Article

When Scotland Started to Speak (and Be Heard): UK and US Scottishness, 1934 and 1935

Details

Citation

Ritchie J (2021) When Scotland Started to Speak (and Be Heard): UK and US Scottishness, 1934 and 1935. Études écossaises, (21). https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesecossaises.3569

Abstract
This paper researches representations and performances of Scottishness in UK and US cinema from 1934 and 1935. Utilising archive material in tandem with performance analysis this paper addresses questions of verisimilitude in these productions. The UK presents two very different Scotlands and different people. A Scotsman to be feared, savage and pious and afraid of outsiders in Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps is juxtaposed against the first truly modern screen Scotsman in Clair’s The Ghost Goes West. The US present adaptations of two of J. M. Barrie’s works, What Every Woman Knows and The Little Minister. Two films led by female characters, the US productions put the idea of a ‘real’ Scotland at their core. The paper concludes with a surprising revelation regarding verisimilitude in executions of performed Scottishness.

Keywords
Scottishness; performance; sound; stereotype; verisimilitude

Journal
Études écossaises, Issue 21

StatusPublished
Publication date31/12/2021
Publication date online15/03/2021
Date accepted by journal27/05/2020
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/33963
PublisherOpenEdition
ISSN1240-1439
eISSN1969-6337

People (1)

Dr John Ritchie

Dr John Ritchie

Research Fellow, Communications, Media and Culture