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Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] WRITING TBE NATION:

FOUR INTER-WAR VISIONS OF SCOTLAND

By

Hanne Tange

A thesis submitted to the in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2000

Department, o fScottish Literature , University of Glasgow Q Hanne Tange Til Tange-klanen i medgangog modgang 3 Summary

This thesisexamines the visions of Scotlandthat comeacross in the inter-warwritings of Hugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn,Lewis GrassicGibbon and Edwin Muir in relationto the ideasof the ScottishLiterary Renaissanceas a whole. The initial part, "Into the Renaissance",consists of a historical accountof Scottish political and cultural nationalismin the 1920sand 1930s,followed by an examinationof the ways in which the authorsassociated with the ScottishRenaissance participated in the constructionof Scotlandas an imaginedcommunity. Geography, history, religion, languageand literatureare identified asthe five predominantthemes in the inter-war tradition, on the basisof which the intellectualscreated an imageof the nation that could expresstheir twin philosophiesof nationalismand modernism. The secondpart, 'Tour visions of ScotlanV, is composedof closereadings of the work of Hugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn,Lewis GrassicGibbon and Edwin Muir in that order of appearance.The MacDiannid chapterbegins with a discussionof the poet's call for a ScottishRenaissance in the 1920sand 1930s.It is arguedthat MacDiarmidset out with a strongbelief in his own ability to awakenthe nation,but that he became increasinglydisappointed with the Scots' lack of responseto his programmetowards the end of the 1920s.This disillusionmentresulted in a changeof strategyin the 1930s when, on the one hand,he exchangedthe politics of Party for his personal ideologyof ScottishRepublicanism, while, on the other,he abandonedprevious attemptsto reform the Scottishnation in favour of an idealisedvision that was more compatiblewith his poetic aims "Ibe peripherymoves to the centre"focuses on the work of Neil Gunn.The two initial sectionsconsider how the novelist attemptedto rewrite Scottishgeography and history in the 1920sand 1930s.The fiction is comparedwith Gunn's non-fictional writings in order to demonstrateto what an extentthis revisionismwas motivatedby the author'spolitical nationalism.The third part discussesGunn's work of the late 1930s,in which he tried to balancehis personalideal of small-statenationalism against the internationalistphilosophies of communismand socialism.Hence Gunn remainedloyal to his nationalistbeliefs throughoutthe 1920sand 1930s,which makeshis vision of Scotlandthe most consistentof the four. Summary

The chapteron Lewis GrassicGibbon begins with a discussionof the mannerin which the writer employsScottish geography, history andlanguage to constructhis imaginedcommunity of Kinraddie.The secondsection concentrates on the relationship betweenthe fiction of CloudHowe and the non-fictional"Condition of Scotland"genre that developedin the 1920sand 1930,whereas the third part considersthe implications of the author'sideological message. I concludethat Gibbon'sA ScotsQuair represents oneof the strongestimages of Scotlandthat emergedfrom the inter-warrevival, but also that it associatesthe nationwith thepasý which is to saythat it containslittle hopefor the future. Finally, "Wherethings miscarry" examines Edwin Muir's ambivalentrelationship with his homecountry. The chapterstarts with a brief accountof the writer's developmentin the 1920s,then moves into his criticism of the 1930s,which is more Scottishin orientation.It is arguedthat he originally sympathisedwith the ideaof a ScottishRenaissance when he first encounteredit in the early 1920s,but that he soon realisedthat Scotlandand the Scotsmight not live up to MacDiarmid'shigh expectations.The secondand third sectionsdiscuss how in Muir's writings of the 1930s the nation becamesynonymous with Calvinism,which againled the authorto conclude that Scotlandwas an artistic wasteland.Accordingly, Muir's work leavesa negative vision that may counterbalanceMacDiarmid's idealism. The concludingpart, "The dissociatedimagination? ", comparesthe four visionsof Hugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn,Lewis GrassicGibbon and Edwin Muir. It is demonstratedhow, on the onehand, the authors'use of geography,history, religion, languageand literaturein their writings increasethe visibility of Scotlandas an imaginedcommunity, whereas their lack of consensuson a numberof key issues,on the other,weakens the nationalistargument. On the basisof that, I claim that the legacyof the ScottishRenaissance within Scottishliterary tradition is the myths of continuity and dissociationwhich havebeen to the fore of the critical discoursein the twentieth century,but which mustbe deconstructedif one is gain a full understandingof the period. In consequence,I propose a cultural historical approachto the ScottishLiterary Renaissancewhich recognisesthe discursivenature of the literatureas well as the fact that we are essentiallydealing with a period of history. Tablc of contcnts: SUMMARY 3 ...... TABLEOF CONTENTS: 5 ...... AwowLEDGEminm 6 ...... AUMOR'S 7 DECLARATTON...... INTRODUCTTON 8 ......

