Mediatic and linguistic depictions of society and subcultures: Slang in literature and Scots in Trainspotting

The aim of this thesis will be to describe the multifaceted tool of slang in literature, with a particular focus on the book Trainspotting, penned by Irvine Welsh, and the social and cultural framework around it. Deeply rooted in Scotland in the 1980s, this dark novel allows the reader to come in contact with the harsh reality of the Scottish Drug Crisis and the hidden, alienated world in which drug addicts are relegated. It is exactly by observing how Scots and slang are employed to convey the many nuances of society, that the portrayal of this parallel reality will be discovered. This analysis, however, will be possible by including not only the literary realm, but also reality itself and cinema.