Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
English Language and Literature Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 20 of 20
Full-Text Articles in English Language and Literature
Introduction: Cultural Nationalism In Scottish Literary Studies: The View From Elsewhere, Anthony Jarrells
Introduction: Cultural Nationalism In Scottish Literary Studies: The View From Elsewhere, Anthony Jarrells
Studies in Scottish Literature
Introduces the issues and contributors to this post-Referendum SSL symposium, on non-Scottish perspectives on Scottish cultural nationalism, which includes discussions of teaching Scottish literature in Italy, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, together with a response from a senior Scottish scholar, notes the interest elsewhere in contemporary Scottish writing, and suggests that the effect of the debates surrounding the Referendum, and the involvement of many writers in it, will have a continuing effect on the future of Scottish literary studies.
Wee Malkies Abroad: Scottish Literature Seen From The United Arab Emirates, Manfred Malzahn
Wee Malkies Abroad: Scottish Literature Seen From The United Arab Emirates, Manfred Malzahn
Studies in Scottish Literature
Discusses the recent Scottish Referendum in relation to concepts of national identity in the United Arab Emirates and explores the ways in which Scottish authors and literary works can be of interest to students in UAE, drawing also on previous experience teaching in Tunisia, stressing the interest of shorter, contemporary Scottish texts, but noting also the continuing resonance of a few older Scottish texts, including works of R. L. Stevenson.
Ossianic Telegraphy: Bardic Networks And Imperial Relays, Eric Gidal
Ossianic Telegraphy: Bardic Networks And Imperial Relays, Eric Gidal
Studies in Scottish Literature
Relates James Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760) and other Ossianic poems to evolving Scottish networks of commerce and communication, especially commercial telegraphy and the postal system, and posits associations also with comments in Adam Smith's Lectures on Jurisprudence and Theory of Moral Sentiments, to suggest that Macpherson's remediation of oral poetry asserted ideas of authorial identity and readership as "relays" in a new imperial network.
Changing Times: A Post-Indyref View From Italy, Carla Sassi
Changing Times: A Post-Indyref View From Italy, Carla Sassi
Studies in Scottish Literature
Discusses the responses of Italian university students to the Scottish Referendum of 2014, briefly surveys the history and recent development of Scottish literary studies in Italian universities, and comments on teaching the novels of Walter Scott to Italian readers.
The View From Elsewhere: A Response, Andrew Hook
The View From Elsewhere: A Response, Andrew Hook
Studies in Scottish Literature
Reviews and responds to the symposium contributors, recounting briefly growing up as a Scot in England and Scotland, and doing National Service, and drawing on 60 years experience studying, researching, and teaching in both Scotland and the United States, commenting that while Scottish studies in the 1960s was primarily concerned with traditional culture and reclaiming a folk tradition, its future probably lies in interdisciplinary study focused on contemporary Scotland and modern Scottish writing.
'Singing Of Psalms Of Which I Could Never Get Enough': Labouring Class Religion And Poetry In The Cambuslang Revival Of 1741, Elspeth Jajdelska
'Singing Of Psalms Of Which I Could Never Get Enough': Labouring Class Religion And Poetry In The Cambuslang Revival Of 1741, Elspeth Jajdelska
Studies in Scottish Literature
Describes and discusses the nature and uses of poetry by Scottish labouring-class participants in the revival at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, in 1741, drawing on the manuscript account of the revival collected by the parish minister, William McCulloch; setting the poems in the context of recent scholarly reconsideration of 17th and 18th century Scottish religious culture; relating the poems to the Scottish use of metrical psalms in kirk services and domestic devotions; and commenting in detail on poems by Alexander Bilsland and George Tassie, and a report on religious poetry reading by Ann Wylie.
Burns's Politics 'In Another View': Late 1792/Early 1793, Robert P. Irvine
Burns's Politics 'In Another View': Late 1792/Early 1793, Robert P. Irvine
Studies in Scottish Literature
Presents a reconsideration of Burns's political views in 1792-1793, examining in detail the original performance context of his poem "The Rights of Woman," in the Dumfries Theatre in November 1792, and the political context of his song "Why should na poor people mow," as first sent in letters to Robert Cleghorn in December 1792 and to Robert Graham of Fintry in January 1793, arguing that such "political" poems might be read less in terms of French or metropolitan revolutionary politics than in terms of major cultural and social changes in the Scottish community and networks to which Burns belonged.
