Different Trajectories: Europe and Scotland in Recent Film and Television

Abstract

Since approval was given via a referendum in 1997 for the advent of the Scottish Parliament, the benefits and constraints of Scotland’s devolved role within and against the UK has, understandably, formed the primary axis of political debate, despite increasing evidence that Scotland, like other nations, is part of a globalised world. It is also argued that nationalist Scotland exercises a preference for closer ties with a less imperialist Europe rather than with the colonially tainted state of the United Kingdom (Hechter 1975, 310). However, the precise meaning of Scotland’s role within a changing Europe receives little attention in mainstream debate (Imrie 2006). Meanwhile, the European Union is engaged in the ongoing process of enlarging and renegotiating its boundaries. Despite the paucity of texts that address ostensibly Scottish-European concerns, I want to consider the meaning of Europe through a focus on how these have been written into critical accounts of Scottish, British and European cinema while also examining how this relationship is given meaning in recent films produced in Scotland, in order to map the different manifestations of the relationship between Europe and Scotland.