Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

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.

. .

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.

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.

‘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.

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.

Contributors To Ssl 45.2

Studies in Scottish Literature

Biographical information on contributors to SSL 45.2

Introduction: The Ghost At The Feast: Religion In Scottish Literary Criticism, Patrick Scott

Studies in Scottish Literature

Surveys changes in Scottish institutional religion, summarizes Crawford Gribben's critique in 2006 of Scottish literary criticism's long-time anti-Calvinist bias, and introduces essays reappraising the treatment of belief by Scottish poets and novelists from varied religious backgrounds and the critical response to this aspect of their work.

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.

Presbyterianism, 'Scottish Literature,' And John Galt's Annals Of The Parish, Robert P. Irvine

Studies in Scottish Literature

In discussing religion in John Galt's novel about religious and social change in a small West of Scotland town between 1760 and 1820, suggests “Scottish literature” was forged, not in opposition to Calvinist theological ideas, but to the Kirk as a rival national institution, and that Scottish literature became "national," less through self-from the literature of another nation (England), than from another institution with a rival claim to represent the same nation, namely the established Scottish church.

Philosophical Vagabonds: Pedestrianism, Politics, And Improvement On The Scottish Tour, Nigel Leask

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses John Bristed's "facetious, digressive" memoir, Anthroplanomenos (1803), about a walking tour through the Highlands of lScotland in 1801 by two young students "disguised as American sailors, with little money and no identity papers,” describing their adventures and misadventures as they encountered suspicion, hostility and sometimes surprising kindness; brings out the two travellers’ often-self-contradictory responses to what they saw and experienced; and shows how the tour contributed to their changing political perspective, mirroring the turn away from 1790s radicalism in better-known writers in the same years. An edited version of the 2017 Marilyn Butler Lecture, for the British Association for …

W.S. Graham: ‘Born In A Diamond Screeched From A Mountain Pap’, Gerard Carruthers

Studies in Scottish Literature

Provides a centenary reassessment of the Scottish poet W. S. Graham (1918-1986), increasingly recognized as a writer of enduring significance, both for Scottish poetry and for 20th century Modernist poetry more broadly, through close readings of poems from different phases of Graham’s writing career. An edited version of the Hugh MacDiarmid Lecture in March 2018 at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh.

George Thomson To Robert Burns: A Newly-Identified Manuscript Letter-Fragment, Gerard Lee Mckeever

Studies in Scottish Literature

Describes and illustrates a newly-identified fragment (final page) of a letter to Robert Burns in April 1793 from George Thomson, editor of the Select Collection of Original Scotish Songs, in the Newberry Library, Chicago, discusses the date of the letter and of the Burns song "The Soger's Return" on the letter verso, and reviews the implication of the manuscript for the sequence of letters in the Thomson-Burns correspondence.

‘The Hope That Someone Might Present Them With A Kilmarnock Burns’: The National Library Of Scotland’S First Kilmarnock, Robert Betteridge

Studies in Scottish Literature

Recounts, from correspondence and minutes in the National Library of Scotland, and from contemporary newspapers, the library's unsuccessful efforts to attract a donated copy of Robert Burns's first book, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Kilmarnock: John Wilson, 1786), and its successful purchase at auction in 1950 of the "Hoe copy," with original wrappers bound in.

A New Janet Hamilton Manuscript, Robert Maclean, Gerard Carruthers

Studies in Scottish Literature

Describes and illustrates a newly-identified short poem in the distinctive hand of the Scottish working-class poet Janet Hamilton (1795-1873), discovered tipped into a volume of The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine (1852 [1853]), in University of Glasgow Library, with information on the provenance of the volume.

A ‘Scoto-British-European’ Rediscovered: The Life And Writings Of George Lauder, Kelsey Jackson Williams

Studies in Scottish Literature

Review of: Alasdair A. MacDonald, George Lauder (1603-1670): Life and Writings. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2018.The review suggests that, until Alasdair MacDonald’s book, the "originality, ingenuity, and significance" of the expatriate Scots soldier and poet George Lauder (1603-1670) "have been radically underestimated," and in exploring MacDonald's book, which is both biography and edition, provides a introductory critical assessment of Lauder's varied poetry and translations, endorsing as more widely applicable MacDonald's argument that "Scots writing in English deserve equal attention as their Scotophone counterparts" and that "'authors who are innovative in drawing inspiration from new foreign models deserve better than to …

Scotland And The Geometric Imagination, Mike Hill

Studies in Scottish Literature

Review of: Matthew Wickman. Literature After Euclid: The Geometric Imagination in the Long Scottish Enlightenment. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.The review praises Wickman's "extraordinary book," designed to “throw a wrench into grand narratives about modernity,” summarizing its wide-ranging argument about the centrality of spatial, visual and geometric thought in what Wickman calls "the long looping eighteenth century," in Scottish philosophy, education and literature, and commenting briefly on the implications of Wickman's argument for "how literary canons are made" and "the dynamics of disciplines."

Contributors To Ssl 45.1

Studies in Scottish Literature

No abstract provided.

Douglas’S Palyce Of Honour Re-Edited, P. J. Klemp

Studies in Scottish Literature

Review of: David J. Parkinson, ed. Gavin Douglas: “The Palyce of Honour.” 2nd edition. Kalamazoo, MI: Published for TEAMS (Teaching Association for Medieval Studies) in Association with the University of Rochester by Medieval Institute Publications, 2018. Judging the volume an "impressive accomplishment," the review draws attention to Parkinson's much expanded introduction, which provides both "first-rate literary criticism" and "a comprehensive study of Douglas’s biography and the Palyce’s textual issues, language, and participation in the genre of the dream vision."

Border Police: Scott’S Minstrelsy Of The Scottish Border, The Law, And The 1790s, Penny Fielding

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802 etc) in the context of Border history, Scottish legal philosophy, the jurisdictional and cultural concept of the "Debateable Lands," and the Scottish political situation during the political trials and the Militia Act riots in the 1790s. .

Preface To Ssl 45.1, Patrick Scott, Tony Jarrells

Studies in Scottish Literature

Brief update on recent and future issues; tribute to Lucie C. Roy (1925-2018); update in journal endowment and article download statistics.

Croftangry’S Castle And The House Of Usher: Scott, Poe, And ‘Decayed And Lingering Exotics’, George S. Williams

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses Poe's reading of Walter Scott, specifically through parallels of plot, setting, phrasing and imagery, between Scott's Chronicles of the Canongate, 1st series (1827) and Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839), arguing that the two works share psychological preoccupations, also present more widely in the prose works of the writers.