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Abstract
This article examines the treatment of religion, politics and football in Robin Jenkins's 1954 novel, The Thistle and the Grail, which traces the fortunes of a fictional football club as it pursues its grail, namely the Scottish Junior Cup. In addition to exploring how the central themes emerge and are dealt with in the text, the article represents an attempt to position the researcher as an archival resource. To that end, it draws upon personal experiences and recollections together with other written sources that have influenced my reading or, to borrow from Michel de Certeau, my ‘renting’ of the novel. As a consequence, the article seeks to shed light not only on Jenkins's tale but also on the influence of memory on our responses to products of the literary imagination.
Notes
1. Fernando Pessoa, The book of disquiet (London, 2002), p. 94.
2. Robert Fergusson, Braid claith (London, 1857), p. 28.
3. Robin Jenkins, The thistle and the grail (Edinburgh, 1994; orig. pub. 1954).
4. Ken Edwards, Nostalgia for unknown cities (Hastings, 2007), p. 8.
5. Lewis A. Coser, ‘Introduction: Maurice Halbwachs 1877–1945’, in L.A. Coser, ed., Maurice Halbwachs. On collective memory (Chicago, 1992), p. 24.
6. Lynsey Hanley, Estates. An intimate history (London, 2007), p. 4.
7. Jacquelyn Allen Collinson and John Hockey, ‘Autoethnography: Self-indulgence or rigorous methodology’, in M. McNamee, ed., Philosophy and the sciences of exercise, health and sport. Critical perspectives on research methods (London, 2005), p. 189.
8. Ciaran Carson, The star factory (London, 1997).
9. Michel de Certeau, The practice of everyday life (Berkeley, CA, 1984), p. xxi.
10. Jeff Hill, Sport and the literary imagination. Essays in history, literature, and sport (Bern, 2006), p. 46.
11. Jeff Hill, Sport and the literary imagination. Essays in history, literature, and sport (Bern, 2006), p. 46.
12. James D. Young, The rousing of the Scottish working class (London, 1979), p. 12.
13. Ian Jack, Before the oil ran out. Britain 1977–86 (London, 1987), p. 6.
14. Ian Jack, Before the oil ran out. Britain 1977–86 (London, 1987), p. 6.
15. Carl MacDougall, Painting the Forth Bridge. A search for Scottish identity (London, 2001), p. 14.
16. Cairns Craig, The modern Scottish novel: Narrative and the national imagination (Edinburgh, 1999), p. 14.
17. See Hill, Sport and the literary imagination, p. 47.
18. Andreas Huyssen, Present pasts. Urban palimpsests and the politics of memory (Stanford, CA, 2003) p 11.
19. Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, ed. L.A. Coser (Chicago, 1992), p. 51.
20. Nuala C. Johnson, ‘Mapping monuments: The shaping of public space and cultural identities’, Visual Communication, 1 (3) (2002), p. 294.
21. Steven Hoelscher and Derek Alderman, ‘Memory and place: Geographies of a critical relationship’, Social and Cultural Geography, 5 (3) (2004), p. 348.
22. James Donald, Imagining the modern city (Minneapolis, MN, 1999), p. 2.
23. Dunfermline Abbey Kirk Session, A Guide to Dunfermline Abbey (Dunfermline, 1976) p. 12.
24. Andrew Carnegie, My own story (Dunfermline, 1920), p. 3.
25. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 62.
26. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 20.
27. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 49.
28. Christopher Rush, Hellfire and herring. A childhood remembered (London, 2008), p. 75.
29. Christopher Rush, Hellfire and herring. A childhood remembered (London, 2008), p. 76.
30. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 42.
31. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 44.
32. David Daiches, ed. The selected poems of Robert Burns (London, 1979).
33. Hugh Jenkins, ed., Alexander Maclennan of Dunfermline. Memoir and sermons (Leith, 1907), p. xxv.
34. J. Boyd Primmer, ed., Life of Jacob Primmer. Minister of the Church of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1916) p. 78.
35. James MacMillan, ‘Scotland's shame’, in T.M. Devine, ed., Scotland's shame? Bigotry and sectarianism in modern Scotland (Edinburgh, 2000), p. 15.
36. T.M. Devine, ‘Then and now: Catholics in Scottish society, 1950–2000’, in T.M. Devine, ed., Scotland's shame? Bigotry and sectarianism in modern Scotland (Edinburgh, 2000), p. 262.
37. See among others Joseph Bradley, ed., Celtic minded: Essays on football, culture and identity, vol. 1 (Argyll, 2004); Joseph Bradley, ed., Celtic minded: Essays on football, culture and identity, vol. 2 (Argyll, 2006); Ronald Esplin and Graham Walker, eds, It's Rangers for me? New perspectives on a Scottish institution (Ayr, 2007).
38. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 69.
39. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 168.
40. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 168.
41. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, 148.
42. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 141.
43. Primmer, Life of Jacob Primmer, p. 67.
44. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 82.
45. Isobel Murray, ‘Robin Jenkins’, The Scotsman, 1 March 2005, available online at http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/obituaries.cfm?id=225152005&format=print, accessed 3 May 2007.
46. James Clunie, Labour is my faith. The autobiography of a house painter (Dunfermline, 1954), p. 21.
47. James Clunie, Labour is my faith. The autobiography of a house painter (Dunfermline, 1954), p. 22.
48. James Clunie, Labour is my faith. The autobiography of a house painter (Dunfermline, 1954), p. 90.
49. William Gallacher, The rolling of the thunder (London, 1948), p. 150.
50. Stuart Macintyre, Little Moscows. Communism and working-class militancy in inter-war Britain (London, 1980), p. 75.
51. Gordon Brown, ‘Introduction: The socialist challenge’, in G. Brown, ed., The red paper on Scotland (Edinburgh, 1975), p. 19.
52. Hanley, Estates, p. 18.
53. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 81.
54. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 37.
55. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 140.
56. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 225.
57. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 29.
58. Alan Bairner, ‘Football and the idea of Scotland’, in G. Jarvie and G. Walker, eds, Scottish sport in the making of the nation. Ninety-minute patriots (Leicester, 1994), p. 9.
59. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 22.
60. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 110.
61. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 43.
62. Roddy Forsyth, The only game. The Scots and world football (Edinburgh, 1990), pp. 115–16.
63. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 8.
64. See David McGlone and Bill McLure, The juniors – 100 years. A centenary history of Scottish junior football (Edinburgh, 1987).
65. Scottish Junior Cup final official programme, St Andrews United versus Greenock Juniors, 21 May 1960, p. 3.
66. Scottish Junior Cup semi-final official programme, Renfrew versus Newburgh, 28 April 1962, p. 3.
67. Scottish Cup Final official programme, Celtic versus Dunfermline Athletic, 22 April 1961, p. 3.
68. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 71.
69. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 106.
70. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 6.
71. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 56.
72. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 162.
73. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, pp. 173–4.
74. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 278.
75. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 279.
76. T.M. Lennon, ‘Proust and the phenomenology of memory’, Philosophy and Literature, 31 (1) (2007), p. 55.
77. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 23.
78. Jenkins, The thistle and the grail, p. 293.
79. Isobel Murray, ‘Robin Jenkins's Fiction’, Laverock, 2 (1996), available online at http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Scotlit/ASLS/Laverock-Robin_Jenkins.html, accessed 3 May 2007.