ABSTRACT
The most significant change in Scotland since 1707 is not to be found in the youth, adolescence or incipient maturity of the Scottish National Party. Scotland has been acclimatized to change by a history which has been a series of new beginnings. A good Scottish authority, Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, defines a patriot as 'one who truly, or ostentatiously and injudiciously, loves and serves his fatherland'. The Presbyterian ideal of the Scottish Reformation was energized by a democratic impulse even if the ideal was sometimes obscured by less worthy items on the political agenda. Too, are promptings to look beyond stereotypical perceptions of Scottish culture and to be on guard against them when reading its literature? Yet the question of what constitutes Scottish cultural identity and artistic tradition will inevitably be asked and variously answered as long as there is a Scotland. By comparison with cultural atrocities simple patriotism in a critic might appear merely inadequate.
