Nationed silences, interventions and (Dis)engagements: Brexit and the politics of contextualism in post-Indyref Scottish literature

Abstract

The debate that overtook Scottish society in the run-up to the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence featured the participation of Scottish artists, writers and literary critics in ways that stand in stark contrast to the utter cultural silence with which Brexit has been met in the Scottish literary scene. This article will seek to answer a two-fold question: what can contemporary trends in Scottish literary studies tell us about the political constitution of our discipline(s), and what can they tell us about our contemporary political conjuncture? In order to explore these issues, my investigation will map out the silences, interventions and (dis)engagements that have characterised the response to Brexit and the Indyref by Scottish literary studies and by Scottish writing. I will examine these in relation both to the politics of contextualism and the nationed disciplinary framework that define Scottish literature as a field of study, and to the post-postnational, sovereignist conjuncture of which both the Indyref and Brexit are manifestations. Gauging the differential interest that the Indyref and Brexit have generated in Scottish literature on the one hand, and its relationship to the political moment we are traversing on the other, provides fundamental insights into the political constitution of the discipline.