Typography, Illustration and Narration in Three Novels by Alasdair Gray

283 Pages·2017·3.79 MB·English

Title Page.
Typography, Illustration and Narration in Three Novels by Alasdair Gray:
Lanark, 1982, Janine and Poor Things.
Craig Linwood
Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
School of Humanities
Arts, Education and Law
Griffith University
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy
February 2017
Abstract.
The impetus of the thesis emerged through an academic interest in how experimental
uses of typography and illustration functioned as a method of narration within literature.
This was followed by investigations into the use of typography and illustration yielded that
while there is a growing field of literary study examining non-linguistic elements within
narratives, there are few studies into typography and illustration and how an author
utilises and develops them as a method of narration. In light of this, this thesis examines
attempts to expand upon the act of narration through the use of typography and
illustration in both experimental and common forms. This is focused through Scottish
artist Alasdair Gray and three of his novels: Lanark: A Life in Four Books, 1982, Janine
and Poor Things.
While Gray’s novels are contemporary his use of typography and illustration engages in
wider print cultures that facilitated experiment into literature involving the manipulation of
typography, illustration and the traditions of narrative. Experimentation in literature from
1650 to 1990, be it through illustration, typography or the composition of narrative, often
emerged when printing practice and its product were no longer seen as efficient at
communicating to modernising audiences. This act often coincided with larger changes
within print cultures that affected laws, politics, the means of distribution, views of design
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and methods of distribution. These changes facilitated poets, authors and artists to break
with traditions of communication and restrictions to methods of printing to create new
forms further inspired by emerging print and audio / visual media, methods of printing
production, views toward the composition of artworks and a modernising society. The
traditions of print history related to experiment form one area that create the foundations
of Gray’s employment of illustration and typography. Traditions of printing history are also
an area to build foundations for how to examine the usage drawn from Gray’s work.
Similar aspects of standardisation permeate Scottish language history and its literary
market. Scottish engagement with Britain, religion and politics as well as the introduction
of the printing press had ramifications for the state, nationalism and independence,
affecting literary markets, but also drawing new methods of using and thinking about
language. Engaged with European print cultures, through literature and non-standard
typography, artists explored Scottish identity and how language reflected and
represented this, often highlighting the disparity between the use of thought and speech.
The examination of aspects of Scottish literature in this manner shows the path of
Scottish literary markets, including those for Gray’s work, but also alternative methods for
the use of non-standard typography related to characterisation and character speech.
This again forms methods through which to explore how narration is expanded through
typography and illustration.
Gray’s novels emerge from the foundation of earlier print cultures and history, built
through Gray’s wide reading, political engagement, his broad art-schooling and his
involvement in literary markets. Through the three novels closely studied here, Gray
builds and expands upon earlier artistic and literary examples and examined against
theories of narration they reveal how typography and illustration are developed as a
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method of narration. Throughout Lanark: A Life in Four Books, typography and illustration
serve multiple aspects of narration in the forging of an epic narrative. In 1982, Janine,
typography is utilised as a means to render aspects of consciousness that cannot be
easily accomplished through traditional methods, while adhering to the narrative
limitations of the character’s point of view. In Poor Things both typography and illustration
function as a method to represent aspects of printed materials as a means to present
multiple points of view and explore the theme of the complex nature of the truth.
Ultimately through Alasdair Gray and three of his novels this thesis explores the cultures
of printing and application of experimental and common uses of typography and
illustration within literature. More importantly it explores how typography and illustration
are extended as a method of narration.
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Statement of Originality.
This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university.
To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously
published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis
itself.
(Signed)
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Table of Contents.
