Digital Commons Network^™

The Chartist Robin Hood: Thomas Miller’S Royston Gower; Or, The Days Of King John (1838), Stephen Basdeo

Studies in Scottish Literature

Walter Scott's reinvention in Ivanhoe (1819) of Robin Hood as an Anglo-Saxon freedom fihghter had a lasting impact on later portrayal's of the outlaw. Thomas Miller's novel Royston Gower (1838) reworks Scott's idea of racial conflict between Saxons and Normans to cast Robin Hood as a Saxon freedom fighter to serve the Chartist cause. Where Scott’s portrayal served a conservative agenda of reconciliation, leading to one nation under a just and benevolent king, Miller draws parallels between Norman oppressors and the early Victorian political elite, between Saxon poverty and 19^th century hunger, and between the Saxon hope of a …

‘...Arranged In A Fanciful Manner And In An Ancient Style’: The First Scenic Realisations Of Scott’S Work And The Desire For A New “Realism” On Scottish Stages, Barbara Bell

Studies in Scottish Literature

An illustrated essay examining the stage design and scenery in early dramatizations of Scott's fiction, specifically the designs by Alexander Nasmyth for versions of Scott's stage adaptations of Scott's The Heart of Mid-Lothian, in London in 1819 and in Edinburgh in 1820, arguing that the rise of scenic realism strengthened the relationship between the theatre and the broader population.

Oldbuck And Ochiltree: Scott, History, And The Antiquary’S Doppelgänger, John Williams

Studies in Scottish Literature

Argues that, in The Antiquary, Scott creatively explores and reworks earlier literary forms, particularly Shakespearean and Gothic tropes (double identity, hero/anti-hero, tainted familial relationships, shape-shifting), injecting a note of sober realism into Romantic self-indulgence, and contributing significantly to the evolution of subsequent European literary culture, just as his own work was reworked by others.

Flora Annie Steel: The Walter Scott Of The Punjab?, Juliet Shields

Studies in Scottish Literature

Suggests that Flora Ann Steel Steel’s late Victorian historical novels about India, usually discussed in terms of gender, race, or postcolonial criticism, are more usefully compared to Walter Scott than to Rudyard Kipling, arguing that Steel's novels, like Scott’s about Scotland, formalize an understanding of historical change that derives from the Scottish Enlightenment.

Psychographic Persona Development In The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Melody Day

Undergraduate Honors Theses

When interviewed about his Victorian Gothic masterpiece, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde once observed that “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks of me: Dorian is what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps” (Oscar Wilde). These three characters represent widely different types of people; in light of Wilde’s words, then, what does it truly mean to be Basil, Lord Henry, or Dorian Gray? In other words, what interests, opinions, and values held by these characters determine how each of them differ from one another? In my cross-discipline …

‘Weill Auchtyn Eldris Exemplis Ws To Steir’: Aeneas And The Narrator In The Prologues To Gavin Douglas’S Eneados, P. J. Klemp

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the translation of Virgil's Aeneid into Middle Scots by Gavin Douglas (1474-1522), the first translation of a major classical work into either Scots or English, analyzing the role of the narrator/translator in the prologues Douglas wrote, and arguing that by blurring the boundary between his own prefatory material and the Virgil text he was translating, Douglas brought the two elements into relationship to form a unified epic masterpiece.

Afterword: Finding Religion In Scottish Literary History, Crawford Gribben

Studies in Scottish Literature

Looks back at the author's original article on the marginalization of Calvinist beliefs in earlier Scottish literature and comments on issues raised by the contributors to the SSL symposium.

Archibald Pitcairne's Liturgical Year, Kelsey Jackson Williams

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses a series of short Latin poems by the Edinburgh physician and Jacobite sympathizer Dr Archibald Pitcairne (1652-1713), based on the liturgical year and on special services in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer then recently legalized for use by Scottish Episcopalians.

The Roy Manuscript Of Burns’S 'To John Syme', Patrick Scott

Studies in Scottish Literature

Describes the only known authorial manuscript of a short poem by Robert Burns, now in the G. Ross Roy Collection at the University of South Carolina, providing a collation of variants among the early texts, and discussing the reliability of the transcripts of such Burns epigrams or versicles made by Burns's friend John Syme, on which editors must rely for other Burns items.

Books Noted And Received, Patrick Scott

Studies in Scottish Literature

This list covers a first group of the books received or noted since publication of SSL 43:2; this preliminary proof version will be expanded shortly, and further titles from this period will be noticed in a future issue. Inclusion in this list need not preclude possible subsequent discussion in a more formal review.

