tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/walter-scott-11399/articlesWalter Scott – The Conversation2020-08-28T12:23:18Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1443212020-08-28T12:23:18Z2020-08-28T12:23:18ZWhen police stop Black men, the effects reach into their homes and families<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355159/original/file-20200827-18-124vkis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=57%2C40%2C5332%2C3555&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black men are stopped by police in disproportionate numbers. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-on-cheering-on-the-protesters-as-they-make-their-way-news-photo/1242649140?adppopup=true">Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While much of the world was sheltering in place in the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans’ undivided attention was focused squarely on Minneapolis, Minnesota, where <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">George Floyd was killed at the hands – and knees – of the police</a>. </p>
<p>Floyd’s murder evoked memories of other murders by the police, including those of Walter Scott, Eric Garner, Philando Castile and Samuel DuBose. Most recently, another unarmed Black man, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/23/kenosha-police-shooting-video-wisconsin/">Jacob Blake, was shot seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin</a>. </p>
<p>We are a <a href="https://sociology.utk.edu/faculty/williams.php">sociologist</a> and a <a href="https://louisville.edu/kent/about/faculty-1/bios/dr.-armon-perry">social worker</a> who study racism, inequality and families, including a focus on Black men and their interactions with law enforcement. Each of these killings serves as confirmation that concerns about those interactions are warranted. </p>
<p>The problem isn’t just that Black men get killed – it’s that Black families are stressed and strained by Black men’s daily encounters with police.</p>
<p>Studies show Black and Hispanic drivers, compared to white drivers, experience a disproportionate number of <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo17322831.html">police stops</a> and that officers show <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/114/25/6521">less respect</a> to Black drivers. </p>
<p>Racial inequality in contact with the police may influence the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/03/10-things-we-know-about-race-and-policing-in-the-u-s/">lack of trust in police</a> among Black Americans. In a recent <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/163523/one-four-young-black-men-say-police-dealings-unfair.aspx">Gallup survey</a>, one in four Black men ages 18 to 34 reported they have been treated unfairly by police within the last month.</p>
<p>In our research on these interactions, we found that they have far-reaching implications for Black families. Law enforcement encounters for Black Americans stretch beyond the streets of our cities and into Black Americans’ homes, where they have a negative effect on <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0002716216633447">family life</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man helping a woman during a street protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The shooting of another Black man, Jacob Blake, by police on August 23 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, led to days of street protests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-helps-a-woman-during-a-clash-with-law-enforcement-in-news-photo/1228208322?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Families suffer</h2>
<p>Studies show that <a href="https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/media/publications/Parents%20Behind%20Bars%20-%20What%20Happens%20to%20Their%20Children%2C%20Murohey%20%26%20Cooper%2C%202015.pdf">one in nine</a> Black children has had a parent in prison. Having an incarcerated parent is <a href="https://sociologicalscience.com/download/volume%201/april/unintended-consequences-effects-of-paternal-incarceration.pdf">associated with a host of social problems</a> for children, including behavioral problems and academic failure. </p>
<p>Former inmates have to navigate many barriers to reintegrate and reconnect with their communities and families. A recent <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jomf.12174">study</a> shows that if fathers were previously incarcerated, they were more likely to report having a strained and unsupportive relationship with their child’s mother, a major factor which negatively impacts fathers’ involvement and harms their connection and relationship with their children. </p>
<p>Although a growing number of studies focus on incarceration and families, there is less empirical research that includes whether police stops experienced by Black fathers affect family life.</p>
<p>In our research, we have found the obstacles that come with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2156869315616258">economic hardship</a>, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/fare.12308">mental illness</a>, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pere.12301">parenting stress</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19371918.2011.629856?casa_token=6lDgv0oMiYkAAAAA%3AT3lOWktmXPdV8SJxDstX6s5jNbVoCPREOnhItbCZiFZW7Klm8k4YsEgWY6gfKYW9XwzJ0IUfju20">incarceration</a> can hurt how well parents work together and the well-being of their children. </p>
<p>We wanted to extend our work by examining whether experiencing a traffic stop for Black fathers affected their relationship with their child’s mother. This is important because the mother-father relationship plays a large role in fathers’ involvement with their children. </p>
<p>In 2019, we co-authored a <a href="https://ucincinnatipress.manifoldapp.org/system/actioncallout/1c94db82-0fd5-4eb8-b8e1-8edc494ce22d/attachment/original-4520e76d4bb77e5bf041670673ac1588.pdf#page=86">study</a> that examined how Black fathers’ contacts with police affects their relationships with their children’s mother. </p>
<p>We analyzed data from the <a href="https://fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/about">Fragile Families and Child Well-being study</a>, a study surveying nearly 5,000 families from urban cities. In conducting our analysis, we focused on 967 Black families that included both fathers’ and mothers’ reports of relationship quality and cooperative parenting.</p>
<p>We found that fathers who reported experiencing a police stop were more likely to report conflict or lack of cooperation in their relationships with their children’s mother. They also reported the same relationship problem if they had been previously incarcerated.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man and a boy sitting on the stairs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355161/original/file-20200827-14-t8yfii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355161/original/file-20200827-14-t8yfii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355161/original/file-20200827-14-t8yfii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355161/original/file-20200827-14-t8yfii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355161/original/file-20200827-14-t8yfii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355161/original/file-20200827-14-t8yfii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355161/original/file-20200827-14-t8yfii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Being stopped by police can hurt a Black man’s relationship with his family.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/father-sitting-with-son-on-the-stairs-royalty-free-image/85756520?adppopup=true">Jose Luis Pelaez/Getty</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Anger and frustration</h2>
<p>Encountering law enforcement can affect family relationships in a number of ways. </p>
<p>In many cities, the <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/how-do-people-high-crime-low-income-communities-view-police">police presence is heaviest in low-income communities where Black men are more likely to live</a>. These communities and their residents are often economically disadvantaged with very few viable prospects for gainful employment. </p>
<p>For the Black fathers in these communities, not being able to fulfill the financial provider role can contribute to relationship tension with their children’s mother. </p>
<p>Family researchers suggest that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167203255984">stressful events</a> such as law enforcement contact may also reduce individuals’ ability to manage family problems. </p>
<p>Family members are <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.48.1.243">inextricably linked</a>, so when Black fathers experience a police stop, it may generate feelings of uncertainty and agitation on the part of the mother and affect the way that she views the relationship, leading to <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo17322831.html">anger and frustration</a> that negatively impacts the relationship.</p>
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<h2>Reinforcing racial oppression</h2>
<p>The disproportionate number of Black men who have contact with law enforcement does not happen within a vacuum. Some <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11524-015-0005-x.pdf">researchers</a> underscore the historical origins of policing and criminalizing of Black males since the Civil War that continues into the present. This includes negative stereotypes of Black men as dangerous, which led to <a href="https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/">more than 150 years of lynchings</a>, <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons/">mass incarceration of Black men</a> and more recent <a href="https://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/08/the-human-impact-report.pdf">stop-and-frisk policies that disproportionately target Blacks</a>. </p>
<p>Given the prevalence of both incarceration and police stops for Black men, law enforcement contact of any kind can become a source of additional stress and may <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo17322831.html">reinforce racial oppression</a>.</p>
<p>As the results of our study indicate, these experiences may carry over into their day-to-day lives, including harming their family relationships.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144321/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the country reels from a series of killings of Black men by the police, two scholars report that their research shows that stops by police of Black men can hurt their families.Deadric T. Williams, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of TennesseeArmon Perry, Professor of Social Work, University of LouisvilleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/910202018-03-16T12:31:02Z2018-03-16T12:31:02ZMost Scottish authors want to break up the Union – why don’t they write about it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210298/original/file-20180314-113458-817acq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Barking. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/black-scotch-terrier-reads-old-books-163255019?src=8p3yLSeW5cSBtDNhrfeyeA-2-81">eAlisa</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Glasgow’s annual book festival, <a href="https://www.ayewrite.com/Pages/default.aspx">Aye Write!</a>, is getting underway. Now in its 11th year, big name writers making appearances include the philosopher AC Grayling, broadcast journalist Robert Peston, crime writer Val McDermid and the mountaineer Chris Bonington. </p>
