Scotland as We Know It

Spanning more than 100 years of cultural history, this book examines the ways that representations of Scottish identity in Scotland and abroad have influenced and responded to the rapid changes of modernity since 1890. Popular representations of Scottish national, ethnic, and cultural identity are in abundance not only in Scotland, but also in the United States, Canada, and throughout the Anglophone settler nations of the world. The author argues that Scotland’s history, traditions, and bloodlines have served as ideological battlegrounds for Scots and non–Scots alike to give voice to fantasies of pre-industrial communities and to the realities of working class life. Linking a range of nationalist renditions of Scottish culture, including poetry, film, folklore studies, clan organizations, and popular fiction, this volume shows the importance of Scotland to our present understanding of class, gender, race, and national identity. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Richard Zumkhawala-Cook teaches literature and writing at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. His work on traveling cultures of all kinds has appeared in ELH and in Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Study. He has written articles on Virginia Woolf, on Hindi song-and-dance sequences, and on Mina Loy.

Richard Zumkhawala-Cook

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 216
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4031-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Preface      1

1. Scottish Nationality and Tartan Culture      5
2. The Homely Kailyard Nation      28
3. Masculinizing the Kailyard The Scottish Renaissance and the New Nation      68
4. The Mark of Global Scottishness Heritage Identity and the Tartan Monster      108
5. Heroes, Thugs and Legends Celluloid Scotland at Century’s End      145

Epilogue      175
Chapter Notes      183
Bibliography      195
Index      203