No. 45, May 2015 Editors: Professor Dr. Horst Drescher † Lothar Görke Professor Dr. Klaus Peter Müller Ronald Walker Table of Contents Editorial 2 UK General Election 2015 – Results 4 Comments on Scotland, the 'People's Vow', Censorship, and Scotland on TV - Andrea Schlotthauer, "Castles in the Air" 4 - Sherry Ishak Bakeer Abadeer, "Fragile Vows" 6 - Katharina Leible, "Censorship - Iinfluencing Independence Referendum Results?" 7 - Melanie Sommer, "A Bit of Scotland on Your TV: Outlander" 9 New Scottish Poetry: Harry Giles 10 (New) Media on Scotland 11 Education Scotland 37 Scottish Award Winners 40 New Publications October 2014 – March 2015 41 Book Reviews Christoph Houswitschka on The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle 47 Klaus Peter Müller on Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won a Referendum 50 But Lost Scotland Klaus Peter Müller on Shredded. Inside RBS, the Bank that Broke Britain 53 Silke Stroh on The Parritch and the Partridge: 59 The Reception of Robert Burns in Germany Fiona Ross, "Scottish Area Studies at the University of Konstanz" 62 Louise Robertson, "StAnza 2015" 65 Conference Announcements 67 2 Editorial Dear Readers, Behind the bluff and bluster, the claims and counter claims of politicians in the recent UK election campaigns, there remained a curious sense of a political scene in a kind of suspended animation. Between the Scottish referendum of last September and the UK general election on May 7, the dominant atmosphere was one of nervous uncertainty and fear of the unpredictable. Whilst animation of the strident, excitable variety – as ever – was not in short supply, it was tempered over the course of the campaign by a debilitating lack of conviction, an inertia caused by the bewildering complexity of party-political demographics complemented by an unprecedented plethora of other imponderables. The wonder was, among all this, that the kind of suspension that would have been represented by a hung parliament, an outcome so widely predicted in the run up, did not in the end come to pass. With the North-South divide in British politics now apparently more pronounced than ever, it seems that the real period of uncertainty is about to begin. Will the suspended animation continue, or are we set to see substantial changes? As far as Scotland is concerned, it remains to be seen whether the much vaunted reawakening and re-engagement with democracy has any substance. It is certainly true that many people in Scotland have been deeply affected by the referendum and its aftermath, and moved in a way that has often had little to do with the posturing and rhetoric of the politicians. Expression of this has come in ways heartfelt and often deeply emotional. The election result appears to show that the process of change that brought this about has not ended but is still evolving. Interesting responses to recent political events have also come from Scotland's creative community, with writers and artists choosing not to allow the politicians to have the field to themselves. And it is interesting to speculate on the forms this may take in the future. How, for example, will Scottish writing, celebrated in a truly international inaugural World Congress of Scottish Literatures last summer in Glasgow (http://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/arts/research/scottishstudiesglobal/worldcongressofscottishliterature s/), respond to new impulses and fresh challenges ahead? Whatever the answer, it is already clear that it will not come from Scotland alone. Both Scottish literature(s) and Scottish Studies are, and long have been, international. The university from which this Newsletter is published opened its Scottish Studies Centre more than thirty years ago as one of the earliest to cast an outside eye on Scotland and Scottish culture. The changing face of Scottish Studies, its growing international appeal, and the new demands and challenges it faces are things we would like to take up in future editions of the Newsletter. What are those who are involved in Scottish Studies currently doing? How do they see this changing in the future? From the theoretical to the political, from matters of identity, language, culture, writing, education, religion, media etc., to purely personal stories of engagement, discovery, learning and development, we would like to know about Scottish Studies today, at home in Scotland and in the rest of the world. We would like to know who is currently involved and what kind of work they are doing. If you would like to give us your views on Scottish Studies, or just tell us about your work, or the work of your department, we would be delighted to hear from you. To have a picture of the interests and activities of departments and individuals in this field right now and how these may evolve in the future is our goal. To set the ball rolling on what we hope will develop into a series, we begin in this issue with Fiona Ross's personal reflections on