When first published in 1993, Irvine Welsh’s no-holds-barred debut novel, Trainspotting, had a major impact on Scottish culture, due to both its powerful use of demotic narration and to its graphic depictions of the drug-ravaged underbelly of Edinburgh society. Yet despite its grim subject matter, the novel also undoubtedly helped re‑dynamise Scottish literature, and popular culture more broadly, within the often morose context of pre-Devolution Scotland. In the years since, reinforced by stage and movie adaptations, as well as by the production of multiple sequels and prequels both literary and cinematographic, the novel has gained iconic status, becoming seen as a defining element of modern Scottish culture. Yet, 30 years on (at the time of writing), how recognisable is today’s Scotland to the nation depicted in Trainspotting?

Rather than a strict literary focus on the novel’s reception or continued cultural relevance today, this issue of Études écossaises seeks to take the novel’s unique depiction of Scottish society as the starting point for an investigation into the nature of contemporary Scottish life and how it has evolved between 1993 and 2023.

The theme “Scotland 30 years after Trainspotting” invites contributors to reflect on the wider cultural, economic and political transformations which Scotland has undergone since 1993. It encourages discussion about how much, or how little, progress has been made on some of the novel’s central preoccupations such as drug use, street violence, urban squalor, poverty, sectarianism, exile, alcoholism, and HIV / AIDS. It also invites authors to reflect on the wider questions of the diversity, health and dynamism of youth / popular / political culture today in an attempt to query the legacy of Trainspotting’s description of a Scotland locked in stasis, forever stymied by its wilful subservience to England.

This “Scotland 30 years after Trainspotting” issue seeks contributions of 4000–6000 words in English or French on any aspect of contemporary Scottish culture, society and politics with relevance to Welsh’s original depiction of urban Scotland.

Possible topics for consideration include but are not limited to:

• Contemporary manifestations of marginalised youth culture or sub-cultures;

• Changes in Scotland’s ethnic diversity between 1993 and 2023;

• Nationally-connoted manifestations of gender and masculinity;

• Regional and other sub-national identities within Scotland;

• Approaches and attitudes towards drug and alcohol use;

• HIV / AIDs and the promotion of public health in Scotland;

• Poverty and inequality among Scots;

• Knife crime and Scottish policing responses;

• Sectarianism and the influence of Ireland in Scotland’s national imaginary;

• Narratives of national immobilism / pessimism / self-imposed exile;

• Scotland’s urban / rural divide;

• Housing and urban regeneration in Scotland;

• Scotland’s evolving relationship with England / Europe as a land of opportunity for Scots;

• Analysis of literary and cultural works which have drawn influence from Trainspotting and its intermedial adaptations.

Please submit abstracts of up to 250 words by no later than 1 March 2024 to the issue’s editors, David Leishman and Cyril Besson at both their email addresses:

cyril.besson@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
david.leishman@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

We aim to contact prospective authors with feedback no later than 15 March 2024. Final submissions will be due by 31 August 2024.

Space permitting, a number of articles outside the chosen theme may also be considered. Prospective authors should also submit an initial proposal for the date indicated above.