The Literary Politics of Scottish Devolution

A major contribution to our understanding of Scottish cultural politics. In a rich and perceptive study, Scott Hames examines the disjunction between the literary Dream and the political Grind over the past half century. * Colin Kidd, University of St Andrews *
A ground-breaking reassessment … approaching contemporary Scottish culture in radically new, irreverent terms. A necessary weapon for anyone hoping to escape, reinvent, or transform the cultural state of the nation. As such, it stands as one of the most significant Scottish academic outputs of the present century. -- Paul Malgrati, University of Glasgow * Études écossaises *
Brilliant, trenchant, at times disconcerting, Scott Hames’s critical history of devolution offers an exemplary analysis of the interplay between cultural nationalism and practical politics. It’s essential reading for anyone who cares about the current state of Scotland. * Ian Duncan, University of California *
Hames’ study embodies a form of literary criticism that points the way forward for what might be termed "post-Indyref Scot Lit criticism.". -- Arianna Introna, Independent Researcher * IRSS *
With this publication, Scott Hames establishes himself as one of the leaders, together with scholars like Alex Thomson (2007), of a bold academic expedition which seeks to shake the foundations of the linkage between Scottish culture and political nationalism and thus diversify and enrich Scottish Literary and Cultural Studies. -- Paula Argüeso San Martín, Universidad de Oviedo * Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies *
Hames amasses a formidable range of evidence in support of this contention, weaving together historical and literary sources to produce a brilliant book that both gives an original new account of the campaign for devolution and raises difficult but productive questions about demands for greater Scottish autonomy today. -- Ben Jackson is Associate Professor of Modern History at Oxford University * Political Quarterly *
This book is a ground-breaking contribution to the fields of both Scottish literary studies and cultural-political history, demonstrating how language and politics, The Dream and The Grind, both shaped devolution and built the Canongate Wall. -- Sarah Leith, University of St Andrews * Scottish Historical Review *
A compelling account of both the nationalist orientation of many Scottish writers from the 1960s to the 1990s and of the detailed negotiations necessary to make devolution possible in 1997. -- Cairns Craig, University of Aberdeen * Scottish Literary Review *
The Literary Politics Of Scottish Devolution is one of the most original and arresting studies of our political culture written for 10 years. It is a powerful deconstruction of the political myths that made modern Scotland and a compelling reassessment of Holyrood’s — frequently miscast — institutional origins. -- Jamie Maxwell * The Herald *
Hames’s remarkable feat of collecting, sifting, and critiquing the large and disparate body of devolutionary ideas of nationhood remains nonetheless an outstanding critical tour-de-force, and very timely too, as it captures and crystallises an important chapter in the history of Scottish nationalism at the eve of a new historical phase. -- Carla Sassi, University of Verona * The Review of English Studies *