Abstract: Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, with its postmodern way of portrayal of the plight of the contemporary Scottish underclass, reveals their manners of individualism and sense of a lost national community. This essay, in terms of Zygmunt Bauman's argument about freedom in the postmodern society of consumerism, together with a view to the influences of Thatcher government's policies on Scotland, explores Welsh's representation of anxiety and identification of the underclass from such perspectives as the characters' marginalized context, their sense of community, and their playful attitude related to freedom with anxiety. It points out that Welsh shows the uncertainty and marginalization of the underclass by narrative approaches, and that his presentation of the anxiety caused by freedom without security profoundly reveals the Scottish's complicated national psyche in a postmodern society.

Key words: Scottish underclass, freedom with anxiety, Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh