Fiction(s) of political participation: literature, media and the 2014 Scottish independence referendum

“独立抗争”作为民主的基层复兴，动员了苏格兰民族中“被遗忘”的部分，这一形象在整个辩论过程中和辩论结束后都是新闻媒体的老生常谈。这种激进主义的“正”能量延伸到苏格兰作家身上，并被媒体描述为官方运动修辞的令人信服的替代方案，特别是“反对”的一方。我认为，苏格兰作家的观点被赋予了特殊的“代表性”意义和权威，主要是根据1979年后文化驱动的权力下放范式继承的术语。基于作家和文化评论家对文学文本和（媒体）报道的分析，我将批判性地审视“大众参与”神话的话语生产，并分析它是如何通过文化和政治代表的（精英）渠道部署的。因此，行为者和制度对我的分析至关重要，因为它们具有使文化和政治过程（去）合法化的功能：哪些文化产品和行为者在媒体和政治修辞中被引用？这个（话语）事件及其文化代表是如何在媒体话语和（关键）文学文本中被描绘和纪念的？

The image of 'indyref' as a grassroots renewal of democracy which mobilised 'forgotten' segments of the Scottish nation was a journalistic commonplace throughout and after the debate. The 'positive' energy ascribed to this activism extended to Scottish writers and was depicted in the media as a compelling alternative to the rhetoric of the official campaigns, particularly the 'No side'. I argue that views of Scottish writers were accorded special 'representative' significance and authority, largely on terms inherited from the post-1979 paradigm of culture-driven devolution. Based on the analysis of literary texts and (media) accounts by writers and cultural commentators, I will critically examine the discursive production of the myth of 'popular participation' and analyse how it was deployed through (elite) channels of cultural and political representation. Consequently, actors and institutions are crucial to my analysis in their function to (de-)legitimatise cultural and political processes: Which cultural products and actors were referenced in media and political rhetoric? How is this (discursive) event and its cultural representatives depicted and memorialised in media discourse and (key) literary texts?