her work in Scottish Area Studies at the University of Konstanz. Finally, this issue of the Newsletter also contains all our usual features: book reviews, this time by Silke Stroh, Christoph Houswitschka, and Klaus Peter Müller; a new poem by Harry Giles; a full catalogue of the latest Scottish interest publications; award winners, conference announcements and Scottish Studies Newsletter 45, May 2015 3 much more. As an added extra, we also have a review of the recent and very successful StAnza poetry festival in St Andrews. There is one further last point that needs to be made, starting with the two books Klaus Peter has reviewed and ending with a key topic that the next issue of the Newsletter intends to address: the books by Macwhirter and Fraser are excellent in many respects and provide extremely useful information on key events and essential areas in our lives. The devastated Labour Party, now involved in internecine warfare because of the disastrous results in the general election, could learn very much about what is required of politicians today by the general public. Just cf. http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/scottish-politics/d-day-for-murphy-as-he-faces-no- confidence- vote.126238274?utm_source=headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email%2Balert on Labour's situation in Scotland, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/17/labours- triple-whammy-defeat-party-triple-vice on the "triple vice" Labour is in in GB, and what Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham, and others have to say about the party at http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/16/labour-great-crisis-ever. Yes, Labour is in its greatest crisis ever, and one important point is to notice that this is an international problem that exists in the same way in Germany with the SPD, in France with their socialists, in Italy, and elsewhere. All parties need to wake up to what the people, and especially the people in Scotland have been expressing themselves in most eloquent and outspoken ways. Which is why it is so good for everybody to listen carefully and heed what they are saying.. Even the Tories and LibDems could profit much from reading the two books reviewed by Klaus Peter in this Newsletter with an open mind. But will they bother? There is, unfortunately, no sign of this taking place. Which is why the SNP has been so successful, and even people in England would like to be able to vote for them, too, or actually become part of Scotland (cf. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/thousands-call-north- england-become-9248178). These people are, however, in the main media told stories about contemporary Scotland where "the legions of ordinary Scots who were daily joining the SNP", and the many more people desiring a better, fairer society are derided "as 'fanatics' and a 'cult'", or even given worse names (Kevin McKenna, "Hatred of austerity, a rejection of greed… if this is a 'cult', count me in", The National on 16-5-15, http://www.thenational.scot/comment/saturday-essay-a- hatred-of-austerity-a-rejection-of-greed-a-thirst-for-a-fairer-more-just-society-if-this-is-a-cult- count-me-in.3042). So, yes, there are intriguing books discussed in this issue, and we all think that the Newsletter is full of such useful, enlightening information. But how many people do read this stuff? Apart from some occasional praise, readers' response has been rather poor. We can thus only invite you again to contribute to the next issues with your own texts, essays, comments, and so on. It's great that our students are well represented now, but we'd like to hear from many more of them and from all other kinds of human beings, wherever they come from, and whatever their opinions might be. Andrea Schlotthauer and Sherry Ishak Bakeer Abadeer are rather sceptical about some of the latest develop- ments in Scotland, expressing views some Scots might want to contradict – or support. Melanie Sommer speaks about another US-American portrayal of Scotland, and Katharina Leible addresses a key issue, namely censorship and the media. Many people are convinced that 'another Scotland is possible', and this is a brilliant idea. And it is indeed possible, but it must be fought for. And this is an extremely difficult fight, with the media as a key battle ground. Klaus Peter Müller will, therefore, write an article on Scottish media in the coming October issue, and this could easily become its key topic, about which many of you certainly have strong opinions. So do send them in and make this another very special issue. Because, as Kevin McKenna, who is not of the looney left, just an Observer columnist and a Scottish Daily Mail writer, made clear in his Saturday essay on 16-5-15: there has already been "an upscaling of the Scottish Studies Newsletter 45, May 2015 4 propaganda war." (Ibid.) We need to carefully look into this, describe and analyse it, make people aware of it, all of us.