Abstract
This book addresses how Scottishness is enacted, and therefore represented and asserted, in a wide number of spaces – including historical manifestos, public and social events, urban architecture, dress, literature, theatre, television and film. The text also discusses Anglo-Scottish relations, language, the Scottish diaspora and concepts of nation, borders and hybridity. This is remarkably ambitious for a 283-page volume, and it is clear that such a wide-ranging scope imposes limitations in its approach. In this respect, probably the main critique of this text from a media perspective is that performances from conventional mass media are not covered with the sufficient scope and depth – for instance, there is no analysis of how Scottishness has been represented by the press. This is particularly lacking given that the role of the press is at least as equally important as that of other examples included in the book; as it is shown by, for instance, the mention of the ‘Gaelic Gestapo’ press coverage – the comparison of Gaelic language promotion in modern Scotland with the activities of the Nazi police force (p. 93). This, of course, is the price to be paid when the aim is to present a broad picture of such a vast topic, as Brown has managed to do here. But it must be said that although these limitations are relevant, they are offset by the insight the author manages to provide into not only culture, language and representation, but also politics and history. Brown’s scholarship and capacity for constructing a coherent narrative out of all this diverse and vast material is unmistakeable.
The main argument developed through Performing Scottishness is that there are many versions of Scottishness, that performing Scottishness is not simply a matter for Scots and – what I find most relevant of all – that all these performances have had a role not only in performing but in determining Scottishness. To support these ideas, the author starts by devoting a number of chapters to the historical background of this performativity. He goes back to the creation of the United Kingdom itself as an agreed union between the Parliaments of Scotland and England in 1706–1707. The differences in the historical background and motives of the two nations have been largely and persistently ignored, especially by the English, which has contributed to the many problems regarding how Scottishness is enacted, and which are identified in the book. As Brown reminds us, ‘Relegated into the background is the fact that, rather than being simply a unified nation-state as might have existed after an act of conquest or, indeed, outright colonialism, the United Kingdom is based on an alliance treaty between two sovereign states’ (p. 37). This includes the fact that the civil institutions of Scotland (such as legal, educational and ecclesiastical systems) have remained different from those of the rest of the United Kingdom. Remarkably, as explained by the author, this reality brought about the development of two forms of Scottish identity – unionist and nationalist – in the 19th century. Unionist Nationalism represented itself as a support of ‘Scottishness-within-Britishness’, a feeling articulated through the contribution of Scots to the ‘greatness of Britain’ and the successes of the imperial project, which helps understand the complexity not only of the Union, but of Scotland itself.
The fact that the English mainstream discourse sees the Act of Union as simply an incorporating act, with England as the incorporating core, and the consequent use of ‘England’ and ‘English’ for ‘Britain’ and ‘British’, reflects an attitude that has pervasively and powerfully shaped the representation of Scottishness over the centuries. This discourse has only been minimised in recent decades, mostly since the enactment of Devolution in the 1990s. Brown considers this attitude mostly a ‘confusion’ and shows how it has led to a number of ‘enactments as fake performance of Scottishness’ (p. 151), a falsehood that is ‘essential to the version of Englishness’ that this discourse promotes (p. 141). However, Brown also makes it clear that this ‘confusion’ is not the whole story, for the situation is far more complex. First, he explains, there is no single Scottish identity, for Scottishness arose from the alliance of different subnational groups, which makes it impossible to single out an ethnic or essentialist identity. Second, the historical stance adopted by Scots throughout history challenges the simple story of English oppression; as Brown notes, ‘Modern recognition of Scottish complicity in imperialism, colonisation and slavery has removed the comforting myth of the innocent victim nation, exploited by the English. Indeed, some historians, now use the terms ‘Anglo-Scottish’ . . . Empire’ (p. 136).
Particularly interesting, at least for this reviewer, is the canonisation process described in chapter 4 for the ‘national bards’ – here ‘national’ meaning again ‘the embodiment of a Britishness which is at core fundamentally English’ (p. 64) – reflected in the nationalist appropriation of Shakespeare, Burns and other authors. This, however, has not prevented a distinctive Scottishness from being developed by a form of Scottish cultural nationalism, be it Unionist Nationalist or focused on the conception of a Scottish identity separate from that of England. Equally stimulating is the description in chapter 5 of the politico-cultural-economic forces that have fuelled and still fuel language policies in Scotland, as well as resistance to them, which have strongly conditioned how Scottishness has been defined, expressed or suppressed. The ‘tartan enactments’ described in chapter 6 are also highly illustrative for a non-British reader, who can easily miss the appropriation involved in the use of tartans and kilts in the British Army’s Scottish and Highland regiments; Brown is an expert on this topic, with work published in 2012 devoted to it. Chapters 8, 9 and 10 about theatre, television and film provide an illuminating summary of how these media have simultaneously contributed to and been impacted by the complexity of the Scottish reality itself, as well as by the pervasive English appropriation of Britishness. Here Brown remembers how the Scots language was for a time considered appropriate only for limited dramatic use – usually for picturesque or comic effect – and how broadcasting was dominated by a Londoncentric view regarding appropriate topics, production and language for decades. To this centralistic cultural approach, the author opposes the linguistic and cultural hybridity of Scottishness identities, a reality that ‘challenges, subverts and resists’ current and potential centralising hegemonic structures. Overall, there is a positive progression in the book’s view which parallels the maturity the author finds in films produced by Scots themselves and despite the dichotomic stereotypes of Scottishness still perpetuated mostly by non-Scottish productions.
Performing Scottishness successfully provides a critical but at the same time constructive and self-critical approach of how a nationalistic cultural appropriation functions – in this case, that of Englishness appropriating Britishness while blurring the Scottishness within – and how, in spite of this, the rich and complex cultural reality suppressed by this appropriation can pervade and flourish in different ways under the right circumstances. This volume could be of great interest to scholars involved in identities and culture, language and communication. And even though Brown makes no mention of the fact that Scotland is not alone in terms of cultural performative obliteration (another minor criticism one could raise), his analysis of the Scottish case could also be useful to readers belonging to other cultural identities subordinated by colonial nationalistic projects in the world, for whom this work will resonate very much. Although some may think this is a timely book in the post-Brexit context, as the author cautions at the end of the volume, one should not confuse the desire among many to reassert an independent Scotland with Scottishness. Whatever else one may think, the book certainly makes for a very interesting reading.