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

“indyref”作为一个基层民主的复兴，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界的老生常谈。这一行动主义的“积极”能量延伸到苏格兰作家，并在媒体上被描述为官方竞选活动的一个令人信服的替代方案，特别是“没有一方”。我认为，苏格兰作家的观点被赋予特殊的“代表性”的意义和权威，主要是从1979年后的文化驱动的权力下放的范式继承的条款。基于对文学文本和（媒体）作家和文化评论家的帐户的分析，我将批判性地研究“大众参与”的神话的话语生产，并分析它是如何通过（精英）文化和政治代表渠道部署。因此，演员和机构是至关重要的，我的分析，在他们的功能（去）合法化的文化和政治进程：哪些文化产品和演员在媒体和政治修辞参考？这一（话语）事件及其文化代表如何在媒体话语和（关键）文学文本中被描述和纪念？

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?