Courting Love: Comedy And Genre In Robene And Makyne, Caitlin Flynn

Studies in Scottish Literature

Observing that little critical scrutiny has been given to Henryson's shorter poems, argues that Henryson's Robene and Makyne challenges genre critics by its "seamlessness ... weaving together of courtly and country, formal and frolicking," and that the two lovers, who "embody the generic confusion marking the formal qualities of the poem," reflect "the comic instability of the generic resonances within the text," pointing to wider trends in Scottish imaginative literature of the period.

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‘I Am Just As Typically Scottish’: G.S. Fraser As Scottish Poet, Richie Mccaffery

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the poetry and poetic career of G. S. Fraser (1915-1980), both in the 1940s when he was regularly identified as a Scottish poet, and later in his life, arguing that the hostility of Scottish critics to his poetry in the 1950s (when he also built a substantial reputation as a London-based critic and reviewer) was unjustified, leading to the neglect of his substantial and continuing poetic achievement, and encouraging too narrow a definition of Scottish poetry.

Carlyle And Calvinism, Joanna Malecka

Studies in Scottish Literature

A survey of how critics have treated Carlyle's religious beliefs, arguing that his Calvinist upbringing needs more consideration.

Losing His Religion: The Neglected Catholicism Of A.J. Cronin, Gerard Carruthers

Studies in Scottish Literature

Reexamination of the Scottish-born bestselling novelist A.J. Cronin (1896-1981), briefly recounting his Catholic upbringing and education at St, Aloysius College, Glasgow, with primary focus on his novel about a maverick Catholic priest, The Keys of the Kingdom (1941), popularized by the film version with Gregory Peck.

Hearing Competing Voices In James Robertson’S The Fanatic, Alison Jack

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses critical responses to James Robertson’s novels The Fanatic (2000) and The Testament of Gideon Mack (2006), and with particular reference to the character of John Lauder in The Fanatic, arguing that, rather than the political and psychological aspects represented by other characters, the religious perspective of Lauder offers a relevant creative alternative.

The Poetry Of William Forbes Of Disblair (1661-1740), William Donaldson

Studies in Scottish Literature

Arguing that the early 18th century Scottish poet William Forbes has been given too little attention, introduces some of the issues in settling the canon of Forbes's work, and discusses both Forbes's anti-Union political poetry, notably The True Scots Genius, Reviving (1704), and A Pil for Pork-Eaters (1705), and his later dialogue on marriage, Xantippe: or the Scolding Wife (1724), an original development from a Latin dialogue by Erasmus. An appendix gives details of the eleven published poems attributable to Forbes.

Contributors To Ssl 45.2

Studies in Scottish Literature

Biographical information on contributors to SSL 45.2

A Revision Of Power: Religion In Fionn Mac Colla’S And The Cock Crew, Brooke Mclaughlin Mitchell

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the treatment of the central character, the Gaelic-speaking minister Maighstir Sachairi, in And the Cock Crew (1945), by Fionn Mac Colla (Thomas Donaldson, 1906-1975), a historical novel about the Highland clearances(the evictions of the local crofting inhabitants in the north of Scotland to make way for sheep-farming), and argues (1) that, although the novel condemns the Presbyterian clergy for colluding in the evictions and preaching submission to those evicted, Mac Colla's novel is deeply imbued with the Calvinism it might seem to reject, and (2) that the central scene, a debate between Sachairi and a Gaelic bard, is structured …

Calvinism, Catholicism, And Fascism In Muriel Spark’S The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, Richard Rankin Russell

Studies in Scottish Literature

A reassessment of the intertwined roles of Scottish presbyterianism, Italian Catholicism, and the rise of fascism, in Muriel Spark's 1961 novel about an Edinburgh schoolteacher in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Conclusion In Which Nothingness Is Concluded, Marissa Rimes

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Samuel Johnson’s The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia is ironically most often classified as an “oriental philosophic tale,” but is rarely analyzed from the point of view of oriental philosophy. Although Buddhism’s ambiguities, inwardness, and nothingness, provoke anxiety in Western critique, Johnson’s The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia does something unique from eighteenth-century British thought in that it disavows this Buddaphobia by actively employing a similar line of thought. Through the lens of a Buddhist framework many of the text’s renownedly gloomy implications, in regard to its circular structure and inconclusiveness, are freed from the great sludge of …

A Review Of Annika Mann, Reading Contagion, By Michael Edson, Michael Edson

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

A review of Annika Mann, Reading Contagion, by Michael Edson

Review Of Novel Ventures: Fiction And Print Culture In England, 1690-1730 By Leah Orr, Susannah Sanford

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

A review of Novel Ventures: Fiction and Print Culture in England, 1690-1730 by Leah Orr by Susannah Sanford

Review Of Margaret Cavendish’S Poems And Fancies, James Fitzmaurice

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

Liza Blake’s free website is sure to become the first stop for anyone beginning work with Poems and Fancies. Most importantly for those who want to explore Cavendish's poetry in depth is that fact that Blake’s website provides an easy means of comparison of versions of poems printed in the 1653, 1664, and 1668 editions.

