGY IN MOTION: THE STALLION IN ‘AN CUILITHIONN’……………. 163
5.3.1 The Stallion’s Movement on the Peaks of the Mountain……………………. 165
5.3.2 The Skye Stallion: Comparisons with Classical Symbols………………….... 166
5.3.3 The Horse as Symbol……………………………………………………….... 169
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………….... 174

6. SELF-SACRIFICE: THE END AND THE NEW BEGINNING…………………... 176
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………... 176
6.1 THE APPLICATION OF FRYE’S LITERARY SYSTEM TO
‘AN CUILITHIONN’……………………………………………………………... 177
6.1.1 The Archetypal Organization of ‘An Cuilithionn’…………………………....177
6.1.2 Cyclical Movement in ‘An Cuilithionn’……………………………………... 178
6.1.3 Demonic and Apocalyptic Imagery in ‘An Cuilithionn’…………………….. 185
6.1.3.1 The Demonic World……………………………………………….. 185
6.1.3.2 Apocalyptic Imagery………………………………………………. 190
6.1.4 Central Concepts in the Structure of ‘An Cuilithionn’………………………. 194
6.2 THE MYTHIC HERO IN IRISH LITERATURE: BLOOD SACRIFICE AND
REGENERATION………………………………………………………………… 196
6.2.1 Wider Concepts of Sacrifice in History and Literature……………………… 198
6.2.2 The Irish Literary Renaissance: O’Grady’s Style of Heroism and
the Parnell ‘Myth’…………………………………………………………………. 200
6.2.3 Cú Chulainn in the Wider Irish Context…………………………………….. 203
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6.2.4 W.B. Yeats and the Theme of Sacrifice……………………………………... 203
6.2.5 Patrick Pearse and the Easter Rising………………………………………… 205
6.2.6 James Connolly: The Socialist Perspective of Self-Sacrifice……………….. 212
6.3 THE ROSE AS SYMBOL OF SPIRITUAL SACRIFICE: YEATSIAN
INFLUENCES ON ‘AN CUILITHIONN’……………………………………….. 215
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………… 223

7. THE POLITICS OF STRIVING: CREATIVE GENIUS IN
‘AN CUILITHIONN’…………………………………………………………………. 225
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………… 225
7.1 INTERPRETATIONS OF ‘IF THERE ARE BOUNDS TO ANY MAN’………… 226
7.2 MACLEAN’S POETRY OF HUMAN SUFFERING – RELATIONSHIPS
BETWEEN THE INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE………………………… 231
7.3 PROMETHEUS……………………………………………………………………. 235
7.3.1 Prometheus as Envisioned by Classical Writers…………………………….. 235
7.3.2 The Romantic Prometheus…………………………………………………… 238
7.3.3 Prometheus and Marxist Thought……………………………………………. 241
7.4 IDEALISM AND MATERIALISM: THE CUILLIN AS MEETING PLACE
FOR A PARADOX……………………………………………………………….. 246
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………….. 252

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………… 254
PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS………………………………………………………… 254
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FIELD………………………………………………….. 265
FURTHER RESEARCH………………………………………………………………. 266

APPENDIX I: A PROPOSED INTRODUCTION FOR ‘AN
CUILITHIONN’…………………………………………………………. 271

APPENDIX II: THE CUILLIN PRAISE POEM………………………………………. 275

APPENDIX III: A REGISTER OF NAMES IN PART I OF ‘AN
CUILITHIONN’ WITH DESCRIPTIONS………………………….. 280

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………287
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List of Figures

Figure 1: Christopher Whyte’s table of the number of excised lines from the manuscripts
of ‘An Cuilithionn’………………………………………………………………... 41

Figure 2: Northrop Frye’s Mythic System………………………………………………… 96

Figure 3: Northrop Frye’s Cyclical Quest…………………………………………………. 98

Figure 4: Picture map of the Cuillin Ridge, Stainforth, 2002, pp. 156-157 with additions by
the author…………………………………………………………………………... 141

Figure 5: Poster by Nikolai Kupreyanov, ‘Citizens! Preserve Historical Monuments’
(1919)………………………………………………………………………………. 173

Figure 6: Poster by B. Zvorkykin, ‘The Struggle of the Red Knight with the Dark Force’
(1919)………………………………………………………………………………. 173

Abbreviations

NLS National Library of Scotland

CW Collected Works
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Acknowledgements

Many people have given help in various ways during the course of this thesis. Firstly I
would like to thank my supervisors, Prof. William Gillies and Dr. Anja Gunderloch, for the
time that they have given to me over the years. Without their support and advice this thesis
would have been a much more difficult undertaking and they have shown a constant
understanding of the direction which I wanted to go in my research. I will be forever grateful
for their insight and knowledge. I would also like to thank Prof. Donald Meek who
supervised my MSc thesis and who helped to start me off on my PhD research.

Thanks are also due to people who have helped me along the way - the staff in the National
Library of Scotland have always been patient and helpful when I was consulting the
manuscripts and letters relating to Sorley MacLean. My own department - Celtic and Scottish
Studies - deserves thanks for its general atmosphere which has always encouraged me in my
studies and made me appreciate the value of scholarship. I would also like to thank Rev. Tom
Preston for his useful insights, particularly in relation to religious symbolism. I never had the
opportunity to hear Sorley MacLean read his poetry or to meet him personally, and therefore
the insights of Aonghas Macneacail have been both useful and enjoyable in gaining a more
general picture of MacLean. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sarah Anderson for
the many times she and her parents have made me welcome at their home in Heaste, Skye.
My appreciation of the Cuillin and the landscape of Skye in general has been heightened due
to her unfailing patience, driving me around in her car and pointing out landmarks along the
way.

A major thank you is due to the Carnegie Fund for the scholarship that was awarded to me
at the beginning of my PhD and which they have continued to renew all the way through my
time as a student. This financial assistance has been invaluable throughout the course of my
research.

Thanks are also due to the ‘lunch group women’ - Amy, Catriona, Janice, MaryCatherine
and Stef - for all their support and inspirational discussions. I want to thank Peter for his love
and support, particularly in the last stages of the thesis – his computer skills have come in
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useful on more than one occasion. Lastly, I give my love and thanks to my parents. I do not
think I could ever have reached the place I am now without their love and belief in me. They
have always been an inspiration to me and have sustained me in more ways than they will
ever know.