ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the various forms his mediation took: in James Hogg’s role as informant for Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, as deliberate re-writer of folk narratives in poetry and fiction, and as plainspoken advocate of Scottish culture. With Hogg’s adoption of traditional forms of expression came the emergence of his mission to represent subaltern Scottish experience rather than to be represented by the literati’s constructions of it. Hogg insisted on narrative strategies anchored in community, drawing authority from living tradition rather than acquiescing to the prevalent view of tradition as a collection of fossilized relics. The idea that a case needed to be made for those whose voice was seldom heard was deeply rooted in Hogg’s own life. The relationship between an individual narrative and the wider traditional context is key to understanding Hogg’s reference to tradition and his own use of it.
