Arts and Humanities Commons^™

On Vernacular Scottishness And Its Limits: Devolution And The Spectacle Of "Voice", Scott Hames

Studies in Scottish Literature

This essay asks why vernacular cultural expression has been so central to discussion of Scottish national autonomy, traces the literary and political contours of vernacular discourse in the period of Scottish devolution, and concludes with a provisional sketch of three "vernacularities" (democratic, romantic and identitarian) and with reflections on how literary criticism might move beyond the "representative” paradigms of vernacular voice to engage with voice as a principle of agency and action.