是否存在苏格兰文学:“英国文学”框架下苏格兰性之表达问题

Is There Scottish Literature: A Study of Scottishness in the Framework of British Literature

英格兰学界主导的英国文学史研究,将统一的"英国文学"视为理所当然,回避1707年《联合法案》之前存在独立的苏格兰文学,掩饰苏格兰文学在此后联合王国进程中并未销蚀的事实。在"英国文学"框架下,苏格兰作家所表达的民族认同被"英国"概念所掩饰、作为代表苏格兰标志的民族符号被视为地方现象、英格兰英语替代苏格兰传统语言并使之方言化等,从而使认识联合之前苏格兰文学历史,尤其是此后苏格兰文学所诉诸的民族认同,变成了极为复杂问题。因而,揭示以英国认同为宗旨的"英国文学"框架所难以兼容的苏格兰性,对认识苏格兰文学也就变得极为关键。

The study on the British literary history, dominated by the England academia, takes the unified ＂British literature＂ for granted, but ignores the existence of the independent Scottish literature before the Union of 1707, and tries to conceal the fact that the Scottish literature has never died out in the process of unification. In the framework of the ＂British literature＂, the national identity expressed by the Scottish writers has been covered up by the concept of a unified ＂Britain＂. The Scottish national symbols have been degraded to be some regional phenomena, and the traditional Scottish language has been replaced by English. As a result, it has become somewhat complicated and difficult to understand the Scottish literary history before the unification, and the national identity expressed in the Scottish literature thereafter. Thus, the revelation of Scottishness in the British literature is crucial for scholars to fully appreciate the Scottish literature.