The ghost in the luggage: Wallace and Braveheart: post-colonial 'pioneer' identities.

The recent film, Braveheart, has been received by many in Scotland as a celebration of Scots nationhood, and as a portrayal of Scottish patriotism in the face of English territorial greed. Indeed, in the campaign leading up to the British general election in 1997, and the subsequent referendum on Scottish devolution, Braveheart was often cited as an example of Scottish mettle in the face of oppression, and the very word became a nationalist rallying cry. However, as this paper demonstrates, the film is actually constructed as a post-colonial, ‘white-pioneer’ myth of origin and ancestry which addresses and confirms a (mainly) American sense of cultural identity. The paper examines the origins of the Braveheart myth and the historical evidence surrounding the original William Wallace. It then traces the exportation of the Wallace legend to the British colonies in the 18th and 19th centuries and its eventual transformation into the Braveheart story of the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]