University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations May 2017 A’ Oor Ain: the Making of a Scottish National Cinema Through Short Fiction Films 1930-2016 Zach Finch University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Finch, Zach, "A’ Oor Ain: the Making of a Scottish National Cinema Through Short Fiction Films 1930-2016" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 1469. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1469 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. A’ OOR AIN: THE MAKING OF A SCOTTISH NATIONAL CINEMA THROUGH SHORT FICTION FILMS 1930-2016 by Zach Finch A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2017 ABSTRACT A’ OOR AIN: THE MAKING OF A SCOTTISH NATIONAL CINEMA THROUGH SHORT FICTION FILMS 1930-2016 by Zach Finch The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017 Under the Supervision of Professor Tami Williams This dissertation tells a story of Scottish national cinema through Scotland’s short fiction films from 1930 to 2016. As a small nation within the United Kingdom, Scotland’s film culture has played a subordinate role in relation to England’s, and has struggled for decades to create its own thriving film industry. However, in the mid-1990s, critics and scholars began to talk of a uniquely Scottish national cinema, rather than the traditional and all-encompassing “British cinema,” because of the success of films like Shallow Grave (1994) and Trainspotting (1996).