Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

“Black Coat” Scottish Spies: Clerical Informers In 1820, John Gardner

Studies in Scottish Literature

This essay reviews modern debate about the use of government spies during the Scottish risings of 1819-1820; discusses the reliability of contemporary sources identifying Scottish clergy as government agents (notably Peter Mackenzie's An Exposure of the Spy System Pursued in Glasgow, 1835); turns to poetry from the period by Janet Hamilton and Alexander Rodger that insists that spies were used, including clergymen; and examines evidence of clerical espionage from the National Archives at Kew.

'You Must Fire On Them': Protest And Repression In Pulteneytown, Caithness, In 1847, James Hunter

Studies in Scottish Literature

Examines based on contemporary accounts the protests in the small coastal town Pulteneytown, Caithness, on Wednesday, 24 February, 1847, against the export of grain; the circumstances in which a small detachment from the British Army’s 76th Regiment opened fire on the protesters; and local and London newspaper comments about the confrontation and the military response.

The Reputation Of David Gray, David Mcvey

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses responses to the poetry, including the death, of the Scottish poet David Gray (1838-1861), primarily with reference to his longer poem The Luggie and his sonnet sequence In The Shadows, exploring the extent to which Gray himself consciously constructed a reputation around his own imminent death from TB, through reference to the career and death of earlier sufferers, including Michael Bruce, Robert Pollock, and John Keats.

‘Yon High Mossy Mountains’: A Burns Song Manuscript From The Roy Collection, Patrick Scott

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses and collates variants from a second autograph manuscript of Burns's song "Yon High..." or "Yon Wild Mossy Mountains," in the Roy Collection, University of South Carolina, reviewing the evidence on provenance, and assessing the purpose of the variants in the Roy manuscript.

Paper Monuments: The Latin Elegies Of Thomas Chambers, Almoner To Cardinal Richelieu, Kelsey Jackson Williams

Studies in Scottish Literature

Examines the Latin poems by Thomas Chambers (or Chalmers), the younger, a well-connected mid-17th century Catholic priest who spent time in Rome and Scotland as well as in France, where he was almoner to Cardinal Richelieu, based on a manuscript collection of elegies Chalmers copied into George Strachan’s manuscript album amicorum, and on other elegies known from their use on monuments or tombs.

Books Noted And Received, Patrick Scott

Studies in Scottish Literature

Shorter reviews and notices of recent books in Scottish literature and adjacent disciplines.

Front Matter, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Contents, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Leading The Soul: Use Of Rhetoric In Horace’S Odes, Kelly Freestone

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

The Ship Of Fools: Hieronymus Bosch In Response To Sebastian Brant, Ella Parker

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

“If I Cannot Inspire Love, I Will Cause Fear”: Reading The Creature’S Development Through Godwin’S Educational Theory In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein, Mikaela Huang

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Roald Dahl And The Construction Of Childhood: Writing The Child As Other, Madeline Spivey

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Portraiture And The Convergence Of Social Classes In Bleak House, Heather Twele

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Losing The West: A Critical Analysis Of Crane’S “The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky", Kaylee Weatherspoon

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Back Matter, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

The Oswald Review Of Undergraduate Research And Criticism In The Discipline Of English: Volume 22, 2020, Douglas Higbee

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

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.

‘...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.

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 …

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.

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.

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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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.

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 …

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.

‘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.

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.

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.

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.