PART ONE: INTO THE RENAISSANCE.------INTo RENAissANcE 16 THE ...... 1919 16 on the edgeof catastrophe...... Enter "Hugh MDiarmid". Scottish in 1920s 1930s 21 nationalism the and ...... The Scotland 33 voiceof ...... Beyond Renaissance 49 the ......

PART TWO: FOUR VISIONS OF SCOTLAND-- INTRODUCTORY 52 ...... ; ...... ON SEEINGSCOTLAND HUGHM. 1919-43 54 WHOLE: ACDIAMID ...... Calling ScottishReýaissance 1919-30 59 out the ...... "Lourd Hert 1930s 69 on my ". HughMacDiarmid's politics in the ...... Poet'sluck- Hugh MacMarmid's in 1930s 77 poetics the ...... Hugh MacDiarmid in ScottishRenaissance 84 the ...... THE PEFjrHERY NEIL M. GUNN 192641 89 movEs To THEcENTRE: ...... Too Neil Gunn's 1926-32 94 old and going under: space ...... TwoScottish histories 1933-41 103 ...... "The Macdonald day". Gunn's late 1930s 110 at the endof the - vision of the ...... Neil Gunnin ScottishRenaissance 117 the ...... FROMScoTsHiRE MEARNs:LEWIS GRASSIC GMBON 1928-35 122 INTOTHE ...... Grassic Gibbon's 1930-32 127 art ofcommunity: ...... Between the Scotland Cloud Howe 136 old and a new: ...... Grey Granite: Nere tradition 143 and modernity meet ...... Lewis Grassic Gibbon in the 151 ......

WHERE THINGSMISCARRY: EDWIN MUIR 191843 156 ...... In an age of transition: The 1918-28 161 growth of a critic ...... Edwin Muir's Scottishiourney 1929-35 168 ...... To "Scottland" and beyond 193643 177 ...... Edwin Muir in the Scottish Renaissance 185 ......

CONCLUSION: THE DISSOCIATED MAGINATION? --. -190 MiE 191 DISSOCIATED54AGINATION? ...... Voices * 192 ofScotland...... Ae dissociatedimagination? The Renaissance legacy 208 ...... BMUOGRAPHY 215 ...... 6

f,

Acknowledgments:

I would particularlylike to thankmy supervisorDr. MargeryPalmer McCulloch, who has sharedwith me her extensiveknowledge of the ScottishRenaissance. Acknowledgementsare alsodue to ProfessorDouglas Gifford andDr. phil. Marianne Borch, who haveadvised me in the past,and to ProfessorTed Cowanand Professor Lars Ole Sauerbergfor their supportand encouragement.

I am gratefulto the DanishResearch Academy for funding my tuition, researchand conferenceexpenses throughout my period of studyand to the DanishResearch Council for the Humanitiesfor the awardof a Ph.D. bursaryfrom Jan.1999 to Dec. 2000.In addition,I would like to acknowledgemy debtto OdenseUniversitets Forskningsfond, Knud HojgaardsFond and OverretssagforerSigurd Jacobsens Mindefond for their generoussupport during the fint yearof my research.

For their encouragementalong the way I would like to thankProfessor Ian Campbell, ProfessorCairns Craig, Dr. RichardFinlay, Dr-Colin Kidd, ProfessorDavid McCrone and ProfessorRoderick Watson, who all took the time to discussmy projectwith me.I am also gratefulto the staff at GlasgowUniyersity Library, StrathclydeUniversity Library, the Nfitchell Library, EdinburghUniversity Library andthe National Library of Scotland,who helpedme navigatethrough the archives.A specialthanks to Audrey Canning,Subject Librarian of the Willie GallagherCollection, Glasgow Caledonian University, whoseassistance exceeded all expectations. Finally, I would like to thank everybodyin the Departmentof /GlasgowSchool of ScottishStudies for their support.A specialthanks to Hazel for her advise,to Gerry for her patienceand to Heatherfor a few of the unexpectedmoments. Also a thanksto my Jýiendsin Denmarkand Scotlandas well as to my family, without whom the completionof my task would havebeen impossible. All 7

4-

Author's declaration

This thesisrepresents my own unassistedwork, andno part of it hasbeen submitted , previouslyfor any academicqtialification. The views expressedare my own andnot thoseof the University of Glasgow.

