ABSTRACT
Skin Lane is a radical, committed novel. In Skin Lane, Neil Bartlett addresses traumatic issues and auscultates vulnerability, both individual and social. By casting light on historical silences, he produces a shift in visibilities that takes the reader to pre-de-penalisation days in contemporary Britain and follows the fate of Mr F, a furrier whose anonymity is suggested by the way in which other people refer to or address him. This chapter concentrates on construction of victimhood by paying attention to its aesthetic signposting under the umbrella of traumatic realism. It also focuses on the politics of victimhood and the way in which the exposure of icons of vulnerability contributes to politics of literature. By underscoring the democratic potential of victimhood and, beyond, other types of vulnerability, Skin Lane contributes its mite to politics of novel that addresses singularities in their concreteness while providing a commentary of their collective validity.