<p>The name of the festival is a play on “aye right”, a sarcastic Scottish way of saying no. This encapsulates much about the literary outlook in this part of the world – a vernacular defensiveness, a strident overcompensation in the face of imagined English snootiness about Glaswegian speech. A neutral might conclude that the arts in Scotland exist in a state of perma-froth at presumed metropolitan condescension. </p>
<p>If support for Scottish independence can be considered a proxy for such froth, there is certainly much in evidence. At the time of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/scotland-decides/results">2014 independence referendum</a>, the Scottish literary scene was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/19/scottish-independence-literature-nationalism">near unanimously</a> in favour of a Yes vote – nowhere close to the 55-45 split among the wider population. </p>
<p>This normally disputatious crowd felt overwhelmingly that the Union was inimical to Scottish culture and that the literary tradition would best flourish with independence. Little has changed since. Don’t expect much enthusiasm from them about Theresa May’s Britain at this year’s festival. </p>
<p>This mood didn’t begin in 2014, it must be said. In the Thatcher-hating days of 1988, the pro-devolution Campaign for a Scottish Assembly <a href="https://thecrownandtheunicorn.wordpress.com/the-claim-of-right-1989/">gave this</a> starkly black and white assessment:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Union has always been, and remains, a threat to the survival of a distinctive culture in Scotland.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is this right? Most great Scottish writers – Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, for example – thrived within the <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/act-of-union-1707/">Union between</a> Scotland and England. Indeed, most Scots will know much more about their nation’s literature since 1707 than about previous eras. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210299/original/file-20180314-113462-1j499vn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210299/original/file-20180314-113462-1j499vn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210299/original/file-20180314-113462-1j499vn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210299/original/file-20180314-113462-1j499vn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210299/original/file-20180314-113462-1j499vn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210299/original/file-20180314-113462-1j499vn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210299/original/file-20180314-113462-1j499vn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210299/original/file-20180314-113462-1j499vn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bovvered? Robert Louis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/robert-louis-stevenson-vector-illustration-756799360?src=7zAqRQJSVv9GNFEfHCfOHw-1-0">Mario Breda</a></span>
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<p>If the Union was such a problem for Scottish writers, why was it invisible in what they had to say? Why is there no tradition of anti-Unionist invective? Aside from Burns’s well-known <a href="http://www.robertburns.org/works/344.shtml">1791 poem</a> condemning the “parcel o’ rogues” who “bought and sold” Scotland “for English gold”, the Union is at best an absent presence. Even today it receives little attention from Scottish writers – why? </p>
<h2>Before nationalism</h2>
<p>Scottish literature’s relationship with the Union is the focus of a new book of essays which we have edited, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/literature-and-union-9780198736233?cc=us&lang=en&">Literature and Union: Scottish Texts, British Contexts</a>. The most compelling explanation for the lack of literary attention to the Union is that until recently, other questions were more important to Scottish writers, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. </p>
<p>In particular, partisanship and religion long trumped national identity. Indeed, they were deeply interwoven, shaping two distinctive mythical representations of Scotland. </p>
<p>One was Presbyterian and democratic, the myth of Scotland’s godly <a href="http://www.covenanter.org.uk/whowere.html">Covenanting</a> tradition. The other was Episcopalian, royalist and Jacobite, the cause of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Forty-five-Rebellion">Forty-five Rising</a>. Each reached back to earlier periods – the Covenanters claimed to be the true heirs of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/scottish_reformation/">Scottish Reformation</a>; Jacobite sympathisers were entranced by the romantic plight of <a href="http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/Mary-Queen-of-Scots/">Mary, Queen of Scots</a>, imprisoned and finally beheaded by a Protestant queen. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/waverley.html">Walter Scott’s Waverley</a> (1814) might be the classic example of the Jacobite representation, recounting many of the events of 1745 from a perspective very sympathetic to the Highland rebels. It was followed by a long stream of Jacobite literature – and Scott himself returned to the theme both in <a href="https://theconversation.com/two-centuries-before-marvel-and-star-wars-walter-scotts-rob-roy-was-the-first-modern-anti-hero-89421">Rob Roy</a> (1817) and <a href="http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/redgaun.html">Redgauntlet</a> (1824). </p>
<p>Depictions of Covenanters are variously positive and negative in Scottish literature. Many 19th-century novels present them as heroes for their democratic outlook, with their roots in the culture of ordinary folk. John Galt’s <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30749">Ringan Gilhaize</a> (1823) is one example, telling the story of three generations of rural people.</p>
<p>Other writers are repelled by the illiberal and philistine totalitarianism they discern in the tradition. The most notorious example is James Hogg’s 1824 satire, <a href="https://theconversation.com/confessions-of-a-justified-sinner-captures-the-modern-condition-perfectly-46298">The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner</a>, whose lead character considers that having attained his place among God’s saved, he has carte blanche to commit terrible crimes. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210300/original/file-20180314-113472-1xsj4pl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210300/original/file-20180314-113472-1xsj4pl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210300/original/file-20180314-113472-1xsj4pl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210300/original/file-20180314-113472-1xsj4pl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210300/original/file-20180314-113472-1xsj4pl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210300/original/file-20180314-113472-1xsj4pl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210300/original/file-20180314-113472-1xsj4pl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210300/original/file-20180314-113472-1xsj4pl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hugh McDiarmid.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nationalism took hold on the Scottish literary scene over the course of the 20th century, primarily under the enduring influence of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LeCqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=Hugh+Macdiarmid+Reformation&source=bl&ots=LPaq_MR_uw&sig=Sq2__1BhbFFocYPjpPXjGayITZk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK0fSdj8nZAhUYM8AKHYO4AkQQ6AEIOzAC">Hugh MacDiarmid</a>. Even so, he and others held to a view that Scotland’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/scottish_reformation/">Reformation</a> had been just as bad, if not worse, than the Union. For McDiarmid, it was the founding of the Protestant church – and not the merger with England – that was the beginning of the repression of Scottish folk and their authentic culture. </p>
<p>Novels and poems about Covenanting and Jacobitism still abound today. James Robertson, for example, who is <a href="https://www.ayewrite.com/Pages/Whats-On.aspx#/event/de1f87b9-938b-42b2-ab83-a85d00ea01ca">appearing</a> at this year’s Aye Write!, makes sport with Covenanting fanaticism in <a href="https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9781841151892/the-fanatic">The Fanatic</a> (2000) and <a href="http://www.scotgeog.com">The Testament of Gideon Mack</a> (2006). Robertson has also written the only novel that has brought Scottish nationhood into focus in recent years: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/aug/15/and-land-lay-still-robertson">And the Land Lay Still</a> (2010). More generally, the Union remains a submerged and largely invisible feature of the Scottish literary landscape.</p>
<h2>Stark contrasts</h2>
<p>While it is true that the Union never enjoyed much of a fanfare among Scottish writers of previous generations, it was rarely if ever the focus of their work. Several even made conspicuous contributions to British – indeed to English – national identities. How else do we account for the fact that the figure of John Bull was the coinage of a Scottish doctor, <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com/view/10.1093/actrade/9780198127192.book.1/actrade-9780198127192-book-1">John Arbuthnot</a>, and Rule, Britannia the work of the Scottish poet, <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45404/rule-britannia">James Thomson</a>? </p>
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<p>It is hard to imagine a Scottish writer expressing a similar sentiment in their work today. Yet the reluctance to write about independence has continued, despite writers’ enthusiasm for the cause. It is as if the literary tradition weighs heavy on their shoulders and encourages them to look elsewhere for inspiration. </p>
<p>In sum, the relationship between Scottish literature and the Union turns out to be much more tangled, ironic and surprising than might have been expected. Today’s nationalists do indeed dominate Scotland’s literary scene, and will undoubtedly be in force at Aye Write!, but they do not have all the best tunes. It will be fascinating to see to what extent this changes in future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91020/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin Kidd receives funding from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. He is affiliated with These Islands and Scotland in Union. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerard Carruthers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The politics may have changed over the years, but the literary obsessions of ‘northern Britain’ seem hard to shake.Colin Kidd, Professor of History, University of St AndrewsGerard Carruthers, Francis Hutcheson Professor of Scottish Literature, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/789682017-06-07T13:55:46Z2017-06-07T13:55:46ZRemembering the lost father of American science fiction – and his Scottish roots<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172542/original/file-20170606-3668-14b941a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Happy birthday, RDM. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scotland is rarely slow to recognise its literary heroes, from building monuments to <a href="https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/directory_record/5052/scott_monument">Walter Scott</a> to crafting a tourist industry around <a href="https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/the-burns-heritage-trail-p331221">Robert Burns</a>. However, one major writer remains unclaimed for the canon 130 years after his literary career began.</p>
<p>Robert Duncan Milne was an astonishingly prescient pioneer of science fiction who published over 60 stories in the late 19th century. Yet hardly anyone knows his name or how he influenced other leading lights in the early days of the genre. </p>
<p>HG Wells’s <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/55966/the-time-machine/">The Time Machine (1895)</a> is famously associated with visualising time travel as if watching a series of sped-up moving photographic images, for example, firing the imaginations of the earliest film makers. Yet Milne published a whole string of stories about fantastic technologies for visual time-travelling years earlier. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172540/original/file-20170606-3662-13a3jlg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172540/original/file-20170606-3662-13a3jlg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172540/original/file-20170606-3662-13a3jlg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172540/original/file-20170606-3662-13a3jlg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172540/original/file-20170606-3662-13a3jlg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172540/original/file-20170606-3662-13a3jlg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172540/original/file-20170606-3662-13a3jlg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172540/original/file-20170606-3662-13a3jlg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Milne anthology.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.lwcurrey.com/pages/books/152913/sam-moskowitz-robert-duncan-milne/science-fiction-in-old-san-francisco-history-of-the-movement-from-1854-to-1890-and-into-the-sun-other">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He also foresaw television, remote surveillance, mobile phones and worldwide satellite communications – not to mention climate change, scientific terrorism and drone warfare, cryogenics and molecular re-engineering of the body. </p>
<p>The American science fiction historian Sam Moskowitz, who published the <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/author/moskowitz-sam-and-robert-duncan-milne/">only posthumous anthology</a> of Milne’s work in 1980, credited him as being, in effect, the first full-time sci-fi writer in America. </p>
<h2>Milne reaches America</h2>
<p>Milne was born in the small Fife town of Cupar in 1844, the son of a Kirk minister. He was a gifted classics scholar who nevertheless left Oxford without graduating in the 1860s before mysteriously reappearing in California, then the literal Wild West of world-changing new ideas and inventions. </p>
<p>After Jack London-esque stints as an itinerant shepherd, cook and labourer, the aspiring inventor and writer resurfaced at San Francisco’s 1874 Mechanics’ Fair, demonstrating a rotary engine that he had patented. Thenceforth, his scientific articles and fiction appeared regularly in San Francisco’s <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/96644495/">Argonaut magazine</a> until the 1890s. </p>
<p>The Milne story that presaged HG Wells’ visualisation of time travel is one of his most remarkable, The Palaeoscopic Camera: How Dead Walls Reveal the Scenes and Secrets of the Past (1881). It is a fictional take on one of San Francisco’s most famous citizens, the pioneering photographer <a href="http://www.eadweardmuybridge.co.uk">Eadweard Muybridge</a>. Muybridge’s animal locomotion studies used the camera as a machine to see movements too fast for the naked eye and reanimated them by projection, inspiring the <a href="http://www.earlycinema.com/technology/cinematographe.html">invention of the cinematograph</a> in 1895 by the Lumières. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172544/original/file-20170606-3707-1flj7s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172544/original/file-20170606-3707-1flj7s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172544/original/file-20170606-3707-1flj7s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172544/original/file-20170606-3707-1flj7s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172544/original/file-20170606-3707-1flj7s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172544/original/file-20170606-3707-1flj7s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172544/original/file-20170606-3707-1flj7s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172544/original/file-20170606-3707-1flj7s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muybridge motion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Horse_in_Motion.jpg#/media/File:The_Horse_in_Motion.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>Milne seized the idea that photography can reveal things in time and reimagined Muybridge’s process as a fantastic technology that can unearth events from the remote past and replay them as moving images in the present. Thus he anticipated cinema as a medium for visual time travelling years before Wells or the Lumières. As he wrote in the story:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Scene succeeded scene with such exact and wondrous alternation of form and subject that my attention was spell-bound, and I scarcely knew whether I was gazing at reality or not. Color, form, expression of countenance, habitude of dress, demeanor, gesture – all were there, limned to the life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Milne was read widely in the US and syndicated round the world – though rarely if ever in his native Scotland, alas. His cryogenics story, Ten Thousand Years in Ice, in which a survivor from an ancient advanced civilisation is revived in the present, unintentionally became one of science fiction’s great literary hoaxes. Because of the documentary plausibility which became Milne’s trademark style, readers of a Hungarian newspaper mistook the translation for a factual report. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172743/original/file-20170607-29597-1syudn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172743/original/file-20170607-29597-1syudn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172743/original/file-20170607-29597-1syudn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172743/original/file-20170607-29597-1syudn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172743/original/file-20170607-29597-1syudn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172743/original/file-20170607-29597-1syudn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172743/original/file-20170607-29597-1syudn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172743/original/file-20170607-29597-1syudn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Moskowitz illustration for Ten Thousand Years in Ice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-opinion-polls-without-being-led-up-the-garden-path-78846">Sam Moskowitz</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>This anticipated the “realism of the fantastic” associated with The War of the Worlds. The 1938 radio adaptation <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15470903">notoriously panicked</a> listeners in America by transferring such techniques into broadcast media. </p>
<h2>Future vision</h2>
<p>Though generally enthralled by scientific wonders, Milne’s narrators, like Wells’, are not simply gung-ho optimists about technological progress. They often sound cautionary notes about the double-edged potential of new inventions or processes to disrupt human life or be turned to sinister ends.</p>
<p>In The Eidoloscope, for example, Milne discusses the possibility of being able to replay any action or event from the past on a kind of monitor. It raises concerns about universal surveillance and an end to privacy altogether. </p>
<p>And in A Question of Reciprocity, he proposes being able to steer unmanned aircraft by remote control. He signals how destructive this might be in the wrong hands when a helicopter armed with bombs is used to blackmail the citizens of San Francisco.</p>
<p>Indeed through his writing, Milne created countless imaginary technologies. Some were close to feasibility at the time, but others were way ahead. These ideas, taken on by scientists, engineers and technologists, have fundamentally shaped the networked media-driven world we now live in.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173262/original/file-20170610-4800-mywxqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173262/original/file-20170610-4800-mywxqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173262/original/file-20170610-4800-mywxqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173262/original/file-20170610-4800-mywxqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173262/original/file-20170610-4800-mywxqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173262/original/file-20170610-4800-mywxqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173262/original/file-20170610-4800-mywxqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173262/original/file-20170610-4800-mywxqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Milne cartoon by Elliot Balson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elliot Balson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ironically, scientific modernity cut Milne’s own extraordinary career short. A high-functioning alcoholic, his life was terminated on December 15 1899 when he stumbled in front of one of San Francisco’s new electric street cars. Thereafter his reputation was virtually buried with him. He had never gathered his work together into a published volume in his lifetime and no one thought to do so until Moskowitz decades later.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I at the University of Dundee are now teaching Milne on our MLitt Science Fiction course and developing a major research project about him. This will include a new critical anthology, a graphic novel about his life and career, and a comic book retelling his stories in visual form. We are indebted for Milne’s rediscovery to Barry Sullivan, a postgraduate student.</p>
<p>It is not going too far to say Milne is the missing link between Scotland and the origins of modern science fiction. June 7 was his birthday. I believe the time has come to finally honour this transatlantic science fiction prophet in his homeland. </p>
<p>A plaque in Cupar would be a great start, but more importantly this writer deserves to be much more widely read. Scotland should be looking at ways of giving him the recognition he deserves. Milne should be one of the first dozen or so writers that we think of when we consider Scotland’s literary heritage. Until then, his country is doing itself a great disservice – not to mention the man himself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78968/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Robert Duncan Milne made HG Wells struggle to keep up.Keith Williams, Senior Lecturer in English, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/680292016-11-03T00:17:50Z2016-11-03T00:17:50ZDylann Roof, Michael Slager on trial: Five essential reads on Charleston<p><em>Editor’s note: The following is a roundup of archival stories related to race and violence.</em></p>
<p>Two white men are going on trial this month for shootings that happened in Charleston, South Carolina during 2015.</p>
<p>Michael Slager, a white former police officer, faces a murder charge for killing 50-year-old Walter Scott, a black man who was unarmed. Slager fired eight shots as Scott ran away.</p>
<p>Dylann Roof, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, faces 33 federal charges, including a federal hate crime for massacring nine black churchgoers at an AME church. He is eligible for the death penalty.</p>
<p>As the trials bring back memories of those horrifying events, we look at highlights from The Conversation’s archive.</p>
<h2>A dark past, present</h2>
<p>Parallels between the two shootings and South Carolina’s history of racial violence quickly rose to the surface.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-massacre-at-mother-emanuel-the-past-still-lives-with-us-43597">The past is still with us</a>, writes A.D. Carson, a Ph.D. student at Clemson University.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“In 1876, State Senator Simon Coker – who was in Charleston investigating violence against blacks – was seized by a mob and shot in the head as he kneeled in a last prayer. One of the perpetrators of that atrocious event was none other than the eventual governor and senator, Benjamin Tillman, who made his disdain for black people known…”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A statue of Tillman still stands on the grounds of the South Carolina State House in Columbia. Remembering, not honoring, this dark past is important to stop the past from repeating itself, Carson writes.</p>
<h2>A place of hate, hope</h2>
<p>It also was <a href="https://theconversation.com/emanuel-ame-has-long-been-a-target-for-hate-as-well-as-place-of-hope-43601">not the first time</a> the Emanuel AME church was the target of racial violence, writes Sandra Barnes, a religion scholar at Vanderbilt University. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Here are just a few examples of the assaults that took place on Emanuel AME and other churches over the years: white raids; black church services being made illegal in Charleston between 1834 and 1865; the burning of Emanuel AME after the slave rebellion lead by Denmark Vessey; the police harassment of civil rights protesters at Emanuel AME in the 1960s.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Roof’s attack was one of many – part of systemic violence embedded in the state’s history.</p>
<h2>All oppression is connected</h2>
<p>Before opening fire, Roof said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not only are his words deeply racist, they are saturated with a form of sexism that reaches back to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lethal-gentleman-the-benevolent-sexism-behind-dylann-roofs-racism-43534">colonial mentality of entitlement</a>, writes Lisa Wade, a sociologist at Occidental College.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It’s most clearly articulated in the history of lynching, in which black men were violently murdered routinely by white mobs using the excuse that they had raped a white woman. Roof is the modern equivalent of this white mob.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A vulnerable father</h2>
<p>South Carolina also has struggled with an issue related to Walter Scott’s death – child support. Reports from the Scott case suggest he ran from Officer Slager because he was afraid of being jailed for not paying child support.</p>
<p>In 2011, a case went to the Supreme Court in which a South Carolina man served one year in prison when he failed to pay child support. Incarcerating poor men often makes <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crisis-revealed-by-the-killing-of-walter-scott-how-were-failing-vulnerable-fathers-40610">a difficult situation much worse</a>, writes Ronald Mincy, professor of Social Policy at Columbia University.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The fear of incarceration bears indirect responsibility for Scott’s death. And Walter Scott was not alone in feeling this fear. At present, there are approximately 9 million nonresident fathers (that is to say, fathers who do not live in the same household as their child or children) of whom over half are economically vulnerable.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A movement grows</h2>
<p>After a video of Scott’s death was released, members of the #BlackLivesMatter movement called for more citizen oversight of policing. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ferguson-and-blacklivesmatter-taught-us-not-to-look-away-45815">This call to bear witness</a> has served as a form of resistance to oppression since the Jim Crow era, writes Nicholas Mirzoeff, professor at New York University.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The #BlackLivesMatter movement that began after the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012 insists not just that we sneak a sidelong glance, but that we pay full attention to the repeated deaths of African Americans. This looking is not a gaze, because it does not claim power over the victims. Rather, it creates the digital form of what Martin Luther King Jr called ‘the beloved community.’”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68029/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Two major trials in the killings of black victims in South Carolina start this week. Learn about the state’s past and present struggle with racial violence in this roundup.Danielle Douez, Associate Editor, Politics + SocietyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/667212016-10-12T15:03:14Z2016-10-12T15:03:14ZThe story behind Scotland’s art is not being told – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141438/original/image-20161012-13467-1btxwjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Peter Graham: Wandering Shadows (1878). </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Graham_-_Wandering_Shadows_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Catalans tell their story to the world at the <a href="http://elbornculturaimemoria.barcelona.cat/en/the-center/">El Born</a> Cultural and Memorial Centre in Barcelona. It tells of how the Bourbon Philip V defeated them in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-the-Spanish-Succession">Spanish War of Succession</a> in 1714. He then abolished Catalan constitutions, parliament and rights; suppressed their universities; and ended administrative use of the language. He demolished nearly a fifth of Barcelona – including the site of the centre. </p>
<p>This conscious destruction of identity has been bitterly resented by the people ever since. El Born condemns the past and celebrates modern Catalan culture as a continuity with the old times before the war. This imbues everything at El Born from the text on the entrance panel that says “nothing was ever the same” after the fall of Barcelona, to the restaurant menu that offers Philip V’s entrails. </p>
<p>Everyone in Catalonia buys into this narrative, regardless of their support for independence. The people know who they are, what they lost, what they want back. </p>
<p>In Edinburgh, meanwhile, the National Gallery of Scotland is <a href="http://www.parliament.scot/ResearchBriefingsAndFactsheets/S4/SB_15-62_National_Galleries_of_Scotland_Bill.pdf">gearing up</a> for a major expansion. It is rebuilding a “Scottish wing” and its collection of Scottish art is currently not on display. Will there be a similar approach to El Born? I very much doubt it. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inside El Born: ruins of old Barcelona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ckorange/15574971028/in/photolist-pJiNgf-gipmFY-eGanZX-g1Ndms-g1MK4b-g1MJxj-g1MmXr-g1NEBJ-fN3EHB-fNknwm-fNMsAo-fNkuPL-fN3Mep-fNPzF1-fNkfBw-fNx1ma-g1MDv4-jwodeV-jHLVUv-g1MG5q-X9A2r-55mKtj-BfTDqF-fNkfu5-fNkfco-fNPzhy-fNkmZs-fNkneq-fNuTye-fN3Dt2-fN3F2g-fNkmJQ-fNx19M-eczwTV-fNkuzS-fN3LGp-fNPzyE-fNkeWU-fNPz5J-fNkn7u-fNMsq1-6b6ku9-w35VUY-fNuSS6-fUb6Nc-Jd3bxb-pvxGwd-7jMSXn-g1MnEs-N9noA">Luca Cerabona</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not coming soon</h2>
<p>Were Scotland’s national gallery to follow that Catalan model, you might see a <a href="http://www.pictishstones.org.uk">Pictish standing stone</a> by the entrance next to Kate Whiteford’s <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/home/kate-whiteford-land-drawings-installations-excavations/1996069.article">drawings</a> of Calton Hill in Edinburgh. An opening panel might read:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Scotland was for centuries a small but successful independent European country. Like Holland it was a Calvinist trading nation. Its art too had Low Countries parallels. </p>
<p>But following disastrous overseas speculation, Scotland was refused financial support and some proposed political union with England. Many were opposed but the vote was corrupt. The nobles sold Scotland for English gold and nothing was ever the same again.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">William Aikman self portrait.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Aikman_(painter)#/media/File:William_Aikman.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Visitors might walk through to paintings to illustrate <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/j/artist/george-jamesone/object/george-jamesone-1589-1590-1644-portrait-painter-self-portrait-pg-2361">George Jamesone’s</a> primacy in the 16th/17th century, alongside his contemporary <a href="http://artuk.org/discover/artists/wright-john-michael-16171694">John Michael Wright</a>. A portrait comparison of <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/m/artist/sir-john-baptiste-de-medina/object/sir-john-baptiste-de-medina-1659-1710-portrait-painter-self-portrait-pg-1555">John de Medina</a> and <a href="https://www.artuk.org/discover/artists/aikman-william-16821731">William Aikman</a> might explain that while Medina could not keep up with demand in culturally vibrant pre-<a href="http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/act-of-union-1707/">Union</a> Scotland, Aikman had to make his living in London a few years later because Scotland had been stripped of patronage. </p>
<p>The tale could continue with <a href="http://artuk.org/discover/artists/ramsay-allan-17131784">Allan Ramsay</a> the primary portrait painter of Europe in the 18th century, lured to the royal court in London despite an upbringing steeped in Scottish cultural identity; and <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/sir-henry-raeburn">Henry Raeburn</a>, 18th/19th century chronicler of a Scottish egalitarianism that contrasts with class-ridden England. </p>
<p>There would be <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/w/artist/sir-david-wilkie/object/sir-david-wilkie-1785-1841-artist-self-portrait-pg-573">David Wilkie</a>, the inventor of modern genre painting; <a href="http://www.scottish-places.info/people/famousfirst1716.html">GP Chalmers</a> and <a href="http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp07468/sir-george-reid">George Reid</a>, who brought modern continental art to Scotland at a time when nationalist England ignored it. Then <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/g/artist/sir-james-guthrie">James Guthrie</a>, <a href="http://artuk.org/discover/artists/lavery-john-18561941">John Lavery</a> and the French influence. The <a href="http://www.scottishcolourists.co.uk/history-of-the-movement/">Colourists</a> and Modernism. Nothing in the gallery would ever mention England except to point out Scotland’s artistic independence and/or superiority. </p>
<h2>Wha’s like us?</h2>
<p>It is not the artists that will probably be missing from this display but the narrative. The gallery is unlikely to emphasise that the pre-Union paintings were created in an independent country; that the 18th century artists were increasingly seeking to fit British sensibilities; that the Highland romance in many later works came out of a colonised state desperately trying to find its own identity. And make no mistake: not acknowledging these things is no less political than the alternative.</p>