The Strength Of Weak Ties: Eliza Haywood’S Social Network In The Dunciad In Four Books (1743), Ileana Baird Dr.

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

This article uses visualizations of Eliza Haywood’s social networks, as described in The Dunciad in Four Books (1743), to make visible her relations with the other characters in the poem, and the nature of these affiliations. The tools used to generate these visualizations are GraphViz, an open source visualization software that creates topological graphs from sets of dyadic relations, and SHIVA Graph, an application used to visualize large sets of networks and navigate through them as through a map. In Eliza Haywood’s case, this model of social network analysis sheds new light on the nature of Pope’s attack on women …

Societal Polyphony In Burney And Austen: Using Digital Tools To Invite Students Into The Conversation, Bethany Williamson

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

How can we invite our students to experience the social wit and wisdom of the eighteenth-century novel, on an interactive level? Addressing challenges faced by those who teach eighteenth-century novels in General Education surveys or seminar classes, this essay offers two lesson plans--easily adapted for different texts and courses--that use digital technology to engage students' imaginations and cultivate skills of reading comprehension and interpretation. The first, "Evelina Tweet Fest," invites students to participate in a collaborative conversation on a simulated Twitter platform, translating the literary polyphony of Frances Burney's epistolary novel into the language of our own, status-conscious milieu. …

Knowledge Networks: Contested Geographies In The History Of Mary Prince, Leah M. Thomas

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

The History of Mary Prince, a West-Indian Slave, Related by Herself (1831) is the first published woman’s slave narrative. In her History, Prince describes horrendous physical violence to which she and other enslaved peoples of African descent are subjected as well as the corresponding psychological and sexual abuse they endure. While Prince “speaks” the sexual abuse to some extent, how she knows what she knows goes unspoken. She expresses her knowledge of reading and writing and, at times, of the law, but she does not explain how she obtains this knowledge or knows what she knows. Her optimism to …

“The Tranquility Of A Society Of Females”: Mary Morgan’S A Tour To Milford Haven, Elizabeth Montagu, And The Transformative Politics Of Female Governance, Linda J. Van Netten Blimke

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

This paper explores the political function of Elizabeth Montagu’s Berkshire estate in travel writer Mary Morgan’s 1795 publication A Tour to Milford Haven, in the Year 1791. The travelogue is politically invested both in problematizing radical ideologies and the British government’s wartime policies and in providing an alternative model of governance based on the relational leadership found within Montagu’s Sandleford community. Of central importance to Morgan’s political argument is the contrast she creates between the socioeconomic philosophies manifest in Montagu’s perfectly ordered estate in Berkshire and in the Duke of Marlborough’s imposing palace in Oxfordshire. Whereas Montagu’s relational approach …

Interdisciplinary Lesson Plans To Study Art And Romantic Poetry (1775-1837), Luz Elena Ramirez

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

Enhanced Pedagogy funding has supported the design of three interdisciplinary lesson plans for California State University, San Bernardino students to study the relationship between art and Romantic poetry (1775-1837). Following the scholarship of Stuart Henry, William Condee exposes the problem in academe of “disciplinary hegemony.” Henry argues that “disciplines have come to control content, pedagogy and the organization of higher learning. Disciplines. . . become systems of power that control resources and access to dissemination” (Henry qtd. in Condee 4). Disciplinary hegemony fractures lines of continuity between subjects. My project seeks to facilitate a robust engagement with art and ancient …

Contradictory Shakespeare: An Investigation Of Female Protagonists In Othello, Measure For Measure, And Pericles, Mingyue Xu

Student Theses and Dissertations

Unlike the stereotyped image of women in the Elizabethan era, in which women should submit to men’s control, Desdemona in Othello, Isabella in Measure for Measure, and Marina in Pericles present their powerful and brave characteristics when facing male dominance. More specifically, all three young women — Desdemona, Isabella and Marina — negotiate sexual and marital arrangements with their language intelligently, despite the fact that they sometimes lack self-determining power in the plays. That is to say, Shakespeare gives women rhetorical power while in certain circumstances, men cannot be persuaded. Such contradiction within how Shakespeare depicts his female …

Preface To Ssl 45.2, Patrick Scott, Tony Jarrells

Studies in Scottish Literature

A brief introduction to the issue contents, future issues, a 35% increase in 2018-2019 in use of the digital version, and a significant further gift to the journal's endowment.