Cover not available

Article published In: Metaphor and the Social World
Vol. 8:2 (2018) ► pp.184–206

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

The body politic of independent Scotland

National personification and metaphor as ideological visions

 | Linnaeus University
Published online: 23 October 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.17009.eng
Abstract
The creation of national personifications is a political act that informs us about ideological and cognitive strategies underpinning nation-building. Many European nations are associated with national personifications, but Scotland stands out by not having a tradition of representing the nation in this way. The 2014 independence referendum began to change that, and national personifications featured, not only in the main pro-independence campaign material, but in the visual profile of many new, radical organizations. These personifications also raise questions about the use of metaphor in political discourse. By combining multimodal metaphor and metonymy analysis with interviews with artists who have designed Scottish personifications for the independence movement, this article investigates how new Scottish body politic metaphors were constructed during the campaign. This methodology increases our understanding of the wider context of the referendum, and aids the interpretation of national personifications by providing arguments for interpretation. The analysis shows that body politic metaphors used in the campaign draw on traditional Scottish symbols, but traditional body politic metaphor types are subverted, typically concerning gender roles, in order to convey messages that are relevant in a contemporary political landscape.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.National Personifications as metaphor and metonymy
  • 3.Methodology and material
  • 4.Personifications of Scotland
    • 4.1Enfranchising Scotland
    • 4.2Scotland, the inclusive mother
    • 4.3Rethinking executive power
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (47)
References
Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
BBC. (2012, September 8). Salmond’s Alasdair Gray Christmas card artwork sold. BBC. Retrieved from: [URL]
Bechhofer, F., & McCrone, D. (2012). Imagining the nation: Symbols of culture in England and Scotland. Ethnicities, 131, 544–564. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Billig, M. (1995). Banal nationalism. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bottici, C. (2014). Imaginal politics: Images beyond imagination and the imaginary. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bremner, S. (2015). The early days of a better nation: Or how we laid the foundation for the campaign that will win an independent Scotland. Edinburgh: Imagined Images Editions.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buchanan, M. (2016). ‘Liked’, ‘shared’, re-tweeted: The referendum campaign on social media. In N. Blain, D. Hutchison & G. Hassan (Eds.), Scotland’s referendum and the media: National and international perspectives (pp. 70–82). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cavarero, A. (2002). Stately bodies: Literature, philosophy and the question of gender. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dekavalla, M. (2016). The Scottish press account: Narratives of the independence referendum and its aftermath. In N. Blain, D. Hutchison & G. Hassan (Eds.), Scotland’s referendum and the media: National and international perspectives (pp. 70–82). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eadie, W. (1990). Movements of modernity: The case of Glasgow and the art nouveau. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Edensor, T. (2002). National identity, popular culture and everyday life. Oxford: Berg Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Engström, R. M. (2018). The (dis)continuation of Scottish nationalism: A discursive comparison of the Scottish National Party and National Collective. Journal of Political Ideologies, 231, 97–115.
Eriksonas, L. (2004). National heroes and national identities: Scotland, Norway and Lithuania. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forceville, C. (2002). The identification of source in pictorial metaphors. Journal of Pragmatics, 341, 1–14. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). Relevance theory as a model for analysing visual and multimodal communication. In D. Machin (Ed.), Visual communication (pp. 51–70). Berlin: De Gruyet Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gellner, E. (1983). Nations and nationalism. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gray, A. (1992). Poor things: Episodes from the early life of Archibald McCandless, MD., Scottish public health officer. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Griffin, R. (2006). Palingenetic myth. In C. P. Blamires and P. Jackson (Eds.) World fascism: A historical encyclopedia (pp. 498–499). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC Clio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hague, E. (2014). Mass market romance fiction and the representation of Scotland in the United States. In M. S. Leith & D. Sim (Eds.), The modern Scottish diaspora: Contemporary debates and perspectives (pp. 171–190). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hassan, G. (2014a). Caledonian dreaming: The quest for a different Scotland. Edinburgh: Luath.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014b). State of independence: The rise of ‘third’ Scotland. Soundings, 571, 61–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ichijo, A. (2004). Scottish nationalism and the idea of Europe: Concepts of Europe and the nation. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Indyprints. (n.d.). Indyprints by Stewart Bremner. Available at [URL]
