“Migration, multiculture and mirroring: Gaelic / South Asian outreach in Iain Crichton Smith’s ‘An Duine Dubh’ and ‘The Exiles’“

Stroh S

Zusammenfassung

Among the manifold connections between Scottish Gaelic literature and the wider world, issues of migration have played an important role for centuries; but for a long time, engagement with such issues was focused on Scottish migrations, for instance migrations of Scottish Highlanders to Lowland cities or overseas. During the second half of the twentieth century, however, Gaelic literature also began to respond to the increasing diversification of Scottish society through immigration from outside Europe, for instance from South Asia. At times, this also entails new perspectives on the Gaels' own status within Scotland, which can now be seen as part of a much larger multicultural tapestry. This essay provides a case study of two early short stories on this theme, Iain Crichton Smith's "An Duine Dubh" ("The Black Man") and "The Exiles". As variations on the same theme and plot, both narrate interactions between a diasporic Gael in the Lowlands and a diasporic South Asian pedlar. Despite a clear sense of difference, the stories also develop tentative connections between the protagonists, based on shared predicaments of exile. The essay concludes by comparing these stories to babs nicgriogair's more recent poems "An Gàidheal / The Pakistani" and "An Duine Dubh / The Highlander", which construct similar alignments.