<p>The problem is that Scots do not have a single shared identity like the Catalans, viewing the past with the same emotion and seeing a continuity with the present. Scotland’s modern identity was not born in outside oppression but through a vote <a href="http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-Act-of-Union/">of sorts</a>. Post-Union Scotland was not immediately a victim of oppression, murder and discrimination so there was no shared “enemy”. </p>
<p>Scots often find it faintly awkward that their heroic achievements relate to constant war with England, either because they feel happily part of Britain or are repeatedly assured by Scottish nationalist politicians that independence is not anti-English. It is complex where Catalan nationalism can be anti-Spanish plain and simple. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Highland Landscape (1835).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scotland’s nearest thing to a unifying identity is Highlandism: the romantic ideal of the noble clansman and his spectacular surroundings that was championed above all by <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/6ybQ7x2H4s0LF0ZlL8jKj0/walter-scott">Walter Scott</a> – the Horatio McCulloch landscape opposite is an example of the art that followed. </p>
<p>But to most people nowadays Highlandism is a manufactured monster of tartan gonks, Nessie, Harry Lauder and kitsch which is no less uncomfortable. Many Scots seem to prefer insisting they are a cool mid-atlantic internationalist people and nothing else. </p>
<p>My own view is that Scots should not throw away the past, no matter how embarrassing or awkward. Scotland invented Highlandism <a href="http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/eclipse-of-scottish-culture/author/beveridge-and-turnbull/">because</a> its own culture had been ignored by London and <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/ian-bradley/britishness-scottish-invention">suppressed by</a> many leading Scots in the years after Union. </p>
<p>Rejecting it is siding with Irvine Welsh’s Rent Boy in Trainspotting saying “it’s shite being Scottish”. Behind his nihilistic attack on Scotland as the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-F5dmRV5Bc">Land of the Mountain and the Flood</a>” is really an impotent anger at having nothing to put in its place. Accept it and Scotland has no past of its own, only present. Yet Scotland’s identity is not nothing. It is Walter Scott, Jacobites, Presbyterians, Dalriada, Gaels, Samuel Smiles, Catholicism, Glencoe, internationalism, Clearances, Enlightenment, Doric and much more. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/29-LRuuqFT0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Some might argue your visual artistic culture doesn’t need to tell your national story. Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, the writer and politician, famously <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/209/614.html">said</a> in 1703 that “if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation”. He appears to be suggesting culture can survive and define a people without statehood. </p>
<p>Madrid’s willingness to tolerate El Born’s violently anti-Spanish rhetoric certainly supports such a reading. “Sing all the ballads you like, display all the paintings you want”, Madrid is saying to the Catalans, “just don’t vote”. </p>
<p>Ultimately I reject Madrid’s implication that identity is powerless if expressed only through culture. I think what Fletcher is actually saying is that culture is in effect a resistance movement. It is not vulnerable to short term changes in law or lawmakers. It is who we were, who we are and what we will ultimately be. How we present our culture, how we construct our resistance, is very important indeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66721/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Morrison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Catalans have no trouble telling their story of oppression through culture. The Scots find it trickier.John Morrison, Head of School, Divinity, History and Philosophy, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/639782016-08-22T15:35:24Z2016-08-22T15:35:24ZScottish identity is moving too fast to keep up, as Edinburgh play shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134973/original/image-20160822-18734-nts5gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What's it all about, wonders Sandy Grierson.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mihaela Bodlovic </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What does the Scottish national identity amount to in 2016? That’s the central question in one of the most hotly anticipated shows at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, <a href="http://www.eif.co.uk/2016/light">Anything That Gives Off Light</a>. A collaboration between the Brooklyn-based <a href="http://theteamplays.org/about/about-the-company/">TEAM ensemble</a> and the National Theatre of Scotland, the play was originally intended to coincide with the 2014 independence referendum. With a second referendum now <a href="https://theconversation.com/scottish-independence-back-in-play-after-brexit-shock-with-a-note-of-caution-61457">looking likely</a> after the Brexit vote in June, it feels just as timely. </p>
<p>The plot focuses on three main characters with different perspectives on Scottish identity: Brian (Brian Ferguson), a Glaswegian living in London who has returned home to find a burial place for his granny’s ashes; Red (Jessica Almasy), a Virginian holidaying in Scotland to try and understand her estranged husband; and Iain (Sandy Grierson), Brian’s childhood friend who stayed with his mammy in Glasgow. </p>
<p>It opens with Brian shuffling around the stage, trying and failing to shake off London and reconnect with Scotland by walking in a “Scottish way”. It concludes with Iain driving around Glasgow, finding his Scottishness in everything from a group of Slovaks singing in three-part harmony to a girl outside a Sikh gurdwara clapping to the rhythm of an Orange March. </p>
<p>In between is a bawdy, mythical, emotional romp across Scottish and Appalachian landscapes on an introspective quest for self and Scottishness. It tells the story of the shift from a rural-based, tightly-knit Scottishness to a more inclusive, urban one which has more experience of dealing with migrants and outsiders. </p>
<p>This sense of a Scotland emerging from its dark imperial past reminded me of the sentiment in Hamish Henderson’s <a href="http://tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/98252/2">Freedom Come-All-Ye</a>, sometimes described as an alternative national anthem. Yet it’s Iain, the Scot within the country, for whom this shift is more apparent than for Brian, the one who has moved away.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/89YOvmcRdf0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>As the characters journey towards the Highlands, they travel not only in space but in time, and their different homelands merge. The story of an old lady about to be evicted as part of the 18th and 19th-century <a href="http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scotlandshistory/jacobitesenlightenmentclearances/clearances/">clearances</a> of tenant crofters by Highland aristocrats blends into the story of a young lady whose home is threatened by environmental disaster in <a href="https://www.namb.net/send-relief/arm/appalachian-culture">Appalachia</a> in the eastern US, many of whose original settlers came from Scotland. </p>
<p>Brian, who works in London property, first becomes the landowner evicting the tenants during the clearances, then turns into a Scottish emigrant “made good” in latterday Appalachia and responsible for pushing people off their land. It was a perceptive comment on the circularity of life and the way different generations deal with the same issues again and again. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134976/original/image-20160822-18711-k8k5wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134976/original/image-20160822-18711-k8k5wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134976/original/image-20160822-18711-k8k5wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134976/original/image-20160822-18711-k8k5wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134976/original/image-20160822-18711-k8k5wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134976/original/image-20160822-18711-k8k5wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134976/original/image-20160822-18711-k8k5wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134976/original/image-20160822-18711-k8k5wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jessica Almasy as American tourist Red.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mihaela Bodlovic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Stories and heritage</h2>
<p>The play explores how stories are central to our sense of identity. We all have stories of family, community, nationhood and past successes and failures. We carry them in our journey through life and have to negotiate and recreate them during crises. As part of Scotland’s story, the play references <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wallace_william.shtml">William Wallace</a>, <a href="http://www.history.co.uk/biographies/bonnie-prince-charlie">Bonnie Prince Charlie</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-death-of-margaret-thatcher-and-the-legacy-of-thatcherism-13324">Margaret Thatcher</a>. Meanwhile Red sings of putting stories in a bag around her neck that eventually merge into a single story that becomes too heavy to carry. </p>
<p>The three characters in the play hotly debate themes of Scottish heritage, putting the record straight about some things along the way. For example the common understanding of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/culloden-why-truth-about-battle-for-britain-lay-hidden-for-three-centuries-62398">battle of Culloden</a> of 1746 as simply a massacre of the Scots by the English – making it a useful vehicle for Scottish nationalism – is dismissed as ignoring how Scots colluded against one another at the time. </p>
<p>The play also emphasises the impact of the <a href="http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scottishenlightenment/">Scottish Enlightenment</a> on American political culture, while <a href="https://theconversation.com/walter-scott-was-no-bland-tartan-romantic-he-was-dumbed-down-28933">Walter Scott’s</a> <a href="http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/waverley.html">Waverley</a> novels are credited with inspiring the <a href="http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/overview.html">American Civil War</a> by generating a sense of Romantic nationalism replete with notions of identity and loyalty. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134979/original/image-20160822-18690-1v9ned0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134979/original/image-20160822-18690-1v9ned0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134979/original/image-20160822-18690-1v9ned0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134979/original/image-20160822-18690-1v9ned0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134979/original/image-20160822-18690-1v9ned0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134979/original/image-20160822-18690-1v9ned0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134979/original/image-20160822-18690-1v9ned0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134979/original/image-20160822-18690-1v9ned0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Digging in the dirt: Brian Ferguson – as Brian.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mihaela Bodlovic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But above all, Anything That Gives Off Light is about how Scotland is perceived from the inside and outside. It is about how outsiders have not necessarily caught up with the ways in which stereotypes about parochial Scots with a Culloden-type chip on their shoulder have been superseded in the years since devolution and even the Scottish referendum. </p>