Radical Attribution: Robert Burns And 'The Liberty Tree', Corey E. Andrews
Radical Attribution: Robert Burns And 'The Liberty Tree', Corey E. Andrews
Studies in Scottish Literature
Discusses the political symbolism of liberty trees in the American and French revolutions, and in Scotland in Burns's period, as background to reconsidering the song "The Liberty Tree," first printed among Burns's work by Robert Chambers in 1838, the authorship of which has remained a subject for debate among Burnsians; examines the song closely in terms of phrasing to argue that it is unlikely to be by Burns; and draws a distinction between attributing the song to Burns and its evident reliance on his iconic standing both in his own time and among later Scottish radicals.
Sir Walter Scott's The Monastery And The Representation Of Religious Belief, Chad T. May
Sir Walter Scott's The Monastery And The Representation Of Religious Belief, Chad T. May
Studies in Scottish Literature
Examines Sir Walter Scott's novel The Monastery, written while he was also working on his better-known medieval novel Ivanhoe, and discusses its representation of the historical religious transition of Scotland from a Catholic to a Protestant country; focuses especially on Scott's treatment of the supernatural, in the figure of the White Lady, and argues that Scott uses her to allow representation of a personal religious experience or religious vision that otherwise fitted uneasily with his generally secular project for historical representation in fiction; and concludes by briefly sketching the significance of this atypical, transitional novel for understanding religious …
John Stuart Blackie's Altavona: A Late Victorian Reaction To The Highland Clearances, Brooke Mclaughlin Mitchell
John Stuart Blackie's Altavona: A Late Victorian Reaction To The Highland Clearances, Brooke Mclaughlin Mitchell
Studies in Scottish Literature
Reviews the career of John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895), poet, professor successively of humanity in Aberdeen and of Greek in Edinburgh, and a tireless advocate for the Scottish Highlands and Celtic culture; sketches his growing criticism of Highland landlords and the eviction of crofters from Scottish estates, in relation to more recent perspectives; and discusses his successive literary treatments of the Clearances in his "Highland Sonnets," his long poem "The Highlander's Lament," and, most fully, in his 'novel' or mixed-genre prose work Altavona: Fact and Fiction from My Life in the Highlands (1882), commenting also on Blackie's revisions to the book …
John Byrne's The Slab Boys: Technicolored Hell-Hole In A Town Called Malice, William Donaldson
John Byrne's The Slab Boys: Technicolored Hell-Hole In A Town Called Malice, William Donaldson
Studies in Scottish Literature
Presents a detailed discussion and appreciation of the Slab Boys tetralogy, a sequence of four plays by the Scottish playwright and painter John Byrne, beginning with The Slab Boys (1978), focused on a group of apprentices in the color-mixing room of a Paisley carpet-factory in the 1950s, and then tracing the divergence of their lives through three later plays, The Loveliest Night of the Year (1979, later titled Cuttin' A Rug), Still Life (1982), and Nova Scotia (2008); examines Byrne's characterization, "excoriatingly destructive wit," and "rambunctiously demotic language"; analyzes the tetralogy's continuing major themes of the relation between art …
Back To The Future: Remembering The 1707 Act Of Union In The 2014 Referendum Campaign, Leith Davis
Back To The Future: Remembering The 1707 Act Of Union In The 2014 Referendum Campaign, Leith Davis
Studies in Scottish Literature
Discusses the political rhetoric , imagery, and arguments, used in the debates over the 1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England, and traces their reuse in the debates that preceded the Scottish Referendum on independence in September 2014, depicting the 1707 act, not as an historical inevitability, but as "an anomalous success" after a century of earlier attempts at an incorporating union and as "a site of contestation long after its ratification."
'I Am Not Writing Anything Just Now': A Letter From Walter Scott To Sarah Smith, February 13, 1814, John T. Knox
'I Am Not Writing Anything Just Now': A Letter From Walter Scott To Sarah Smith, February 13, 1814, John T. Knox
Studies in Scottish Literature
Describes and reproduces a letter written by Sir Walter Scott to the actress Sarah Smith (later Mrs Bartley), in February 1814, in which he tells her shortly before the anonymous publication of his novel Waverley that "I am not writing anything just now"; discusses Scott's interest in Smith's career, his brief comments on the dramatist Joanna Baillie, and the extent to which Smith was in his confidence about his writing.
