Public Culture and the Making of National Memory Robert Burns In
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School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts Faculty of Humanities Public Culture and the Making of National Memory Robert Burns in Contemporary Scotland Josephine Kathleen Dougal This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Curtin University July 2015 Declaration To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgment has been made. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. Josephine Dougal 31 July 2015 Contents Acknowledgements iii 1 Introduction 1 Summary 1 Background: locating Robert Burns in the twenty first century 3 Significance and rationale 10 Research design - a multimodal approach 18 2 The Making of Burns’ Reputation in the Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 34 Robert Burns: networker, PR man, business man and self-styled Scottish bard 38 It could be said that Burns was in the right place at the right time 42 Burns as ‘a socio-literary phenomenon’ 45 The age of ‘Burnomania’ 47 Recording Burns’ ‘gift’ to Scotland 58 Scotland personified 62 3 Robert Burns in the ‘National Interest’ in Contemporary Scotland 78 Burns’ global legacy as a national economic resource 79 National tourism 85 Homecoming Scotland 2009 87 Burns and Homecoming: a narrative of Scottish achievement and success 90 Mapping Burns onto the Scottish economy 99 The cultural and economic infrastructure of Burns 104 i 4 Remaking the Memory of Robert Burns in Literary Studies 114 Literary studies as a cultural memory making practice 116 Championing Burns studies: ‘an active intervention in cultural memory’ 122 A ‘seismic shift in Burns studies’ 125 Burns: recalled and recaptured 131 Guarding Burns 134 Burns studies activism 138 5 Performing Burns at the new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum 147 A repository of memories and a site for their renewal 149 Birthplace museums as narrative and biography 153 A multifaceted museum and ‘a great day out’ 156 The ‘real’ Burns: interpreting Burns at Alloway 161 Learning with Burns 168 Staging Burns 170 A ‘meaningful relationship with the poet’ 172 6 Robert Burns: A Shape Shifting ‘Sign’ of the Times 182 Burns as image and icon 186 An ‘extraordinary web of imagery’ 190 The shape shifting process 194 Burns makeovers 198 The ‘iconisation’ of Burns 225 The online people’s Burns 227 ‘many headed and polyphonic manifestations’ 236 7 Conclusion Robert Burns: An Ongoing Cultural Discourse 251 Bibliography 261 List of Figures 295 ii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the many organisations and institutions that provided research assistance and access to their work, collections and personnel. The Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow offered significant support, providing a research base during my field work trips to Scotland and the opportunity to present and discuss aspects of my work. Others that provided valuable assistance include: the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, National Galleries of Scotland, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Scottish National Gallery, National Library of Scotland, Mitchell Library, University of Glasgow Library, University of Edinburgh Library, University of Dundee, University of the West of Scotland (previously University of Paisley), National Museum of Scotland, National Trust for Scotland, Scottish Book Trust, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Gracefield Arts Centre, Writers’ Museum, Future Museum, Museums Sheffield, Queen Margaret University Homecoming Scotland 2009 Archive, Burns House Museum, Burns Monument Centre, Robert Burns Centre, Burns Scotland, South Ayrshire Council, East Ayrshire Council, Scottish Government, Scotland.org, EventScotland, VisitScotland, Robert Burns World Federation and individual Burns Clubs, Stirling Centre for Scottish Studies (University of Stirling), Centre for Scottish Studies (Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada), and Scottish Studies Centre (University of Mainz, Germany). There were also (in Scotland and elsewhere) the community groups, companies, publishers, visitor centres, shops, hotels, artists’ studios and other venues that allowed me to document Robert Burns related material at their premises and through their websites. I would also like to thank a number of individuals who responded to queries, provided information and gave generously of their time, expertise and advice. I am especially grateful to: Diana Adair, Ross Ashton, Charlie Barr, Robert Betteridge, Linden Bicket, Gerred Blyth, Valentina Bold, David Booth, Janey Bracken, Hannah Brignell, Sean Brosnahan, Rhona Brown, Patrick Buckridge, John Burnett, John Cake, Steve Carroll, Gerard Carruthers, Gary Carson, Marie