Faireachadh is Fèin-sgrìobhadh: Late 20th century and early 21st century Scottish Gaelic autobiographies as loci of emotional practices

This dissertation utilises historian of emotion Monique Scheer’s framework of “emotional practices” to argue that Scottish Gaelic autobiographies written in the late 20th and early 21st century may be read and analysed as loci of various such practices, which include will first be placed in their historical production context and analysed for their component genres. Following a brief discussion of the writers’ personal motivations for writing, it will be shown how the autobiographies act as stages for a social performance whereby writers enact practices of emotional communication and self-regulation in front of their reading audience. Key features in the autobiographies such as humorous anecdotes, excerpts of traditional poetry and what can be called “the Gaelic activist script” will then be analysed for how they enable practices of emotional mobilisation, these practices allowing the mobilisation of emotions like cianalas and the transformation of linguistic shame into pride. Finally, three autobiographies will be analysed to show how influences from some of their authors’ previous record of writing emerge in their autobiographies in the form of particular writerly emotional practices