The Edinburgh Companion to Irvine Welsh

This series offers new insights into Scottish authors, periods and topics drawing on contemporary critical approaches. The subcultural enfant terrible of devolutionary protest and rebellion, Irvine Welsh is now widely acknowledged as the founding father of a whole new tradition in post-devolation Scottish writing. The unprecedented worldwide success of Trainspotting, magnified by Danny Boyle's iconic film adaptation, revolutionised Scottish culture and radically remoulded the country's self-image, Although Welsh's career is very much an ongoing phenomenon, his influence on contemporary Scottish literary history is already indisputable. The Companion provides a thorough, up-to-date and critical evaluation of Welsh's work. New innovative readings address questions of class, subculture and drug use, nationhood, gender and narrative experimentation with reference to broader developments-such as devolution and globalisation---within contemporary Scottish, British and world culture.