More than forty original essays written by critics from around the world examine the cultural and political role of Scottish writing since the country's referendum on national self-rule in 1997. Essays address issues of class, sexuality, gender, nationhood, globalization, cosmopolitan citizenship, and multiculturalism, and the specific political circumstances and aesthetic agendas behind them. The collection defines a new period in Scottish literary history and heralds in a new era in the criticism of Scottish writing.