A Plurinational Literature? Nationalism in British and Northern Irish Literature since 1970

This chapter surveys the character and quality of national and nationalist feeling in fiction from Britain and Northern Ireland either side of 1997, when a majority of Scots voted to re-establish a Scottish Parliament with tax-raising powers. First, the chapter considers that, if there is some sort of correlation between constitutional change and cultural politics, then we should expect to see strong signs of nationalist feeling in the novel after 1970. Second, just as there are marked differences of competency and make-up between the three devolved assemblies, we should not expect these nationalisms, and the novelistic forms in which they are expressed, to be homogenous. Nor should we be surprised if they overlap. Finally, we should not mistake the absence of constitutional reform in England as a sign that nationalism exists, or is important, everywhere but England.