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Literary Review
IN CONVERSATION
New Scottish voices
KAUSALYA SANTHANAM
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Prof. Berthold Schoene, of Manchester Metropolitan University, on how self-rule has enabled Scottish literature to become something more than an expression of nationalism.
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Photo: R. Shivaji Rao
Shared concerns: Prof. Berthold Schoene.
There have been phenomenal changes in Scottish politics and culture after the successful second referendum on national self-rule in 1997 and the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. I thought it would be good to see how 10 years of devolution has affected politics on the one hand and literature on the other,” says Prof. Berthold Schoene, Director of the English Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University, U.K. The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature, edited by him, was launched at the British Council in Chennai recently. Schoene is at present working on a book titled The Cosmopolitan Novel: Creating the World in Contemporary British Fiction.
Contemporary issues
In the volume, published by the Edinburgh University Press, more than 40 contributors have helped create a panoramic view of Scotland and its literature today, including voices from the United States, Canada and New Zealand. “The Companion was scheduled for the 10th anniversary celebrations of Scottish devolution. My former professor, Christopher Whyte — Scottish critic, novelist and poet — predicted that ‘the setting up of a Scottish parliament would allow Scottish literature to be literature first and foremost, rather than the expression of a nationalist movement,” says Schoene.
Different perspectives
What is the difference between the attitude of native Scottish writers and those from outside?
“Those outside Scotland are slightly critical of nationalism while those in Scotland generally are very proud of it,” he replies. “This nationalism has mostly to do with identifying themselves against the rule of Margaret Thatcher. Scotland doesn’t need to do that anymore. Britain and Scotland have been together for 300 years. The Scots want to move away from identifying against the English. The writing since the opening of the New Parliament is very interesting and writers don’t want to be pigeonholed as Scottish writers. This expresses itself in characters leaving Scotland for other places as in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting; previously, it was the return of the exile to Scotland. There is also a questioning of blind faith in nationalism as in James Robertson’s Joseph Knight.”
Do not works written in Scots or Gaelic become less accessible to the outside world?
“A majority write in English with some local nuances,” he says. “But to promote the Scots language, writers like Matthew Fitt translate English children’s books into Scots. There are now 75,000 native speakers in Scotland”.
Why were women’s voices marginalised in Scottish literature?
“This applies to all patriarchal societies,” replies Schoene. “We are all aware of the works of Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. But it is difficult to come up with the names of Scottish women writers. Now this has changed and writers such as Margaret Oliphant and Catherine Carswell, to name just two, are widely read. I’m surprised how BBC, which is fond of turning classical novels into TV dramas, has neglected Oliphant. As for J.K. Rowling, though she is not typically Scottish but English, she would agree with being identified as Scottish writer.”
Is he deeply taken up with the idea of cosmopolitanism because he himself is German?
“I want to work with that which is closest to my own life,” he admits. “I taught a class in Anglo-Indian writing some years ago. Rushdie and Anita Desai are not really Anglo-Indian writers as their work is distilled from a Western knowledge and vision and is not generally based in India. Writers such as Desai are pigeonholed as post-colonial. I’m interested in cosmopolitanism because we need to think of the world as one community. There are many differences but we are in the same boat when it comes to some issues such as global warming. I think Booker nominee David Mitchell’s book Cloud Atlas is the cosmopolitan novel par excellence.”
What does he feel about the research requirements in Britain and the norms for research in India?
“I do not know much about what is being done here,” he says. “But in Britain, academics have become very anxious about publications, deadlines and standards after the Government brought in the National Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008. The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2013 is going to be more problematic. It is the responsibility of people like myself to build a buffer zone between those engaged in research, especially younger people, and the bureaucracy.”
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