"Power over Space": Scotland in the English Sources of the XVII-XVIII Centuries.

The purpose of this research is to study various strategies of constructing and rationalizing the space of Scotland in the travel writings of English travelers during the period from 1625 to the 1760s. The period of the 16th-17th centuries is characterized by particularly significant political and socio-cultural changes in relations between England and Scotland, starting with the "Union of the Crowns" in 1603 and the Act of Union in 1707 and ending with continuous civil wars and uprisings. Despite the strained relations between the two kingdoms, they had to share not only the border, but also the monarch. It was at this time that the rethinking and "rediscovery" of Scotland by English travelers took place. Using various analytical categories within the framework of the "spatial turn", this study examines the individual narrative strategies and rhetoric that were used by English travelers to rationalize and structure the Scottish space. The contextualization of these discourses makes it possible to understand how Scotland was perceived by the English during this transitional period, as well as its place in the broader context of travel writings of the British Isles. If the idea of uniting the two kingdoms became an incentive for many Englishmen to rethink Scotland, then the horography and antiquarian movement, which flourished in the second half of the XVI century, provide future English travelers with strategies for directly constructing and structuring space. Scotland is becoming an increasingly familiar space and is gradually integrating into the overall political space of Great Britain.