Hame Tange 8 Introduction

This thesis examines four visions of Scotland that emergefrom the inter-war writings of Hugh MacDiarmid, Neil Gunn, Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Edwin Muir. In the 1920s and 1930s, these writers were associatedwith the cultural movement that has become known as the Scottish Literary Renaissance.At the time, the Renaissancerepresented a reaction against the anglicisation and provincialisation that the inter-war generationsaw in the work of their nineteenth-centurypredecessors. A primary objective was to secure a place for Scotland on the cultural map of Europe, which is to say that the Renaissance writers acceptedScotland as a nation in its own right, not a dependencyof England. In culture as well as politics, the inter-war authors underlined their commitment to

Scotland through an insistence on national difference. As a result, the literature of the period is dominated by Scottish themes to an unprecedenteddegree, and even sceptics such as Gibbon and Muir, who were less than convinced about the potentials of a politically autonomous Scotland, felt compelled to engagewith such matters. The Scottish Renaissanceconstituted no united front, however, which brings me to the secondarypurpose behind my work: on the basis of a reading of MacDiarmid, Gunn, Gibbon and Muir within the over-all context of Scottish inter-war literature, I want to propose an inclusive concept of the Renaissancewhich does not neglect individualism in the searchfor common ground. I shall therefore consider the issuesthat drove my four authors apart as well as those that brought them together, for only by taking both into account, may we present a balanced view of the age. I have chosen to approach the Scottish Renaissancefrom a cultural historical rather than a literary stance.My argument is based on the belief that the political, economic and social tendenciesof an age are manifest in its literature, and in relation to Scottish inter-war writing specifically, my position is substantiatedby the fact that each of my authors produced social commentary as well as creative writing. In consequence,my analysis does not distinguish between the creative and non-fictional genres,for, in my opinion, both offer valid insights into the thinking of a particular era. In terms of theory, I have made use of several methods which in different ways have provided useful perspectives in relation to my interdisciplinary approach. With regard to the questionsof nation and nationhood, I have drawn on anthropological writers such as Ernest Gellner, Anthony Smith and Benedict Anderson. Nationalism features prominently in the study Introduction 9 of nineteenth-centuryRomanticism in Scotlandand elsewhere, but twentieth-century literary scholarshave been less enthusiastic about the nationalquestion. As a result, therewould appearto be a reluctanceto acceptnationalism as a factorbehind European modernism,even if Norwegian,Irish and Scottishexamples suggest a connection betweenthe two. My understandingof modernismhas been inspired partly by classical accountsof early twentieth-centuryliterature such as Malcolm Bradburyand James McFarlane'sModernism (199 1), partly by the work of cultural historianssuch as StephenKern andDavid Harvey.Modernism, the cultural historiansclaim, developedin responseto a dramaticchange in the humanperception of the world and of humanity's placewithin it, which may accountalso for Scottishartists' return to nativematters. As regardsmy method,I acknowledgethe importanceof critics suchas M. M. Bakhtin, Michel Foucaultand Hayden White, who in different wayshave contributed to the breakingdown of the barriersbetween absolute categories such as history andliterature. I recognisethe subjectivityof a literary text, yet acceptits value as a historical document.A work of art may be producedby an exceptionalindividual, but it remainsa productof its time, which is to saythat it enablesus to accessinformation - the thoughts,the ideas,the priorities of a given era- that traditionalhistory fails to provide. In accordancewith that, I want to emphasisethe relationshipbetween the artist,his/her period andhis/her art, which againpresupposes an interdependencybetween literature and society. On the Scottishside, I havefound my searchfor an accountof a period,which must be regardedas a formativestage in the continuingdevelopment of Scottishliterature, somewhatfrustrating. A largeamount of critical attentionhas been paid to eachof the writers in question,but with the exceptionof DuncanGlen's Hugh MacDiamid and the ScottishRenaissance (1964) and SusanneHag=ann's Die SchottischeRenaissance: Literatur und Nation im 20. Jahrhundert(199 1), few attemptshave been made towards placing the authorswithin their age.Of the two existingworks, DuncanGlen is primarily concernedwith the role of MacDiarmid,which meansthat he providesonly a little information aboutother writers of the period. SusanneHagemann, on the other hand,offers a summaryof eighteenRenaissance associates' opinions on a selectionof themes,but shenever moves her examinationfrom mereanalysis into the level of abstraction.In addition,her studyis in German,which is to saythat more than sixty yearsafter the modemrevival in Scotland,no comprehensiveaccount of the introduction 10 Renaissanceexists in English.In termsof history,the 1920sand 1930shave fared better.In No Godsand PreciousFew Heroes(1993) and Scotland and Nationalism (1998),Christopher Harvie devotesa substantialpart of his argumentto inter-war Scotland,whereas the particularissue of Scottishnationalism has been addressed by RichardFinlay in Independentand Free (1994).Much work hasyet to be doneon the relationshipbetween Scottish politics