Myth, history and labour : the construction of identity and the critique of modernity in Alistair MacLeod's No great mischief and Island

This thesis examines the role and construction of identity, through culture and labour, in Alistair MacLeod's novel, No Great Mischief (1999), and short stories collected in Island (2000). I explore both the productive use of tradition and its limits. While MacLeod's work builds a powerful image of tradition and labour, grounded in a profound sense of history, place, and community, it suffers from rigidity, essentializing Cape Breton as well as the urban center. Examining his writing, with close attention to historical and ideological contexts, the thesis explores how MacLeod creates a highly nostalgic and selective historical narrative of the Scottish diaspora, an image of the ideal Cape Bretoner as something paralleling The Folk, and the region itself as a primordial, natural home. Despite the static center-periphery (urban-rural, modern-traditional) divide guiding MacLeod's mythology, moments of genuine challenges to globalization disrupt both his nostalgia and the power of the modern.