Lerninhalte |
One of the most popular, self-promoted myths about Scots is that of their split identity: notoriously summed up by Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, based on a true case. Opposing extremes and internal struggles are a recurrent motif in Scottish literature, but also in fact: Scotland is full of divides and conflicts, in terms of geography, history, politics, religion, language, and socio-economical outlook. To put it differently, it is a country of many contrasts, which this seminar intends to portray with the means of literature and film.
Recurrent redefinition of national and cultural identity as a unifying factor in the face of England and the UK provides the seminar’s complementary focus, as it largely traces the journey from Walter Scott’s creation of a romantic, tartan Scotland (which jump-started a tourist industry) to contemporary issues of identity in a devolved, multicultural Scottish state.
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