and culture,however, which hascreated some problemsfor my own research.Occasionally, therefore, my discussionmay appearto be openingnew questionswhere one would havepreferred it to be resolvingthe old ones. My examinationwill centreon the work of Hugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn,Lewis GrassicGibbon and Edwin Muir. They arethe most outspokenof the Scottishinter-war writers with regardto the questionsof nation andnationhood, which is important becausethat enablesme to abstractfrom their writings four clear-cutvisions of Scotland that may be balancedagainst a more generalisedRenaissance programme. At the same time, it is their agreementsand disagreements that to a largeextent have defined the way ScottishRenaissance literature has been perceived by contemporaryand later critics. Hencea focuson the tradition representedby MacDiarmid,Gunn, Gibbon and Muir_ allows me to engagewith the key issuesin Scottishinter-war writing, yet avoidthe dangersof a more inclusivediscussion, which, becauseof its concernwith a larger numberof artists,would alsoincrease the amountof detailsand exceptionsthat would haveto be takeninto consideration.Having saidthat, I shall not claim that MacDiannid, Gunn,Gibbon and Muir equalthe ScottishRenaissance themselves. With regardto gender,the ScottishRenaissance contained a substantialfemale elementý which is often overshadowedby the traditionalconcern with the men. CatherineCarswell's Open the Door from 1920is the first manifestationof a new tendencyin Scottishfiction, while manyregard Willa Muir's ImaginedCorners (193 1) as one of the bestinter-war novels. Similarly, Violet Jacobhad alreadyexplored the vernacularwhen in the 1920sit was adoptedby MacDiarmid,while Nan Shepherd'sThe Quarry Wood(1928) anticipated SunsetSong. Myjustification for excludingthe womenlies in the relative insignificance of the nationalquestion in their writings. While MacDiarmid, Gunn,Gibbon andMuir engagedwith the stateof Scotlandin their art, their femalecounterparts seem more interestedin defining a spacefor womenand in exploring femalerather than national identity. In geographicalterms, my four writers areequally unrepresentative. All derived from rural backgrounds,a legacywhich showsin their creativewritings in the form of a Introduction 11 relative detachmentfrom industrialScotland. There were otherwriters suchas George Blake andJames Barke, who revealeda greaterinsight into the conditionsof urban Scotland,but, like the'women,they were lessinterested in the nationalquestion, which makesthem peripheral to my particularargument. Finally, the Lowland/Anglo-Scots elementpredominates in an ethnicsense. Though a Highlanderhimself, Neil Gunnhad lost his ancestralGaelic, which might makehim unconvincingas a spokespersonfor the Gael.As opposedto Celtic enthusiastssuch as Ruaraidh Erskine of Marr andFionn Mac Colla, however,whose idea of the nationwas basedon Gaelicculture exclusively, Gunn's conceptof Scotlandembraced the Lowlandsas well asthe 11ighlands,which makesit relevantto the questionsof nationalismand internationalism in a wider sense. In short,I would like to stressthat therehas been no qualitativejudgement involved in my choiceof Hugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn,Lewis GrassicGibbon and Edwin Muir over other Scottishinter-war writers. I haveselected those four becausethey offer the fullest rangeof opinionson the specifictopics that areat the heartof my analysis,and I haveno doubtthat an inquiry concernedwith othermatters might haveidentified four different spokespersonsfor the ScottishRenaissance. As regardsmy theme,I want to concentrateon the constructionof Scotlandin the literaturebecause I believethat to be the primary concernof the ScottishLiterary Renaissance.In my initial part, I identify geography,history, religion, languageand literatureas the five main constituentsof the nation as it is imaginedby writers of the Renaissance,and on the basisof these,I will deconstructthe respectivevisions of Scotlandthat appearin the work of MacDiarmid,Gunn, Gibbon and Muir. By so doing, I aim to demonstratewhere these images resemble those of Scottishinter-war literature more generally,and where they areindividualist in orientation,which will enableme to define the position of eachartist vis-i-vis the ScottishRenaissance. Such an attemptto balanceout the personalphilosophies of four intellectualsagainst the over-all trendsof their era dependson a substantialcultural historical component.As part of my examination,I shall thereforerefer to the contemporarypolitical, social,economic and cultural developmentsthat may haveinfluenced MacDiarmid, Gunn, Gibbon and Muir at their time of writing. It is my aim to contextualisethe four writers within their age,in otherwords, in orderto identify the possibleorigins of their ideasas well asthe manner in which eachauthor incorporated such elements into his personalsystem of belief. Introduction 12 The time frame of my study is the 1920s and 1930s. Though the re-negotiation of valuesthat took placein Europeafter the First World War was a factorbehind the resurgenceof Scottish'nationalism,it was only in the early 1920sit becameevident that somethingwas happeningin Scottishculture. With the outbreakof the SecondWorld War, on the otherhand, the cultural andpolitical climate changedin Scotland,which makesit problematicto speakof a ScottishRenaissance in my understandingof the term after 1939.In my readingof the four Renaissancewriters I occasionallydeviate from this over-all chronologicalfi-ame: Edwin Muir, Hugh MacDiarmidand Neil Gunnall publishedworks in the early 1940sthat were inspiredby the Renaissanceethos, if not indeedcomposed in the 1930s,and I havefound