Heteroglossia in Greenvoe: teaching a Scottish novel in the context of British Cultural Studies Heteroglossia in Greenvoe: teaching a Scottish novel in the context of British Cultural Studies

• Main Author: Helen Reid Thomas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 2008-04-01
• Series: Ilha do Desterro
• Subjects: English Language; English
• Online Access: http://www.periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/desterro/article/view/8345
• ISSN: 0101-4846; 2175-8026

This paper is concerned with the place of literature in Cultural
 Studies. I intend to discuss a novel by George Mackay Brown, an Orcadian Scottish writer, in the context of a British Cultural Studies course that I have recently been closely involved in. The first part of the article will describe the history and structure of the course in some detail and I will then go on to consider how my experience of teaching Greenvoe1 for one of the course modules opened up for me a new way
 of reading the novel, drawing on Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia. The course is the Advanced Certificate in the Teaching of British Cultural Studies offered by Strathclyde University. Though originally designed for a particular group — university and secondary school teachers in
 Bulgaria—it is not rigidly Bulgaria-specific and is in fact being
 developed at present into a distance learning degree which will
 eventually be widely available. Most of my references will be to the situation in Europe but I hope it will appear that our experience there is of relevance elsewhere also. This paper is concerned with the place of literature in Cultural
 Studies. I intend to discuss a novel by George Mackay Brown, an Orcadian Scottish writer, in the context of a British Cultural Studies course that I have recently been closely involved in. The first part of the article will describe the history and structure of the course in some detail and I will then go on to consider how my experience of teaching Greenvoe1 for one of the course modules opened up for me a new way
 of reading the novel, drawing on Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia. The course is the Advanced Certificate in the Teaching of British Cultural Studies offered by Strathclyde University. Though originally designed for a particular group — university and secondary school teachers in
 Bulgaria—it is not rigidly Bulgaria-specific and is in fact being
 developed at present into a distance learning degree which will
 eventually be widely available. Most of my references will be to the situation in Europe but I hope it will appear that our experience there is of relevance elsewhere also.