Johns, R., & Mitchell, J. (2016). Takeover: Explaining the extraordinary rise of the SNP. London: Biteback Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keating, M., & McEwen, N. (2016). The Scottish independent debate. In M. Keating (Ed.), Debating Scotland: Issues of independence and union in the 2014 referendum (pp. 1–26). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z. (2006). Language, mind and culture: A practical introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Law, A. (2015). Mediating the Scottish independence debate. Media Education Journal, 561, 3–7.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leith, M. S. (2008). Scottish National Party representations of Scottishness and Scotland. Politics, 281, 83–92. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leith, M. S., & Soule, D. P. J. (2012). Political discourse and national identity in Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Littlemore, J. (2015). Metonymy: Hidden shortcuts in language, thought and communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lovenduski, J. (2005). Feminizing politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Machin, D. & van Leeuwen, T. (2016). Multimodality, politics and ideology. Journal of Language and Politics, 151, 243–258. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCrone, D., Morris, A. & Kiely, R. (1995). Scotland—the brand: The making of Scottish heritage. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Musolff, A. (2004). Metaphor and political discourse: Analogical reasoning in debates about Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). The heart of Europe: Synchronic variation and historical trajectories of a political metaphor. In K. Fløttum (Ed.), Speaking of Europe: Approaches to complexity in European political discourse (pp. 135–150). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nairn, T. (1977). The breakup of Britain: Crisis and neo-nationalism. London: New Left Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Reilly, M. (2015). Why women? Inclusive security and peaceful societies. Available at [URL]
Pittock, M. (1999). Celtic identity and the British image. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). The road to independence? Scotland since the sixties. London: Reaktion Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rhind, N. (2011). A portrait of Bella Caledonia: Reading national allegory in Alasdair Gray’s “Poor Things”. International Journal of Scottish Literature, 81, 1–15.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shephard, M. P., & Quinland, S. (2015). Social media and the Scottish independence referendum 2014: Events and the generation of enthusiasm for yes. In A. Bruns, G. Enli, E. Skogerbo, A. O. Larsson & C. Christensen (Eds.), The Routledge companion to social media and politics (pp. 488–502). Oxford: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stirling, K. (2008). Bella Caledonia: Woman, nation, text. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, S. (1996). Politics without metaphors is like a fish without water. In J. S. Mio & A. N. Katz (Eds.), Metaphors: Implications and applications (pp. 185–201). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trevor Roper, H. R. (2008). The invention of Scotland: Myth and history. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Warner, M. (1985). Monuments and maidens: The allegory of the female form. New York: Atheneum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Youval-Davis, N., & Anthias, F. (1989). Woman-nation-states. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Roohi, Sanam
2025.  They sold our festival : transnational activism and contested public memory making around Telangana ‘state festivals’ . Third World Quarterly 46:10 ► pp. 1249 ff. DOI logo
Juszczyk, Konrad, Barbara Konat & Małgorzata Fabiszak
2022. Speakers who metaphorize together – argue together. Metaphor and the Social World 12:2 ► pp. 245 ff. DOI logo
Bildhauer, Bettina
2021. Uniting the Nation through Transcending Menstrual Blood: The Period Products Act in Historical Perspective. Open Library of Humanities 7:2 DOI logo
Musolff, Andreas
2021. The Nation as a Body or Person in Present-Day British Political Discourse. In National Conceptualisations of the Body Politic [Cultural Linguistics, ], ► pp. 35 ff. DOI logo
Musolff, Andreas
2021. Nation, Nationalism and Metaphor. In National Conceptualisations of the Body Politic [Cultural Linguistics, ], ► pp. 15 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue