Projecting the nation: Constructions of Scotland in film since 1979

This thesis examines questions of the continued significance of national cinemas and identities, focussing on the case of Scottish cinema. As a small, devolved nation with relative autonomy from the United Kingdom, Scotland presents an interesting case for how films are labelled with a national identity, as Scottish films can also often be understood in a British, European, and even global context. Rather than attempting to construct a working model of Scottish cinema based on representation or production context, I ask how films have been constructed as Scottish. I approach the concepts of Scotland and Scottish film as sets of meanings that are subject to change over time and in different contexts. This facilitates a perspective which asks in what ways Scotland and Scottishness is constructed in film. I examine how multiple identities are balanced in the filmic construction of Scotland first by considering how Scottish films—both those made in and which are about Scotland—from the early 1980s to the present construct Scottish identities. I will consider the way these films explored ‘traditional’ Scottish identities in the 1980s, Scottish masculinity in the 1990s, and Scottish identities based on ethnicity and gender in the 2000s and 2010s. Second, I look at how these films are received as Scottish by examining reviews and other press materials to determine how the Scottishness of the films considered is discursively constructed for potential audiences.