it necessaryto refer to thesein orderto presenta roundedpicture. As it hasbeen used throughout my discussion,the tenn the "ScottishLiterary Renaissance"refers to Scottishinter-war writing in the widest sense.As Susanne Hagemannpoints out in Die SchottischeRenaissance, the phraseis confusingbecause of the tendencyamong critics to invest in it different meanings(Hagemann 1991: 12- 13). As adoptedhere, my conceptof the Renaissanceidentifies as Renaissance literature all inter-warpublications that engagewith the ideasof Scotlandand Scottishness.In my opinion, the Renaissanceis not exclusivelyan artistic phenomenon,but a general discoursethat engagedpoliticians, academicsand journalists aswell aspoets. The "Scottishmovement' 'and "revival" denotethe nationalawakening more generally. Wheremy notion of "Renaissance"thus refers to a trend in Scottishwriting, the Scottish "movement'T'revival" embracespolitical organisationssuch as the National PartYof Scotland,cultural associationssuch as ScottishP. E. N. and individualssuch as R. E. Muirhead andJohn MacCormick, who supportedthe nationalistcause without necessarilyparticipating in the literary project.With regardto "nationalism" and "internationalism",I usethe former to suggesta commitmentto one's native country, the latter to imply solidarity acrossnational boundaries. Nationalism tends to be connectedto the separatistideology of the National Party,whereas internationalism is associatedwith the left-wing principlesof socialismand communism,although it should be rememberedthat the two conceptswere not mutually exclusiveto the Renaissance writers. On a similar note,the critic must bearin mind that theseterms did not carrythe sameconnotations to an inter-war authoras they do today.The world had yet to awaken to the crimesof Nazism and Stalinismin the 1930s,which is to saythat nationalismand Introduction 13 communismmight offer hopeto the Renaissancewhere to a late twentieth-century readerthey havebecome synonymous with repression. I havedivided my inquiry into threeparts. The first of these,"Into the Renaissance", provides the historical context of the Scottish Literary Renaissance.In this section, I will consider the general development of political and cultural nationalism from the end of the First World War to the late 1930s. I shall also introduce the writing of the period through a discussion of the manner in which Scottish intellectuals contributed to the re- invention of the nation during the inter-war years. My secondpartý "Four inter-war visions of Scotland7, concentrateson the specific ideas of Hugh MacDiarmid, Neil Gunn, Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Edwin Muir in that order of appearance.As part of my analysis, I will relate eachwriter to the political, cultural and economic circumstances that influenced him at the time of writing. My principal aim is to demonstratehow the single author employs the idea of Scotland in his art, which meansthat my reading will be determined by the priorities of the specific artist, not necessarilythe categoriesof part one's generalisedRenaissance programme. Finally, "The dissociated imagination?" offers a reflective approachto the Scottish Renaissance.In that concluding section, I want to compare the visions of Scotland that have emerged from my interpretation of the four writers, then consider the implications for our understanding of the period as a whole. At the end, it is my hope to deconstruct some of the myths in Scottish criticism which are the legacy of the inter-war revival, whilst pointing towards a more comprehensiveperspective on the literature. ThoughI have found it the most appropriatefor a study like the present,I seetwo potential difficulties with my structure.First of all, the transitionbetween the second andthe third part appearssomewhat artificial. One sectionoffers a closereading of four individual writers, the otherreflects on Scottishculture in a wider sense,and the connectionbetween the two may not seemobvious at first. A summarytowards the end of part two might haveresolved the matteras that would widen the scopeof the discussionin preparationfor part three.The possiblecontent of suchhas already been includedin the concludingsection, however, which would makeit somewhatrepetitive. A secondissue relates to the internal structureof part two, for my order of MacDiarmid, Gunn,Gibbon andMuir raisesthe questionof negativism.Gibbon and Muir were pessimisticwith regardto the prospectsof Scotland,and an analysisthat endswith their visions of the nation inevitably leavesthe readerwith a negativeimpression. Yet the Introduction 14 alternative,positive ideasof MacDiarmidand Gunnare no morerepresentative in themselves,and I hopethe pessimismmay be balancedout by a conclusionthat brings the four visionstogether. I thus admit to certainawkward structural decisions, but am uncertainwhether a different structurewould not haveinvolved otherproblematic choices. A final noteon my referencesystem: I haveadopted the HarvardSystem which incorporatesreferences in parenthesiswithin the main text ratherthan in a separate sectionat the end.Within eachparenthesis, the namerefers to the authorof a given source,the yearto the dateof publication,and the numberto the page.Lower-case lettersare used to distinguishbetween texts by the samewriter that appearedwithin the sameyear, while I haveoccasionally included the title in orderto avoid confusion.In addition, I haveadded the original dateof publicationwhenever my edition of a primary work is not the original. Accordingly,Lewis GrassicGibbon's Sunset Song, which was first publishedin 1932,reads as (Gibbon 1932/1995a),whereas an Edwin Muir letter from 1924becomes (Muir 1924/1974). Part One