Christie, John Clark, Ryan Clee, Katherine Clemmens, Philippa Cochrane, Calum Colvin, Patricia Convery, Jackie Cromarty, Leith Davis, Angela Eddison, Nat Edwards, Graham Fagen, Alexander Finbow, David Forsyth, Colin Fox, Imogen Gibbon, Ian Gow, Bob Harper, Suzanne Harper, Jane Harrington, Dawn Henderby, James Holloway, David Hopes, Peter Howson, Peter Hughes, Philip Hunt, Kenny Hunter, Roddy Isles, Sarah Jeffcott, Michael Johnstone, Dorothy Kidd, Elspeth King, Marcin Klimek, Uli Kraeling, David Kyle, Janis Lawrie, Nigel Leask, Anthony Lewis, Murdo Macdonald, Lloyd and Swan MacIlquham, Pauline Mackay, Andrew Martin, Alistair McAuley, Alan McCormack, iii Kirsteen McCue, Sean McGilvray, Clark McGinn, Jaclyn McKie, Ann McPike, Alan McQueen, Joanna Meacock, Jennifer Melville, Amy Miller, Phyllis Mitchell, Janne Moller, Peter Muller, Darren Neave, Helen Nugent, Andrew Patrizio, Murray Pittock, Malcolm Prentis, Siobhan Ratchford, Natalya Ratner, Stevie Reeves, Ann Rigney, Elizabeth Roberts, Johnny Rodger, Jacob Rogers, Jakki Ross, Francesca Saggini, Robert Scobie, Lindsey Short, Paul Simmons, David Smith, Rebecca Stapley, Mark Stephen, David Street, Livia Alexandra Stroie, Jason Sutcliffe, Alison Tait, Susan Taylor, Sheilagh Tennant, Leon Thompson, Alex Tyrrell, Chris Walker, James Walker, Niamh Webster, Sheila Williams, Lisa Williamson, Adrian Wiszniewski, Stuart Wood, and Trisha Ziff. In particular, I would like to thank my PhD Supervisor, Professor Graham Seal, for his support, wisdom and guidance. iv 1 Introduction Summary This thesis is concerned with the relationship between public culture, cultural memory and national identity. Its purpose is to develop a critical account of the ways in which contemporary culture acts as a site for cultural memory and participates in the construction and representation of cultural identity, specifically Scottish identity. While earlier approaches to public memory have emphasised the recording and preservation of the past, this study contributes to recent conceptual shifts in the field that focus on contemporary meanings and the mutable and fluid nature of cultural memory.1 Here, cultural memory is viewed as a dynamic cultural process, in which the past is re-presented, reconfigured and meanings are reassigned in the context of the present and within wider cultural frames of relevance.2 An important implication of this dynamic conception of cultural memory is that while cultural memories are viewed (and studied) through their manifestation in cultural form (as artifacts, images, narratives and cultural practices), it is how those representations of and activities concerning the past ‘are organized socially and culturally’ that helps to explain what they might mean for those doing the remembering.3 A further implication is that the technologies of remembering allow for memories to be shared and shaped across ‘space and time’ and for memories to interact across social and cultural environments in creating ‘communality’.4 The interest here is in the way in which memories can and do move across media, across generations, across borders and cultural spheres, and what happens to those memories in that process, especially as new media and technologies arise.5 1 Introduction The topic is addressed through a detailed investigation of contemporary representations of Robert Burns (the eighteenth century Scottish poet and song writer), who continues to maintain a substantial cultural ‘afterlife’ in the twenty first century, both within Scotland and beyond. As the late twentieth and early twenty first century has brought increased political independence, a global economic outlook and cultural buoyancy to Scotland, it has also has been marked by a renewed interest in Burns. Long established as a Scottish cultural icon, this literary figure from Scotland’s past is attracting considerable new attention across the social spectrum: from politicians to artists, from scholars to roller derby teams, from cultural institutions to fashion designers, and from tourism agencies to bloggers and facebookers. Burns’ cultural afterlife is also being expressed and represented in both Scottish and global terms in various cultural and social arenas, and through globally interconnected networks and technologies of meaning making. This recent flourishing of interest and engagement raises questions about what it is that the figure of Burns does (in a cultural sense) and why and how an eighteenth century poet and song writer continues to be the object of such extensive and varied cultural elaboration at this time. In approaching this question, some fruitful lines of enquiry are being suggested in recent discussions and research that has looked at the nineteenth century Burns as a ‘mobilizing agent in collective memory production’.6 One such appraisal