Intercultural Opportunities and Regional Identity: Nordic Voices in Scottish Literature

Originally motivated by the 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, this article investigates whether and how regional literature may be said to mediate between different communities of cultural practice, and national cultural `territories', in a way that crosses and interrogates established geo-political boundaries. In light of an intercultural approach to this question, it seems most fruitful to define Nordic literature as a site of interplay between plural, converging, but also seemingly contradictory regions of identity, a site of continuous change but, most importantly, of human agency, intercultural dialogue and our ability to go beyond the limits set by our existing beliefs and practices.