<p>There is much truth in this, in my view. In the <a href="https://theconversation.com/brexit-europes-new-nationalism-is-here-to-stay-61541">Brexit referendum</a>, it was the English who voted in fear of the effect of immigrants on their national identity while the Scots appeared more comfortable with theirs. And while Red speaks several times in the play about how Scots and Americans both view themselves as underdogs but see them as losers and survivors respectively, the confidence of the two Scots in the play seems to question this aspect of the Scottish psyche. </p>
<p>The play is a powerful reminder to outsiders to listen first and speak cautiously about what they think they know: culture and identity are constantly evolving, however much it might be more comforting if they stayed still.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63978/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mairead Nic Craith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Anything That Gives Off Light explores Scottishness from three very different perspectives.Mairead Nic Craith, Professor of Culture and Heritage, Heriot-Watt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/433042015-06-18T11:32:48Z2015-06-18T11:32:48ZWalter Scott war journalism from the Waterloo battlefield<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85423/original/image-20150617-23226-64pq7a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Field of Waterloo by Joseph Turner (c.1817)</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://historicphotoimage.com/store/index.php/artists/turner/joseph-turner-the-field-of-waterloo-giclee-art-reproduction-on-stretched-canvas.html">Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo on June 18 1815, it came as a great relief to all those in Britain who had feared a French invasion. Among them was the celebrated 19th-century writer Walter Scott, who articulated his fears in <a href="http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/antiquary.html">The Antiquary</a>, his third novel, which was published the following year (though there <a href="http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/24/101024928/">has been</a> speculation that he might have quietly supported the French revolution in his younger years). </p>
<p>The revolution, the Napoleonic wars and Waterloo were undoubtedly the great historical events of Scott’s lifetime. As a writer who had immersed himself in moments of conflict and their effect on history, the 43-year-old Scott was excited by the concluding battle and was <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-soon-as-waterloo-was-over-poets-flocked-to-the-battlefield-43211">one of a number</a> of writers who went to visit the battlefield. As his biographer JG Lockhart <a href="http://lordbyron.cath.lib.vt.edu/contents.php?doc=JoLockh.Scott.Contents">notes</a>, “he grasped at the ideas of seeing probably the last shadows of real warfare that his own age would afford”. As Scott <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Paul_s_letters_to_his_kinsfolk.html?id=jEpeAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">put it himself</a>, this was such an event “as only occurs once in five hundred years”.</p>
<h2>Scott sets forth</h2>
<p>Though he was anxious to set out as early as possible, other commitments meant that he could not begin his journey until July 27 1815. During his visit he collected objects from the battlefield, several of which can still be seen at <a href="http://www.scottsabbotsford.com">his home at Abbotsford</a> in the Scottish borders. These included buttons, bullets and cuirasses (leather body armour), as well as a book of popular songs owned by a French soldier and carrying the signs of battle. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85425/original/image-20150617-23223-6woadt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85425/original/image-20150617-23223-6woadt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85425/original/image-20150617-23223-6woadt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85425/original/image-20150617-23223-6woadt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85425/original/image-20150617-23223-6woadt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85425/original/image-20150617-23223-6woadt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85425/original/image-20150617-23223-6woadt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85425/original/image-20150617-23223-6woadt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scott portrait by Henry Raeburn (1823)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&channel=mac_bm&hl=en&authuser=0&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1435&bih=763&q=walter+scott&oq=walter+scott&gs_l=img.3..0l10.491031.492430.1.492950.12.8.2.1.1.0.127.612.3j3.6.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..3.17.1367.N1co5jsXBxI#q=walter+scott&channel=mac_bm&hl=en&authuser=0&tbm=isch&tbs=sur:fc&imgrc=EwVoDcABLKSWrM%253A%3BbSqTDPjoVfZSOM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fupload.wikimedia.org%252Fwikipedia%252Fcommons%252Fthumb%252Fc%252Fc1%252FHenry_Raeburn_-_Portrait_of_Sir_Walter_Scott_and_his_dogs.jpg%252F496px-Henry_Raeburn_-_Portrait_of_Sir_Walter_Scott_and_his_dogs.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcommons.wikimedia.org%252Fwiki%252FFile%253AHenry_Raeburn_-_Portrait_of_Sir_Walter_Scott_and_his_dogs.jpg%3B496%3B600">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He also sent daily letters to his wife Charlotte in the persona of “Paul”, ostensibly addressed to an imaginary group of correspondents, most likely as a device to be able to express himself more clearly. The letters outlined the situation that he found in France, the political events and social circumstances that had led up to Waterloo, and what the future might hold for both France and Europe. These formed the basis of the book <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Paul_s_letters_to_his_kinsfolk.html?id=jEpeAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">Paul’s Letters to His Kinsfolk</a>, published the following year. This was one of the earliest and most interesting accounts of France just after the battle, not to mention an important early example of war journalism. </p>
<p>Perhaps foremost among the emotions Scott describes is a sense of France in limbo. He <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Paul_s_letters_to_his_kinsfolk.html?id=jEpeAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">notes that</a> the war might be “ended to all useful and essential purposes, [but] could not in some places be said to be actually finished”. He expresses repeatedly a sense of sympathy for the plight of the ordinary French people. His landlady, for example, seemed “ready to burst into tears at every question we put to her”. </p>
<p>He also recognises the dangers posed by so many soldiers released from the duties of war, worrying that they will “beg, borrow, starve and steal” until new conflicts arise. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>what will become of these men, and what of the thousands who, in similar circumstances, are now restored to civil life, with all the wild habits and ungoverned passions which war and license have so long fostered. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Scott also wrote letters from France as himself, which are at times poignant. In a letter to the Duke of Buccleuch, for example, <a href="http://lordbyron.cath.lib.vt.edu/contents.php?doc=JoLockh.Scott.Contents">he describes</a> the whole of France as “melancholy” and reiterates the sorrow of the women generally. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Paul_s_letters_to_his_kinsfolk.html?id=jEpeAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">Elsewhere</a> he “beheld the ocean of humanity in a most glorious state of confusion – fields of battle where the slain were hardly buried – immense armies crossing each other in every direction …”</p>
<h2>Scott and Byron</h2>
<p>In London on his way home, Scott met the romantic poet <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/byron_lord.shtml">Lord Byron</a>, for whom Napoleon was a hero. “Waterloo did not delight him”, <a href="http://lordbyron.cath.lib.vt.edu/contents.php?doc=JoLockh.Scott.Contents">Lockhart reports</a>. In his artistic response to Napoleon’s defeat, <a href="http://www.gradesaver.com/lord-byrons-poems/study-guide/summary-childe-harolds-pilgrimage-canto-iii">Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage Canto III</a>, Byron wrote that all the suffering caused by years of war was pointless if Napoleon was to be defeated. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85427/original/image-20150617-23232-12nmmlk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85427/original/image-20150617-23232-12nmmlk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85427/original/image-20150617-23232-12nmmlk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85427/original/image-20150617-23232-12nmmlk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85427/original/image-20150617-23232-12nmmlk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85427/original/image-20150617-23232-12nmmlk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85427/original/image-20150617-23232-12nmmlk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85427/original/image-20150617-23232-12nmmlk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Distraught: Byron.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lord_Byron_coloured_drawing.png">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like Byron, Scott recognised Napoleon’s greatness, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Paul_s_letters_to_his_kinsfolk.html?id=jEpeAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">commenting on</a> his “inexpressible feelings of awe” at standing on the spot where he “who appeared to hold Fortune chained to his footstool” had been defeated. Yet where Byron’s main response to the events was despair, Scott’s was compassion. For him the suffering that had ravaged Europe was the inevitable and terrible consequence of revolution, rebellion and radicalism. On a very human level, it horrified him.</p>
<p>Scott’s poetic response to the battle, <a href="http://www.online-literature.com/walter_scott/2563/">The Field of Waterloo</a>, published on October 23 1815, brings many of these sentiments together. As one might expect, it is clearly in praise of the victorious British general Wellington and the bravery of the British troops, but it is in general elegiac. It opens with a description of a calm country scene, only to look back at the bloodshed this landscape has witnessed only weeks before.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Look forth, once more, with soften’d heart,<br>
Ere from the field of fame we part;<br>
Triumph and Sorrow border near,<br>
And joy oft melts into a tear … </p>
<p>Or see‘st how manlier grief, suppress’d,<br>
Is labouring in a father’s breast,<br>
With no enquiry vain pursue<br>
The cause, but think on Waterloo! </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The first edition sold 6,000 copies at a shilling each, the profits from which went to the fund raised for the relief of the widows and children of the soldiers slain in battle. In a <a href="https://archive.org/details/lettersofsirwalt00scotrich">letter to a friend</a>, Scott says he was induced to write it “to give something to the fund more handsome than usual for the poor fellows and their relatives who suffered”. </p>
<p>Scott only felt able to express his admiration and compassion for Napoleon years later in his monumental <a href="http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/prose/napoleon.html">Life of Napoleon Buonaparte</a>, published in 1827. At the time of Waterloo, his thoughts were only for the victims, living and dead, that passed before his eyes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43304/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison has received grants from the AHRC, Carnegie Trust for Scotland and from a private donation.</span></em></p>When word reached the Scottish writer of Napoleon’s famous defeat, he promptly travelled to the continent to bear witness to the carnage first-handAlison Lumsden, Professor of English and Scottish Literature, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/406102015-04-28T10:00:33Z2015-04-28T10:00:33ZThe crisis revealed by the killing of Walter Scott: how we’re failing vulnerable fathers<p>The sight of a South Carolina white police officer shooting Walter Scott, a 50-year-old black man in the back was so chilling that many of us never thought to ask: what made Scott so desperate to get away from the officer? </p>
<p>We learned right away that he had been apprehended for a broken taillight, but obviously there was something else going on, or he wouldn’t have fled in that manner.</p>
<p>The story that has since emerged is that he had feared going to jail for unpaid child support. The fact that a parent owing child support can be incarcerated – and often is – is just as reprehensible, I would argue, as the blatant disregard shown by Officer Slager for Walter Scott’s life. </p>
<p>The fear of incarceration bears indirect responsibility for Scott’s death. And Walter Scott was not alone in feeling this fear. </p>
<p>At present, there are approximately <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Failing-Our-Fathers-Confronting-Economically/dp/0199371148/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430160615&sr=1-1&keywords=failing+our+fathers">9 million</a> nonresident fathers (that is to say, fathers who do not live in the same household as their child or children) of whom over half are economically vulnerable. </p>
<p>Vulnerable nonresident fathers are men who have child support obligations, and who would be poor or near poor if they paid their support in full since doing so would leave them barely able to meet their daily living expenses, placing them in an impossible situation. </p>
<p>Currently a massive <a href="http://www.urban.org/research/publication/assessing-child-support-arrears-nine-large-states-and-nation">seventy percent</a> of all past due support – referred to as arrears – are owed by nonresident fathers making $10,000 or less per year. </p>
<p>In many states fathers can be incarcerated for failing to pay child support. In Walter Scott’s case, he lost a well paying job while incarcerated for failure to pay, making a difficult situation far worse. </p>
<p>This is a crisis that needs addressing. </p>
<h2>South Carolina’s notoriety</h2>
<p>South Carolina, where the Walter Scott incident took place, is notorious for the use of incarceration to punish nonresident fathers for failing to pay child support. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publishing/preview/publiced_preview_briefs_pdfs_2010_2011_10_10_PetitionerAmCuEPattersonandtheSCAppleseed.authcheckdam.pdf">survey</a> conducted by law professor Elizabeth Patterson in 2005 and 2009 in South Carolina found that nearly one out of over six to eight individuals in county jails were family court detainees. In some county jails, proportions were even higher. </p>
<p>In fact, it was South Carolina’s practices that led to the 2011 Supreme Court case of Turner v Rogers, which involved a man being ordered to spend a year in prison because of his delinquency in child support payments without giving him any opportunity to establish his ability to pay. </p>
<p>In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/turner-v-price/">ruled</a> that even in such cases, states cannot deprive citizens of their due-process rights. </p>
<p>To create a fairer system, it is essential to separate fathers who will not pay from those who simply cannot pay. </p>
<p>Incarcerating dead broke fathers simply punishes men for the crime of being poor. Furthermore, a prison record may significantly diminish the future ability of a noncustodial father to secure a good job and lift themselves and their families out of poverty.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79544/original/image-20150428-18152-1xe14a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79544/original/image-20150428-18152-1xe14a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79544/original/image-20150428-18152-1xe14a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79544/original/image-20150428-18152-1xe14a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79544/original/image-20150428-18152-1xe14a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79544/original/image-20150428-18152-1xe14a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79544/original/image-20150428-18152-1xe14a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.presidentschallenge.org/ACF_OCSE/">Department of Health and Human Services</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since Turner v Rogers the <a href="http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/css">Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement</a> (OCSE) has undertaken a massive campaign to educate states on the appropriate legal procedures. For example, before forcing noncustodial parents to choose between incarceration or a purge payment - an immediate lump sum - courts should ensure that fathers can afford to make such a payment. </p>
<p>The OCSE campaign also advises states on alternatives to incarceration as a means of collecting delinquent child support. For example, states can require fathers without jobs or adequate income to participate in employment programs, helping them to find work and meet their obligations. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court decision also inspired the OCSE to propose a series of rule changes in the child support enforcement program. Among other things, these changes are meant to ensure that child support orders actually reflect the ability of nonresidential fathers to pay. </p>
<p>The fact of the matter is this: In the US, the child support system lags behind a reality that has been in place for close to forty years. </p>
<h2>The growing vulnerability of fathers</h2>
<p>Since the mid-1970s, the <a href="http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/subjects/wages/?reader">earnings</a> of men without graduate degrees have stagnated or declined, except for a brief period during the economic boom of the 1990s. During this same period, state efforts to enforce child support collections have increased with the help of the federal government.</p>
<p>This downward wage trend has made it increasingly difficult for fathers to support their families. </p>
<p>Many of the fathers making $20,000 or less never married the mothers of their children, which is now the case for <a href="http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/22670489">41%</a> of all births in the United States. These fathers had to be subpoenaed by the courts to determine if they were the legal fathers. Oftentimes, they failed to appear in court —- because of fear, transportation issues, or because they had no permanent address and never received the subpoena. </p>
<p>When a putative father fails to appear, the courts determine that he is the legal father by default, and child support orders are set without the information about the father’s actual income or ability to pay. </p>
<p>Instead, the courts impute (or infer) these fathers’ income level by using a proportion of welfare and other benefits the child receives, or by looking at the earnings at the father’s last-known job. If there is no record of prior earnings, the order is based on earnings at a full-time, full-year job paying minimum wage, which the courts assume any father could find. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the resulting child support order is often more than some of these fathers can afford, so they fall into arrears. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.urban.org/research/publication/assessing-child-support-arrears-nine-large-states-and-nation">Studies</a> show that in states that regularly use default orders and so-called income imputation, fathers with earnings of $20,000 or less accounted for the majority of arrears. </p>
<p>Though South Carolina has always been an outlier in incarcerating nonresident fathers for nonpayment, all fifty states still use civil contempt, potentially resulting in jail time, as a sanction. </p>
<p>For fathers who lack the economic resources, incarceration still looms large. However, in the wake of the Turner v Rogers decision, the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement is encouraging states to not choose prison time as a first option. Many have chosen to take this path. </p>
<p>Besides working with states to limit the coercive use of incarceration to collect child support, the OCSE is now proposing rule changes that would help fathers with limited income meet their child support obligations. One of them would require courts to base child support orders on actual earnings, income, or assets -— rather than imputed income. </p>
<p>A second change would require courts to take into consideration the fathers’ subsistence needs when setting child support orders. Called a self-support reserve, this provision adjusts the father’s income to first consider basic needs, like rent and food, and then to set the child support order on the amount that remains. </p>
<p>In this way, low-income fathers no longer need to choose between meeting their daily expenses (rent, utilities, and transportation to work) and paying their child support. As they cannot cover both, they usually choose the former, with the result that their child support debts grow.</p>
<h2>Political roadblocks to reform</h2>
<p>Had Walter Scott lived, he might have seen the day where he no longer needed to fear being incarcerated for failing to pay child support – something that had already happened to him before this fatal incident occurred. </p>
<p>Or perhaps not. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the proposed changes —- which represent decades of work by child support researchers, advocates, and policymakers -— are now caught up in a political battle of wills on Capitol Hill. </p>
<p>Leading Republican congressmen, such as Congressman Dave Camp, Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Senator Orrin Hatch, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee have asked the Office of Child Support Enforcement to withdraw the proposed changes —- not because they take issue with the substance but because they feel that the Obama administration is overstepping its authority to make these changes without Congressional approval. </p>
<p>Let’s hope the memory of the fleeing Walter Scott, and his subsequent shooting, is enough for common sense to prevail and these long-awaited reform measures to be adopted. </p>
