Symbolism of the Scottish Devolution

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2, University of Würzburg (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Zwischen Krone und Empire - Schlüsselmomente britischer Kultur und Politik, language: English, abstract: Devolution has been the major political development in Scotland of the last decade. The events leading up to it and the actual process itself have been strongly underlined through the use of old symbols and the creation of new ones. This seminar paper deals with those symbols: it will look at symbols in the awakening of a new Scottish identity, will consider the choice of buildings for a new Parliament and most importantly look at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and 2004. The new Scottish Parliament itself is a place of strong symbolic content- the reason why this seminar paper will focus on it as well. Finally the paper will try to give an explanation for the importance and wide use of symbols in the process of Devolution in Scotland, showing how a modern Scottish identity is connected to the points described above.