Into the Renm*ssance Into the-Renaissance

[R] is not the wild menof ScottishNationalism who are to befeared.ý it is the dull menof unchangingScotland. Arthur Marwick 1970

Ifnine] danger of our Movement, as of any movementor any man's mind, is not that of being too extreme, but ofbeing not extreme enough. Hugh MacDiarmid 1928

1919 on the edgeof catastrophe In comparisonwith the developmentsleading up to and following uponthat year, 1919 may seemrather uneventful. A world war, which had touchedupon everylayer of society,had just beenbrought to an end.The implicationsof the VersaillesPeace Treaty were yet to awakenthe small nationsaround Europe, while working-classradicalism, which had peakedduring the war when the needto keepproduction going had placed greatpowers in the handof the workers,was now being contained.The Scottish economy,which before 1914had sufferedfrom severalstructural weaknesses, still prosperedfrom the war economy.Nobody couldhave foreseenthat depressionlurked just aroundthe comer, andthe generalmood in the populationwas optimistic.Now that the war had beensuccessfully concluded, things would go back to a pre-warnormal, which would allow Scotlandto resumeits previousposition as a mother-nationof the Empire,work-shop of the world. Suchcomplacency did not preventthe odd critical voice from being raised.As early as 1918the tradeunionist William Diack observedin TheScouish Review:

For more than four yearsa bloody war hasbeen waged - ostensiblyat any rate - for the sakeof small nationalities.Certainly the causeof Belgium, in the early daysof the war, nervedthe arm of many a Highland soldier to greaterendeavour, and steeledthe heartsof the peopleto heroic sacrifice.The right of small nationsto 'self-determination'has been proclaimedto all the world as one of the guiding principlesof the war policy of the Allies. For that ideal, Scottishblood and Scottishtreasure havebeen poured out like water.And yet, althoughScotland is one of the oldestof the small statesof Europe,its claim to nationalindependence is passedover in sullen andcontemptuous silence by the Prime Minister of England.How long arethe peopleof Scotlandto toleratethese slights and insults?(Diack 1918:438) Into the Renaissance 17

