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Paper short abstract

The traditional folktale figure of the Scottish selkie is analyzed in contemporary narratives from an ecocritical perspective to consider the hybrid creature as one of connection, not only between sea and land, but also in topicalities of duality and transition including queer identity and grief.

Paper long abstract

Of the many Scottish legends and folktales, the selkie is perhaps the most represented in contemporary narrative. As seal-human hybrids, selkies interact with humans, thus enabling rich narratives to be created and explaining the large amount of selkie stories in contemporary literature. This presentation examines traditional selkie folktales, particularly from the northern Scottish isles, from an environmental humanities perspective in order to link those folktales to contemporary selkie representations which fit into the environmental awareness of new Scottish nature writing (Jamie, Antlers of Water xi). The hybrid selkie creature does not only serve as a connection between sea and land, but also serves as a figure of transition and hybridity in topics such as queer identity and grief. One of the primary texts examined to demonstrate this is The Gloaming (2018) by Kirsty Logan which takes place on an unnamed Scottish island and, with elements of both magical realism and queer identity, explores the flux between the world of human perception and the world beyond it as well as an island space in which “diversity is valued in its own right” (Cuevas-Hewitt, “Sketching Towards an Archpelagic Poetics of Postcolonial Belonging” 246). A further text examined is Orkney (2013) by Amy Sackville, in which the topic of transformation is not limited to the figure of the selkie, but extends to human characters and how humans influence change for the lifeforms and in the environment around them. Ultimately, this presentation links traditional selkie folktale narrative to contemporary renditions in the 21st century.