Abstract:..................................................................................................................................i
Statement of Originality:.......................................................................................................iv
Table of Contents:.................................................................................................................v
List of Figures:......................................................................................................................vii
Acknowledgements:...........................................................................................................viii
Introduction:........................................................................................................................1
Chapter 1: Early experimentation and print culture in Europe – 1680-1830.....17
• Establishing the Author......................................................................18
• Changing Idea of the Book................................................................23
• Establishing the Reader............................................................................26
• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman......................29
• The Practice of Printing.....................................................................33
• Printing of Illustrations........................................................................42
Chapter 2: 1830 to 1940 Industrial changes to printing, society and art...........51
• Demographics, Conditions of Life and Demand.................................52
• Mass Manufacture in Printing.............................................................57
• Effect of Printing Change...................................................................63
• Traditionalist Views of the State of Printing.........................................66
• New Views of Art – Breaking Structures.............................................70
• Machine Reformers...........................................................................82
• Literary Market and Novels................................................................90
Chapter 3: Contemporary printing and experiment - 1930 to 1990.....................94
• Changes to Printing Practice..............................................................95
• Further Modernisation of Printing and Markets...................................97
• Commercialisation of Printing, Visual Media and Style.......................101
• Mass Manufacturing, Society, Reading and Viewing Habits.............108
• Author's Response to Technology and the Book..............................114
• Printing and Computer Aided Composition......................................123
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• Political and Social Unrest: New View on Art and Design.................124
• Changing Relationship Between Designer, Type and Page..............127
• Alasdair Gray: Typography and Writing............................................130
Chapter 4: Printing Cultures, Scottish society and Alasdair Gray....................132
• Gray as an Artist..............................................................................133
• Gray and Politics.............................................................................136
• The Printing Press: Scottish Language and Literary Markets............137
• 1950s: International and Urbanised Writing.....................................150
Chapter 5: Lanark: A Life in Four Books...........................................................156
• Narrative.........................................................................................157
• Typographical Elements..................................................................159
• The Use of Illustration......................................................................160
• Marginalia.......................................................................................175
• Composition of Lanark's Chapters...................................................181
• General Typographic Use................................................................182
• Representation of Written Material...................................................183
• Tonal Change..................................................................................185
• Aural Effects....................................................................................187
• Italics of Inner Thoughts..................................................................188
• Ellipses...........................................................................................189
Chapter 6: 1982, Janine................................................................................................195
• Narrative.........................................................................................196
• Typographical Elements..................................................................198
• Narration.........................................................................................199
• Rendering Consciousness...............................................................200
• Narrators and Typography...............................................................212
• Marginalia and the Table of Contents..............................................214
• Further Typographical Usage...........................................................216
Chapter 7: Poor Things................................................................................................221
• Narrative.........................................................................................222
• Typographical Elements..................................................................226
• Gray's Writing and the Presentation of Found Documents................227
• Usage in Archie's Memoir................................................................230
• Typography and Character Voice.....................................................240
• Inclusion of Illustrations...................................................................243
• Victoria's Letter................................................................................249
Conclusion:.....................................................................................................................251
Bibliography:...................................................................................................................261
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List of Figures.
1. William Hogarth’s Illustration for Tristram Shandy: .....................................................31
2. Plate 5 in William Blake’s The First Book of Urizen: ..................................................47
3. Example from Mallarmé’s Un Coup de Dés Jamais N’abolira le Hasard:...............73
4. Example from Bryan Johnson’s Albert Angelo:..........................................................122
5. Titlepage for Book 3 of Lanark:...................................................................................163
6. Titlepage for Book 1 of Lanark:...................................................................................165
7. Titlepage for Book 2 of Lanark:...................................................................................168
8. Titlepage for Book 4 of Lanark:...................................................................................170
9. Road Sign within Lanark’s Narrative:.........................................................................173
10. 1982, Janine’s The Ministry of Voices:.....................................................................206
11. A Section of Bella’s Letter in Poor Things:.........................................................235
12. Archie’s Frontispiece and Titlepage in Poor Things:..............................................246
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Acknowledgements.
I would like to acknowledge the Australian taxpayer as well as the Griffith University for
funding my candidature through the Postgraduate Research Scholarship.
I want to express my gratitude to my principle supervisor Dr. Anthony May for the
invaluable assistance he provided over the course of this thesis. His experience, critical
mind and persistence pushed me and the thesis to be much greater than it could have
been.
Additional thanks needs to go to Dr. David Baker and Dr. Amanda Howell and all the
other Ph.D students for their suggestions, questions and for just listening.
I would also like to thank the Griffith University Nathan Campus library staff who allowed
me to borrow books from all over the country to complete this study. Further, to the staff of
the National Library of Scotland, especially Sally Harrower and Moray Hannah Teale, for
granting access to their manuscript archive.
Lastly I would like to thank my family for putting up with me during this period.
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Introduction.
Scottish artist Alasdair Gray is acknowledged for his work as a painter and illustrator,
author and playwright and has received much acclaim for his authorship and design. As
part of his authorship and design, Gray employs typography and illustration within some
of his novels as a material aspect of the narrative1. Gray’s use of typography and
illustration develops from within print cultures, mostly in Western Europe, that broke with
methods of communication, printing standards and linguistic restrictions. This was part of
methods, be it experimental, artistic or cultural, to express written structures and styles
that standard printing and written language could not to modernising audiences. So
Gray’s work and his background provide an opportunity to explore the variety, history and
cultures of printing, especially in the use of typography and illustration, as it relates to an
author's storytelling methods or narration. Ultimately, this thesis addresses and examines
how artistic, common and experimental uses of typography and illustration are developed
as an aspect of narration focused through three novels by Alasdair Gray.
1. Typography is used here to mean the composition of a novel, this includes aspects of
typeface, punctuation and the overall layout of a page.
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