Diack's article is interestingfor severalreasons. First of all, the ideathat Scotland shouldenjoy increasedautonomy in compensationfor the -sufferingsthe nationhad madefor the rights of Belgium representsa rhetoricthat recursin nationalistpropaganda in the 1920sand 193Os. Secondly, Diack arguesfor a reconstructionprogramme that would build housesin the cities andprovide land to returningHighland veterans, and both theseissues were centralto the political debatesof the inter-warperiod. Thirdly, he raisesthe questionof nationaldifference when he claims that the Union had served Scotlandbadly becauseit discouraged"Celtic cultureand Scottishideals" (Diack 1918: 440). More extremeversions of that theoryappeared in the writings of the twentiesand thirties when it becamecommon among Scottish artists and intellectualsto use Scotland'sGaelic legacy as an elementin their programmefor nationalrenewal. Accordingly,Diack encapsulatesthemes that becamecentral to Scottishnationalism in the inter-waryears, which makeshis essayrepresentative of the spirit nationalistleaders later claimedhad emergedin Scotlandtowards the end of the First World War. 1919has gained a centralrole in Scottishnational mythology for threereasons: the end of World War One,the political, economicand socialupheavals at the time, andthe force of modernism.About the significanceof the war to Scottishexperience Hugh MacDiannid writes in Albyn: "It took the full force of the War to jolt an adequate majority of the Scottishpeople out of their old mental,moral andmaterial ruts; andthe full force of post-warreaction is graduallybringing them to an effectiverealization of their changedconditions. " (MacDiarmid1927/1996a: 1). The war affectedthe mindsof the Scottishpopulation in differentways. To the front-line soldierit was an eye-opening experience.Many of the youngmen who enlistedhad neverbeen out of their home environmentbefore, and now they found themselvesin Flanders,Italy andGreece. Soon the excitementover exotic place-namesand foreign mannerswaned. The idea of a quick victory turnedinto long yearsin the trenches,and it becameincreasingly important to the governmentto justify to thesemen why they were fighting. The politicianspromised homesfit for heroes,but, as ChristopherHarvie discussesin No Godsand PreciousFew Heroes,the veteransdiscovered upon their return to Scotlandthat nothingmuch had changed(Harvie 1993:70-72). A generalfeeling of discontentspread =ong the ex- combatants,many of whom decidedto abandonScotland in searchfor a betterlife abroad.Among thosethat remainedat home,some turned to socialismin the hopethat might bettertheir circumstances,but a minority of thosethat had fought for Belgium Into the Renaissance 18 now thoughtit wastime to do somethingfor Scotlandand joined the national movement.On the home-front,industrial workers discovered their strengthin a country reliant on war production.A generalshortage of labourhad enabledwomen to enterthe labourmarket, while old mannersand ideas were generallybeing questioned. Scottish societyhad long beenready for change,it seemed,but it took the force of war to setthe processgoing. In the concludingchapter to 77zeDeluge, Arthur Marwick's classicstudy of British societyduring the First World War, the authordiscusses how 1918-1919saw upheavals at all levels of society(Marwick 1991:329-55). Politically, the most significantchange on the domesticscene was the Representationof the PeopleAct (1918) which extended the fi-anchiseto all men abovetwenty-one and women above the ageof thirty (Marwick i 991: 243). On the internationalstage the new starof SovietRussia had emerged,which would dominatethe political debatein the yearsto come.Other important trends were the declineof the Liberal Partyand the rise of Labour,although it was only in the twentiessuch developments really startedto makean impact on British politics. With referenceto the economy,much was aboutto change.From 1914to 1918the Clydeside industrieshad benefitedfrom a war that increasedthe demandfor engineeringproducts whilst temporarilyremoving foreign competition.In 1919Scottish industry was still ableto live off the boom createdby the war. Oncethe productionof armamentsstopped, however,it becameobvious that thereexisted some fundamental problems within Scottishindustry. In No Godsand PreciousFew HeroesChristopher Harvie describes how Scottishindustrialists had failed to invest their war profits into new technology.As a result, Scottishmachinery was too old-fashionedto compete,once the Empirestarted to build up native industriesafter the war (Harvie 1993:22-23). In additionto these structuralweaknesses, the Scottisheconomy was influencedby internationalprocesses. In the 1920smost Westernnations were hit by inflation andunemployment to a hitherto unprecedenteddegree. The most obviousexample is Germany,where only the rise of the Nazi party in 1933restored confidence in the nationaleconomy, but alsoScotland sufferedfrom a recessionwhich lingeredon until the outbreakof war in 1939.Socially, most peopleimproved their living standardsbetween 1913 and 1918.Wages rose becauseof the labour shortage,which alsoenabled women to enterthe work force,and middle-andworking-class families were consequentlyleft with moremoney. To many that meantimproved diets, better health and a declinein mortality and disease.The war Into the Renaissance 19 did not solvethe housingquestion, however, which wasparticularly serious in Scotland, andonce the economicdepression deprived the workersof their income,the old problemsof ill health,malnutrition and overcrowdingreappeared (Harvie 1993:75-78). As regardsthe third force of modernism,cultural historianStephen Kern writes: "(The modems]did not want to imitate the art of the past,and they did not want their lives to be regulatedby socialconventions that were conceivedin the distantpast and over which they had no control.Above all theywanted freedo&' (Kem 1983: 63). At the heartof Kern's argument,and of modernismas such,is the questionof discontinuity.On the whole, the modemssought to leavebehind them everythingthat might be associatedwith the past,and as SamuelHynes discusses in A WarImagined, the war offered a convenientbreak (Hynes 1992: ix-xii). In writings suchas "rhe Waste Land!' (1922)and To the Lighthouse(1927), T. S Eliot andVirginia Woolf imagined thosefive yearsof trench-war,shell-shock and broken illusions as an absolutebreak that cut their own presentoff from the 1913condition of apparentharmony. In his initial chapter"The WarsBefore the War", Hyneschallenges the notion of pre-warstability throughan examinationof the conflicts that split British societyin the periodleading up to the war (Hynes1992: 1-24). Yet the post-wargeneration often ignoredearlier trends in orderto presenthuman experience in termsof pre-war,war andpost-war, and, througha violent breaking-upof traditional forms,shed their art of all traits of an older world. CharlesMurray, Neil Munro and1. M. Barrie would haveto go, Hugh MacDiarmid arguedin ContemporaryScottish Studies, not so much becausethey were poor writers, but becausethey representedan older,un-modem generation. Against their conservatism,MacDiannid placedthe experimentationassociated with the mostradical modernistgroupings such as EzraPound's Vorticists andthe Italian Futurists,for only art as fragmentedas theirs might conveythe destabilisingimpact of the war on the creativemind. In theory,the upheavalsin British societyin the aftermathof the war andthe insistenceof the post-warartists on their detachmentfrom the pastmay leavethe impressionof 1919as the beginningof a new historical epoch.In reality, the changes often representedthe culminationof long-termdevelopments rather than a new departure,which reducesthe significanceof the year 1919somewhat. With regardto the transformationof British society,Arthur Marwick suggestsin TheDeluge that the strugglefor femalefranchise, a collectivist stateand social reform may havebeen Into the Renaissance 20 helpedby thewar effort, but that it would havesucceeded anyway (Marwick 1991:29- 30 and32-33). With specialreference to Scotland,it is interestingto reflect for a momenton the implicationsof the ScottishHome Rule Bill which actuallypassed its secondreading in 1913and which might havebecome law, had the war not intervened to postponeall discussionof devolution.Similarly, the Depressionmight havehit Scotlandless hard, had the war productionnot boostedthe Scottisheconomy temporarilyand delayeda necessaryreorganisation of the industry.These are mere speculations,of course,but they are speculationswith a factualgrounding. It is thus possibleto readthe war, not as a radicalbreak in British experience,but as a drug that enabledthe British peopleto maintaina belief in their Empire asthe heightof human evolution andconsequently neglect the reconstructionthat might haveprevented the inter-warrecession. With referenceto the literary problem,one of the writers most eagerlychallenging the modernistreading is ComptonMackenzie. In his 1933publication Literature in MY Time,Mackenzie first criticisesthe modemsfor their radical rejectionof the past,then moveson to arguethat the changesthe writers of the early twentiesclaimed to have effected,characterised the literatureof the pre-wargeneration too. Mackenziewrites of Ford Madox Ford:

