Naomi Mitchison’s we have been warned (1935) in post-referendum Scotland

Mcfarlane, A. (2016) Naomi Mitchison’s we have been warned (1935) in post-referendum Scotland. Bottle Imp(19),

Abstract

Mitchison weaves a realist political novel about the lives of two upper-middle class women in 1930s Britain with abstract forays into Scottish folklore as the kelpies follow the sisters, haunting their modern activities. Sometimes the dialogue is stilted, and reads as thinly-veiled politics rather than the high literature found elsewhere in Mitchison’s oeuvre. But, in spite of these shortcomings, the novel has much to offer a reader, and particularly one reading from post-referendum Scotland. Even those who have never read a Mitchison novel before will find much to admire and celebrate in this complicated book. The politics of Mitchison’s novel, which covers the debates between communism and socialism, and between socialism and feminism, often read as relevant to modern debates and Mitchison’s forward-thinking attitude to birth control and abortion might mean that the novel would still be banned if it were published today, particularly in certain American schools.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Naomi Mitchison, Scottish referendum, realism, folklore.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Mcfarlane, Dr Anna
• Authors: Mcfarlane, A.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Journal Name: Bottle Imp
• Publisher: The Association of Scottish Literary Studies
• ISSN: 1754-1514
• ISSN (Online): 1754-1514
• Published Online: 01 June 2016
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 The Author
• First Published: First published in Bottle Imp 19
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with the permission of the Editor