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And The Judges Said
A major new collection of essays from the Booker Prize-winning author of How late it was, how late.
This first non-fiction publication by James Kelman in ten years is a passionate and wide-ranging volume of essays dealing with matters literary, artistic, political and philosophical. In the essay “And the Judges Said...” Kelman outlines some of the influences that led him to create literary art; from the music he heard as a teenager to American and Russian writers, to the lives of the Impressionists. Elsewhere he looks at the role of elitism in literature, the central importance of Chomsky’s work in 20th century thought, and the work of the Caribbean Artists Movement. At the core of the collection is an extended essay on Franz Kafka.
This first non-fiction publication by James Kelman in ten years is a passionate and wide-ranging volume of essays dealing with matters literary, artistic, political and philosophical. In the essay “And the Judges Said...” Kelman outlines some of the influences that led him to create literary art; from the music he heard as a teenager to American and Russian writers, to the lives of the Impressionists. Elsewhere he looks at the role of elitism in literature, the central importance of Chomsky’s work in 20th century thought, and the work of the Caribbean Artists Movement. At the core of the collection is an extended essay on Franz Kafka.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
44 people want to read
About the author
James Kelman
80 books270 followersKelman says:
My own background is as normal or abnormal as anyone else's. Born and bred in Govan and Drumchapel, inner city tenement to the housing scheme homeland on the outer reaches of the city. Four brothers, my mother a full time parent, my father in the picture framemaking and gilding trade, trying to operate a one man business and I left school at 15 etc. etc. (...) For one reason or another, by the age of 21/22 I decided to write stories. The stories I wanted to write would derive from my own background, my own socio-cultural experience. I wanted to write as one of my own people, I wanted to write and remain a member of my own community.
During the 1970s he published a first collection of short stories. He became involved in Philip Hobsbaum's creative writing group in Glasgow along with Tom Leonard, Alasdair Gray and Liz Lochhead, and his short stories began to appear in magazines. These stories introduced a distinctive style, expressing first person internal monologues in a pared-down prose utilising Glaswegian speech patterns, though avoiding for the most part the quasi-phonetic rendition of Tom Leonard. Kelman's developing style has been influential on the succeeding generation of Scottish novelists, including Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner and Janice Galloway. In 1998, Kelman received the Stakis Prize for "Scottish Writer of the Year" for his collection of short stories 'The Good Times.'
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/au...
My own background is as normal or abnormal as anyone else's. Born and bred in Govan and Drumchapel, inner city tenement to the housing scheme homeland on the outer reaches of the city. Four brothers, my mother a full time parent, my father in the picture framemaking and gilding trade, trying to operate a one man business and I left school at 15 etc. etc. (...) For one reason or another, by the age of 21/22 I decided to write stories. The stories I wanted to write would derive from my own background, my own socio-cultural experience. I wanted to write as one of my own people, I wanted to write and remain a member of my own community.
During the 1970s he published a first collection of short stories. He became involved in Philip Hobsbaum's creative writing group in Glasgow along with Tom Leonard, Alasdair Gray and Liz Lochhead, and his short stories began to appear in magazines. These stories introduced a distinctive style, expressing first person internal monologues in a pared-down prose utilising Glaswegian speech patterns, though avoiding for the most part the quasi-phonetic rendition of Tom Leonard. Kelman's developing style has been influential on the succeeding generation of Scottish novelists, including Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner and Janice Galloway. In 1998, Kelman received the Stakis Prize for "Scottish Writer of the Year" for his collection of short stories 'The Good Times.'
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/au...
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