Scottish Writing After Devolution - by Marie-Odile Pittin-Hedon & Camille Manfredi & Scott Hames (Paperback)

About the Book

Remaps the state of Scottish writing in the contemporary moment, embracing its uncertainty and the need to reconsider the field's founding assumptions and exclusions.

Book Synopsis

A provisional re-mapping of Scotland's post-devolution literary culture, these fifteen essays explore how literature, theatre and visual art have both shaped and reflected the 'new Scotland' promised by parliamentary devolution. Chapters explore leading figures such as Alasdair Gray, David Greig, Kathleen Jamie and Jackie Kay, while also paying particular attention to women's writing by Kate Atkinson, A. L. Kennedy, Denise Mina, Ali Smith, Louise Welsh, and writers of colour such as Bashabi Fraser, Annie George, Tendai Huchu, Chin Li and Raman Mundair. Tracing continuities with 1990s debates alongside 'edges of the new' visible since Indyref 2014, these critics offer an in-depth study of Scotland's vibrant literary production in the period of devolution, viewed both within and beyond the frame of national representation.

From the Back Cover

Remaps the state of Scottish writing in the contemporary moment, embracing its uncertainty and the need to reconsider the field's founding assumptions and exclusions A provisional re-mapping of Scotland's post-devolution literary culture, these fifteen essays explore how literature, theatre and visual art have both shaped and reflected the 'new Scotland' promised by parliamentary devolution. Chapters explore leading figures such as Alasdair Gray, David Greig, Kathleen Jamie and Jackie Kay, while also paying particular attention to women's writing by Kate Atkinson, A. L. Kennedy, Denise Mina, Ali Smith, Louise Welsh, and writers of colour such as Bashabi Fraser, Annie George, Tendai Huchu, Chin Li and Raman Mundair. Tracing continuities with 1990s debates alongside 'edges of the new' visible since Indyref 2014, these critics offer an in-depth study of Scotland's vibrant literary production in the period of devolution, viewed both within and beyond the frame of national representation. Marie-Odile Pittin-Hedon is a Professor of Scottish Literature at Aix-Marseille University (AMU). Camille Manfredi is a Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Western Brittany (UBO). Scott Hames is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Stirling, where he led the MLitt programme in Scottish Literature.

Review Quotes

The through-line of Scottish Writing After Devolution is the combined 'crisis' and 'interregnum' of this period. But these essays don't hide in indeterminacy. They show Scottish literature and Scottish literary criticism breaking in dozens of directions - none too comfortable with the nation-lodestar at which they've often been pointed.

--Corey Gibson, University of Glasgow

About the Author

Marie-Odile Pittin-Hedon is Professor of Scottish Literature at Aix-Marseille Université (AMU), France. She has published extensively on 20th and 21st-century fiction. Her previous publications include Women and Scotland: Literature, Culture, Politics (edited volume, Presses Universitaires de Franche Comté, 2020) and The Space of Fiction: Voices from Scotland in a post-devolution age, (Scottish Literature International, 2015).

Camille Manfredi is Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Western Brittany (UBO), France. Her previous publications include Nature and Space in Contemporary Scottish Writing and Art (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and Alasdair Gray: Ink for Worlds (edited volume, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

Scott Hames is Senior Lecturer in Scottish Literature at the University of Stirling, and author of The Literary Politics of Scottish Devolution (EUP, 2020), which draws extensively on post-1960s magazines and their debates. With Malcolm Petrie, he led the AHRC-funded Scottish Magazines Network on which this book is based. With Eleanor Bell, he co-founded the International Journal of Scottish Literature. He has edited or co-edited closely related volumes on Scottish Writing After Devolution (EUP, 2022), Unstated: Writers on Scottish Independence (Word Power, 2012) and The Edinburgh Companion to James Kelman (EUP, 2010).