The Whittrick Play of No Nothing: Alan Spence, Edwin Morgan, and Indra’s Net

Authors

  • Monika Kocot University of Łódź

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1515/texmat-2018-0012

Keywords:

Alan Spence, Edwin Morgan, dialogicality, trickster play, Indra’s net

Abstract

The article will attempt a reading of Alan Spence’s play No Nothing (2015). Special attention will be given to the issue of literal and metaphorical space(s), a peculiar, liminal setting of the play, and the ways it determines the flyting between the two characters, two iconic Glaswegians: Edwin Morgan and Jimmy Reid. It seems that in this theatrical space history, politics and poetry inter-are. We may notice how two completely different masters of speech (a poet and a trade union leader) exchange their views on life, how they reflect upon the meaning of their achievements, and how they find a space of convergence in their affirmation of life. As their flyting is “about life, the Universe and everything—from Glasgow to Infinity and beyond,” the article will also address the space of dialogue between Spence’s and Morgan’s poetry. The metaphor of Indra’s net will serve as a useful tool in exploring spatial dimensions of the play and the issue of interconnectedness.

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Author Biography

Monika Kocot, University of Łódź

Monika Kocot, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of British Literature and Culture at the University of Łódź, Poland. Her academic interests include contemporary British and Polish poetry, Native American prose and poetry, literary theory, literary criticism and translation. She is the author of Playing Games of Sense in Edwin Morgan’s Writing (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2016) and co-editor of Języki (pop)kultury w literaturze, mediach i filmie (Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2015). She is a member of the Association for Cultural Studies, the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, and Polish Cognitive Linguistics Association. She is the President of the K. K. Baczynski Literary Society.

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Published

2018-11-23

How to Cite

Kocot, M. (2018). The Whittrick Play of No Nothing: Alan Spence, Edwin Morgan, and Indra’s Net. Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture, (8), 189–211. https://doi.org/10.1515/texmat-2018-0012