Preface To Ssl 41, Patrick G. Scott, Anthony Jarrells
Preface To Ssl 41, Patrick G. Scott, Anthony Jarrells
Studies in Scottish Literature
Reports the international readership of the journal and discusses the ways in which the journal, with a primary focus on Scottish literary studies, nonetheless recognizes that Scottish literature is of current political significance and interest.
Scottish Writers, American Students: A View From Virginia, David E. Latane
Scottish Writers, American Students: A View From Virginia, David E. Latane
Studies in Scottish Literature
Discusses cultural (and statistical) similarities and differences between Scotland and Virginia, and explores how these affect the response and interest of university students to studying Scottish literature, especially contemporary literature, and to a summer course taught in Glasgow.
Assimilation, Hybridity, And Identity: A Visitor During Indyref, Evan Gottlieb
Assimilation, Hybridity, And Identity: A Visitor During Indyref, Evan Gottlieb
Studies in Scottish Literature
Recounts the experience of growing up as a Jewish kid among Scottish-Canadians and of being in Scotland during the Referendum in 2014, expressing admiration for the level and character of informed debate among voters.
"At Whigham's Inn": Mrs. Provost Whigham's Lost Kilmarnock, The Allan Young Census, And An Unexpected Discovery, Patrick G. Scott
"At Whigham's Inn": Mrs. Provost Whigham's Lost Kilmarnock, The Allan Young Census, And An Unexpected Discovery, Patrick G. Scott
Faculty Publications
Reports the recent acquisition by Princeton University Library of a long-lost copy of Robert Burns's first book Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1986), formerly owned by Burns's friend Edward Whigham; describes the later transcript it contains of the short poem "At Whigham's Inn," long attributed to Burns; and reassesses the sources and authorship of the poem.
The Prayer Of Holy Willie: A Canting, Hypocritical, Kirk Elder, Patrick G. Scott
The Prayer Of Holy Willie: A Canting, Hypocritical, Kirk Elder, Patrick G. Scott
Faculty Publications
Robert Burns wrote this famous satire on religious hypocrisy in 1785, but he did not include it in his first book Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786) or in any edition published in his life-time. This edition makes accessible for the first time the locally-produced chapbook in which the poem was first printed, in 1789. The introduction discusses why the poem was written, the controversial background to the poem's first printed version, and the reasons for thinking the 1789 chapbook version was printed by John Wilson of Kilmarnock, who had printed Burns's first book three years before. An appendix …
A Bard Unkend: Selected Poems In The Scottish Dialect By Gavin Turnbull, Patrick G. Scott
A Bard Unkend: Selected Poems In The Scottish Dialect By Gavin Turnbull, Patrick G. Scott
Faculty Publications
The Scottish-born poet and actor Gavin Turnbull (1765-1816), a younger contemporary of Robert Burns, published two volumes of poetry in Scotland before emigrating in 1795 to the United States, where he settled in Charleston, South Carolina. This selection draws attention to a neglected aspect of Turnbull's work, his writing in Scots. Drawing on advance research for the first collected edition of Turnbull's poetry, the selection includes verse in Scots from all phases of his career, including poetry in Scots published in America, together with a biographical introduction and background notes.
A Lost Collection Of Robert Burns Manuscripts: Sir Alfred Law, Davidson Cook, And The Honresfield Collection, Patrick G. Scott
A Lost Collection Of Robert Burns Manuscripts: Sir Alfred Law, Davidson Cook, And The Honresfield Collection, Patrick G. Scott
Faculty Publications
This essay traces the formation by William Law of Littlesborough, Lancashire, of a major collection of literary manuscripts and books, including works by Robert Burns, the Brontes, and Walter Scott; recounts the unlikely role in the 1920s of Davidson Cook, a cooperative society manager from Barnsley, in encouraging the then-owner Sir Alfred Law, M.P., of Honresfield House, to make the collections available for scholarly use; summarizes available information on the partial dispersal of the collection in the late 20s and early 1930s, and the disappearance after Sir Alfred's death in 1939 of much of the collection, including major items; and …