Nice piece Mike, and it's really great to have you on Substack. As someone living in Scotland since 1991 I consider myself Scottish, and supported independence. It's been great to see the retreat of cultural cringe, even though the version of Scots identity that culture often celebrates is decidedly middle class, and snobbery about working class or 'ned' culture remains, as Gavin F Brewis and Darren McGarvey have written.
As an artist who doesn't write about Scotland or Scottish identity, who is nonetheless based in Scotland, I often feel alienated by the tendency in the arts to focus solely on identity, nationality and nostalgia for the past. Do you think that Scotland's attempts to move on from cultural cringe risks a too overt focus on Scottish identities which can then be codified, commodified, and which become as oppressive in their narrow definitions as the cringe they replaced?
This is a big risk, and I imagine it might be even more keenly felt as exclusionary by those who live in Scotland, but still honour a different culture or traditions. In reclaiming Scottish identity have we made it too narrow? Might it become as tight and ill-fitting a suit for many Scots as 'British' has become for so many English people?
I'd like to see a Scottish media abd arts culture that celebrates us as a modern, diverse and multicultural society, where nationalism is more informed by civic pride and shared values rather than idealised, nationalist versions of the past and future, with no vision or ability to see the *present*.
Hi Bram, yes these are really live issues you raise. Having to go on and on about Scotland, Scottish identity and so on is deeply dull and reductive, its true. One of the consequences of this is that we lack criticality. Everything is brilliant, everyone has to be congratulated and cherished because everything is brilliant (repeat). This is generally true but particularly true with minority languages within Scotland such as Gaelic or Scots. See Scotts Hames on Dreichism [https://www.academia.edu/40717938/On_Snottery_Weans_Forever_Against_Dreichism] This leads to a stale culture. So do I agree that: “Scotland's attempts to move on from cultural cringe risks a too overt focus on Scottish identities which can then be codified, commodified, and which become as oppressive in their narrow definitions as the cringe they replaced?” Yes I do 100%. But there are problems about representation and recognition that are completely over-looked and degrees of assimilation and erasure and anglicisation that are ignored completely. There are whole traditions of philosophy, education and visual art which have just been discarded. There are whole languages that have been marginalised and criminalised and whole place names and landscapes that have been erased. So the challenge is how do you assert that your culture exists and has a right to exist (in the words of Kelman) while also expanding to a wider vibrant contemporary Scottish culture that includes a multitude of stories and cultures from around the globe and from all those who have settled here? It’s quite a challenge but I don’t think its impossible.
Yeah you've nailed the dilemma there - we're in a cultural interregnum. My prescription would be, reduce the influence of gatekeepers and elites; make cultural institutions engage with class dynamics and social mobility, or lose funding; and finally, artists need to dream bigger, and better represent Scotland's diversity and complexity. I do hope the reigns are seized, and soon. Cheers for the link!
Nice piece Mike, and it's really great to have you on Substack. As someone living in Scotland since 1991 I consider myself Scottish, and supported independence. It's been great to see the retreat of cultural cringe, even though the version of Scots identity that culture often celebrates is decidedly middle class, and snobbery about working class or 'ned' culture remains, as Gavin F Brewis and Darren McGarvey have written.
As an artist who doesn't write about Scotland or Scottish identity, who is nonetheless based in Scotland, I often feel alienated by the tendency in the arts to focus solely on identity, nationality and nostalgia for the past. Do you think that Scotland's attempts to move on from cultural cringe risks a too overt focus on Scottish identities which can then be codified, commodified, and which become as oppressive in their narrow definitions as the cringe they replaced?
This is a big risk, and I imagine it might be even more keenly felt as exclusionary by those who live in Scotland, but still honour a different culture or traditions. In reclaiming Scottish identity have we made it too narrow? Might it become as tight and ill-fitting a suit for many Scots as 'British' has become for so many English people?
I'd like to see a Scottish media abd arts culture that celebrates us as a modern, diverse and multicultural society, where nationalism is more informed by civic pride and shared values rather than idealised, nationalist versions of the past and future, with no vision or ability to see the *present*.
Thanks for giving me lots to think about!
Hi Bram, yes these are really live issues you raise. Having to go on and on about Scotland, Scottish identity and so on is deeply dull and reductive, its true. One of the consequences of this is that we lack criticality. Everything is brilliant, everyone has to be congratulated and cherished because everything is brilliant (repeat). This is generally true but particularly true with minority languages within Scotland such as Gaelic or Scots. See Scotts Hames on Dreichism [https://www.academia.edu/40717938/On_Snottery_Weans_Forever_Against_Dreichism] This leads to a stale culture. So do I agree that: “Scotland's attempts to move on from cultural cringe risks a too overt focus on Scottish identities which can then be codified, commodified, and which become as oppressive in their narrow definitions as the cringe they replaced?” Yes I do 100%. But there are problems about representation and recognition that are completely over-looked and degrees of assimilation and erasure and anglicisation that are ignored completely. There are whole traditions of philosophy, education and visual art which have just been discarded. There are whole languages that have been marginalised and criminalised and whole place names and landscapes that have been erased. So the challenge is how do you assert that your culture exists and has a right to exist (in the words of Kelman) while also expanding to a wider vibrant contemporary Scottish culture that includes a multitude of stories and cultures from around the globe and from all those who have settled here? It’s quite a challenge but I don’t think its impossible.
Yeah you've nailed the dilemma there - we're in a cultural interregnum. My prescription would be, reduce the influence of gatekeepers and elites; make cultural institutions engage with class dynamics and social mobility, or lose funding; and finally, artists need to dream bigger, and better represent Scotland's diversity and complexity. I do hope the reigns are seized, and soon. Cheers for the link!