The Role and Status of Women in the Fiction of James Leslie Mitchell/Lewis Grassic Gibbon

Abstract

James Leslie Mitchell's critique of modern society, a society which nurtured aggression, colonialism, religion, racism, and gender bias, was rooted in his background, experience and commitment. Being a revolutionary writer, he held progressive and visionary views, and claimed his works were propaganda, carrying messages to reshape society on ancient values and socialist principles. In his Scottish short stories (written under his pseudonym Lewis Grassie Gibbon) wives and daughters were neglected and ignored, yet forced to do menial tasks on the farm. Women in his English stories and novels were better situated and educated, taking an active role in their own development, showing determination to exercise free will and develop self-awareness, and encouraging others to emancipate themselves. A number of characters accepted atheism and Communism, and believed in Diffusionism wherein people were simple, cooperative, without malice. Undoubtedly, Mitchell/Gibbon's crowning achievement was A Scots Quair. Chris Guthrie embodied the qualities of his earlier heroines. She loved the soil but disliked the workings, preferred the accuracy of English words and deplored the crude talk of the farming communities; yet she was impelled to carry on as a farmer. Chris was married three times, widowed twice, separated once, had one son, and few friends; and lived in a croft, a manse and a boarding house. She abhorred war, favoured birth control, had a glimmering of the Golden Age, and exhibited the attitudes, beliefs and opinions of her creator.