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Scotland, ‘Greater Britain’, and the Kailyardic Contra(-)diction
- Scottish Literary Review
- Association for Scottish Literary Studies
- Volume 8, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2016
- pp. 69-91
- Article
- Additional Information
This article seeks to discuss the bonds between Scotland and the loose Anglophone union of an imperial ‘Greater Britain’ during the later-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through an analysis of the manifestation of Scottish Lowland language and literary devices termed the kailyardic contra(-)diction, this investigation asserts the interconnections between Scotland, the British empire, and the ‘Anglo-world’. From the mid-nineteenth century, certain linguistic tropes served to favourably distinguish Scots within the bounds of a global ‘Greater Britain’ whilst simultaneously aligning notions of Scottish cultural exceptionalism with assumptions of the social and ‘racial’ prestige of an overarching British imperialism.