<p>This would go some way towards salvaging the legacy of a man who, while he neglected his duty to provide for his children, should not have been leading the life of a fugitive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40610/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronald B Mincy receives funding from W.K Kellogg Foundation, National Institute of Child and Human Development, Russell Sage Foundation. He is affiliated with the National Fathers Leaders Group.</span></em></p>In many states fathers can be incarcerated for failing to pay child support. This is a crisis that needs addressing.Ronald B Mincy, Maurice V Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice, School of Social Work, Columbia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/289332014-07-09T16:32:25Z2014-07-09T16:32:25ZWalter Scott was no bland tartan romantic, he was dumbed down<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53302/original/8nfbtf3x-1404824905.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sir Walter shows off his baby blues</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Sir_Henry_Raeburn_-_Portrait_of_Sir_Walter_Scott.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week sees the 200-year anniversary of the publication of Walter Scott’s first novel <a href="http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/waverley.html">Waverley</a>. Journalist Stuart Kelly <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scott-land-Man-Who-Invented-Nation/dp/1846971799">has called</a> Scott “the man who invented a nation” but what is Scott’s relevance for today? What kind of version of Scotland and of history more generally has he given us? </p>
<p>Scott has suffered from bad press. Often seen as the man who gave the world a tartan and shortbread image of Scotland, some accuse him of creating a version of the country that is no more than a museum piece, valuable for the tourist industry, but of little relevance for the re-negotiation of a modern Scottish identity. Other critics have suggested that while he created a beautiful and romantic version of the Highlands he simultaneously contributed to the writing out of Gaelic and Celtic culture from the narrative of a progressive Scottish nation. </p>
<p>Yet interest in Scott persists. More than 100,000 copies of his novels have been sold in the <a href="http://www.euppublishing.com/series/eewn">Edinburgh edition</a> of the Waverley novels alone. His home in the borders, Abbotsford, has undergone a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-23143388">multi-million pound refurbishment</a> and was reopened to the public by the queen last year. Work on Scott by critics such as Ian Duncan, Penny Fielding, Catherine Jones, Andrew Lincoln and Caroline McCracken-Flesher has also urged a re-thinking of our views of Scott, suggesting that he still has much to offer readers today.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53303/original/zddsbxfk-1404825174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53303/original/zddsbxfk-1404825174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53303/original/zddsbxfk-1404825174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53303/original/zddsbxfk-1404825174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53303/original/zddsbxfk-1404825174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53303/original/zddsbxfk-1404825174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53303/original/zddsbxfk-1404825174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53303/original/zddsbxfk-1404825174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Abbotsford in the Scottish borders – not a bad little lumber.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/50879678@N03/9501169819/in/photolist-ftzYLK-fx1cm7-fx1fB5-ftQgH3-bAeomf-efjiKk-8vrYNb-cnnheh-fzwUMc-9FaNk6-cPrEn1-cPquQh-fwLaEk-aftXLb-dabntN-cPdnTN-fCr7bQ-5TRWjb-5cZjxD-5d4ENq-5cZjsi-5cZjqM-MK1Na-6EG8oH-cPrTsy-bAeoDN-6MMkua-cPrisA-6PfkQP-cPqwMu-cgaDwJ-n83YWK-fyTRhk-7tWWLR-6Pfkur-5AHzHc-7doxbk-axy7ND-bzrunX-9Tiuqm-coW1vj-cPkvWo-7dsqr7-c8Xvfq-8WSQkt-eSUX-7dsq9J-apckAt-d3S83L-ap2rzJ">Bernard Blanc</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Scott was perhaps a victim of his own success. His novels sold in unprecedented numbers; Waverley sold more than all other novels published in 1814 put together. By the time he published <a href="http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/robroy.html">Rob Roy</a> in 1818, 10,000 copies were sold in less than two weeks – a huge achievement for the time, which went on to make Scott the first international bestseller. For many years, his novels were <a href="http://www.epubbooks.com/series/9/waverley-novels">among the most widely read</a> in Europe. </p>
<p>This success also spawned a wave of Waverley adaptations, stage plays, operas, cheap chapbook editions and later, children’s versions. While these did much to publicise Scott, they nearly always stripped out the complexity of his original work. They negated the darker questions that Waverley raises, at times reducing it to farce and comedy. </p>
<p>Similarly Scott caught the imagination of illustrative artists. At its best the art work produced <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/750937?uid=3738032&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21104440258883">for example by JMW Turner</a> captured the subtle relationships between place, memory and imagination at play in his work. At its worst, illustration reduced Scott to a set of romantic clichés. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53307/original/3qgghp8p-1404826460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53307/original/3qgghp8p-1404826460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53307/original/3qgghp8p-1404826460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53307/original/3qgghp8p-1404826460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53307/original/3qgghp8p-1404826460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53307/original/3qgghp8p-1404826460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53307/original/3qgghp8p-1404826460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Turner on Scott’s poem Rokeby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>To take one example, in a famous scene from Waverley Flora MacIvor, sister of a <a href="http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scotlandshistory/jacobitesenlightenmentclearances/jacobiterisings/index.asp">Jacobite</a> highland chief, seduces Waverley to the Jacobite cause by singing to him by a waterfall. In the novel the scene is highly staged and highly ironic and a careful reader will note that if they too are seduced by the romantic image offered here, they are as foolish as the rather hapless hero Waverley. But later illustrations of this scene, particularly in children’s editions, have none of Scott’s irony. The episode inevitably becomes simply an iconic romantic highland image.</p>
<p>By the end of the 19th century, Scott was near compulsory reading in schools and in many ways his fall from favour was secure. Reconstructed as an author purveying sound values for children in the age of empire, Scott seemed to offer little to the modernists of the early 20th century.</p>
<p>Yet he persists, and ever since the Marxist critic Georg Lukacs <a href="http://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/georg-lukacs-reconsidered-critical-essays-in-politics-philosophy-and-aesthetics/ch8-the-modern-meaning-of-georg-lukacs-reconstruction-of-walter-scott-s-novels-of-premodern-political-ethics">drew attention to him</a> in the 1930s as offering the archetypal form of the historical novel, his star has gradually been once again on the rise. While Lukacs’ view that Scott is always on the side of progress and modernity now seems rather simplistic, he is right in recognising that Scott is investigating the ways in which our collective histories impinge upon our current experiences and how we must find a way to acknowledge their legacies without becoming burdened by the weight of them. </p>
<p>In Waverley, for example, Scott describes and even affirms the Hanoverian defeat of Jacobitism. But he also acknowledges the high price that must be paid for such a movement towards modernity. Perhaps more significantly, he reminds us that progress cannot be divorced from our emotional attachment to the past, and that this must be taken into account when negotiating our relationship to it. </p>
<p>Elsewhere Scott also addresses a question particularly pertinent for our own times, political and religious fanaticism. In novels like <a href="http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/mortality.html">The Tale of Old Mortality</a> and <a href="http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/lammermoor.html">The Bride of Lammermoor</a>, he explores the tragic consequences of dogmatic adherence to such a cause. Both novels offer a bleak vision of the inevitable outcome of such extremist beliefs, and undermine any notion that Scott always offers us resolution. Instead they suggest that when extremism persists, history can give us no winning side but only tragedy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53309/original/298xps5j-1404826955.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53309/original/298xps5j-1404826955.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53309/original/298xps5j-1404826955.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53309/original/298xps5j-1404826955.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53309/original/298xps5j-1404826955.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53309/original/298xps5j-1404826955.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53309/original/298xps5j-1404826955.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53309/original/298xps5j-1404826955.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Entrance to Edinburgh railway station to which Waverley lent its name.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartherbert/5826097476/in/photolist-fC57Fu-58r8Vn-9eiqsi-bCcumm-58LLt8-9SQgNu-5arNTs-bMUxfn-7fD1ch-7fz4Vx-7fz6fH-bWJc4x-8bA6jB-2XMRx-668eXm-ipsy4r-7gcQgN-ahQFZh-bneAVG-bneBCm-63N2gx-fPFmnR-fJ93sn-cyeN3-86Uor8-fXYe2H-4XVj78-cyeTE-9cjpgG-iUa28Z-5tSogM-cyeUL-dWWjst-7VJK8f-zrrAS-cyeM5-4Uopjx-dWqjQj-fJR1Vm-66ePuP-bchdte-mke9Y-fJR1BS-7eDbK5-7JaBfE-657CQb-3CWXZT-nEkBN-6cuEke-9ZM3k">Stuart Herbert</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout his work Scott is fascinated by the relationship of the past to the present and the ways in which we can simultaneously commemorate history without being trapped by it. His novels offer a wealth of questions about how national identities are shaped, how political frameworks emerge and re-emerge, and how moments of conflict resonate in our collective memories. But they seldom offer us any solutions. </p>
<p>As a consequence his novels are perhaps best seen not as museum pieces but rather, as acts of on-going commemoration, texts which call the past back to our minds to be re-examined without seeking to enshrine it. In this year of historical anniversaries like the battle of Bannockburn and the World War I, it is particularly worth returning to Scott. Not because he will offer us any definitive answers but because his work asks the most pressing questions about how we may both remember our history and find a way of dealing with it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28933/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison has received grants from the AHRC, Carnegie Trust for Scotland and from a private donation.</span></em></p>This week sees the 200-year anniversary of the publication of Walter Scott’s first novel Waverley. Journalist Stuart Kelly has called Scott “the man who invented a nation” but what is Scott’s relevance…Alison Lumsden, Professor of English and Scottish Literature, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.