'Outlander' A Study on the Impact and Relevance of Popular Fiction

Traballo Fin de Grao en Lingua e Literatura Inglesas. Curso 2018-2019Originally published in the UK under the title “Cross Stitch, Outlander” (1990), the novel by Diana Gabaldón is a most interesting combination of historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, and gay and lesbian fiction. It tells the story of a young English nurse who, after WWII, decides to go with her husband to the Scottish Highlands. Once there, she suffers a strange experience and finds herself transported in time to Eighteenth-Century patriarchal and violent Scotland. “Outlander” is the first book of a very popular saga that was also versioned as a TV series. It is our intention to study how the first book of the saga deploys a series of topics and characters that set the tone for the rest of the volumes. Furthermore, we intend to demonstrate how this instance of popular literature covers topics particularly relevant from a gendered perspective, such as the condition and rights of women, marriage and sexuality, politics and violence. Finally, we reflect on the particular features of the Saga in general and on the first book in particular which have made them so appealing for twenty-and twenty-first century young adult reader