1st Edition

Scottish Literature Since 1707

By Marshall Walker Copyright 1996
462 Pages
by Routledge

462 Pages
by Routledge

462 Pages
by Routledge

Marshall Walker's lively and readable account of the highs and lows of Scottish literature from this important date to the present addresses the important themes of democracy, power and nationhood. Disposing of stereotypical ideas about Scotland and the Scots, this fresh approach to Scottish literature provides a critical interpretation of its distinctive style and presents the reader with an... Read more
1. Terms of Reference: Patriotism and Change, Scottish Identity and Tradition 2. Union and Enlightenment 3. Satire, Sentiment and Scots 4. Robert Burns, the Myth and the Gift 5. Sir Walter Scott and the Supreme Fiction 6 Calvin's Scottish Devil, the End of Rural Sleep and Practical Christianity 7. Didacts and Doomsters, Nineteenth-century Propecy and Nightmare 8. Robert Louis Stevenson and the War in the Members 9. Tragedy, Epic and Entertainment, Early Twentieth-Century Fiction 10. 'Whaur's yer Wullie Shakespeare?' The Return of Scottish Drama 11. Poets of the Scottish Renaisance form Hugh MacDiarmid to Edwin Morgan 12. Post-war Fiction, Realism, Violence and Magic Chronology General Bibliographies Notes on biography, major works, and criticism

Biography

Marshall Walker

"The book has a clearly defined and readily understood structure....The net effect of this clean-cut overview of almost three hundred years is provocative and challenging....As an intelligent, highly personal reading of Scottish literature since 1707, it gives immense pleasure." - Scottish Literary Journal

"Walker's approach to Scottish literature offers useful insights and comments....In his introductory sections he provides some intriguing perspectives on the character of Scotland and its literature....the book contains humorous but valuable insights such as the following on Burn's "Tam O'Shanter": "The throw-away ending is pure ironic bathos: the reader is teasingly enjoined to repudiate the pleasures of the tavern, illicit adventure and a glimpse of a girl who can make the Devil wriggle." Walker's style provides for many "quotable" phrases from the volume." - World Literature Today