I do no believethat any manwas so well awareas he of the transformationthat literaturewas undergoing,a transformationwhich would havetaken place whether there had beena GreatEuropean War or not, that transformationbeing causednot by the ment4 physical,or moral upheavaleffected by the war, but coming as an inevitableresult of the changein humanlife broughtabout by the increasingpower of machinery,and its concomitantthe rapid developmentof a megalopolitan culture. (Mackenzie1933: 183)

One sensesa certaindespair as Mackenzie tries to ensurethat his generationis not left strandedon the wrong sidewhen MacDiarmid andhis fellow-modemsstart to bum their bridgesto the past.He hasa case,however. One of the truly radical stagesof the modernistmovement was the period leadingup to the war when WyndhamLewis was writing for TheNew Age, Italian Futurismchallenged old conventionswith its celebrationof speedand violence, while Vorticist poetssuch asEzra Pound foregroundedlinguistic and formal experimentation.Modernism, in otherwords, had beenwell underway when the war broke out in 1913,and the attemptby the post-war modemsto presenttheir art as a new departureonly too easily obscuresthat connection. Into the Renaissance 21

To sum up, there are three reasonswhy 1919 may serve as a point of departurefor a discussion of modem Scottish literature: firstly, the war meant an extension of people's horizons on the front as well as the home-front. Secondly, a number of political, economic and social upheavalscoincided with and were in part a product of the war. The post-war artists' attempt to detach their work from that of previous ages,finally, meant that they imagined human experiencein terms of pre-war, war and post-war, which again presents 1919 as the beginning of a new era. Against theseviews goesthe argument that the war was a conservatiye rather than a progressive force (Marwick), and that 1919 was nothing but an artificially constructed divide (Mackenzie).

Enter "Hugh M'Diarmid": Scottish nationalism in the 1920sand 1930s

Oneof the demobilisedsoldiers who cameback from the war in 1919was Sgt- ChristopherMurray Grieve,who hadbeen serving in Greeceand France. As earlyas 1916Grieve, or Hugh MacDiarmidas he was later to namehimself, confessedin a letter to his former schoolmasterGeorge Ogilvie that it washis intention,once the war had fmished,to return to Scotlandand engagehimself in a spiritual reawakeningof the nation (MacDiarmid 1916/1984a:14). MacDiarmid was not alonein his feelingthat somethinghad to be donefor Scotland.As RichardFinlay mentionsin Independentand Free (Finlay 1994a:1), the Liberal Partyhad beenchampions of ScottishHome Rule prior to 1914,but with Britain engagedin the war in Europe,such policies seemed. unpatriotic.Accordingly, any considerationof Scotland'sfuture within the United Kingdom waspostponed. Around 1919nationalist agitators, who had beensilenced by the war, returnedto the columnsof Scottishnewspapers. Old Home Rule organisations re-emerged,and there was a consensusamong Scottish intellectuals that it was time for Scotlandto liberateitself from an Englandexhausted by war. Togetherwith its Celtic sister-nationIreland, Scotland was presented as a force of radicalism,whilst England remainedstranded in its pre-warconservatism. Now the most modeni ideasin Europe camefrom Russiaand Scandinaviawhile old empiressuch as the British appeared exemptfrom all progressivism.One exponent of this view is "Edward Moore" [Edwin Muir], who writes in TheNew Age in 1921: In Englandeverything is too late. A new idea,a new form of art,must be draggedtriumphantly through France, Germany, Russia, Norway, Portugal,before its dustycorpse is receivedby us with complacent ceremony.The spontaneousneed of the spirit from which the idea sprang Into the Renaissance 22 may be past,may be exhaustedin its own bitter dissatisfaction,but the deadidea will serveus neverthelessfar betterthan a living one.England is the hell of lost ideas,the EnglishChannel is the Styx, andthe English intellectualis Charondisguised as St. Peter.(Muir 1921a: 5)

It is interestingthat sucha Spengleriannotion of an exhaustedEnglish civilisation has becomethe major argumentbehind the'ýmodernism is provincialis&' thesisin Scottish literary criticism. RobertCrawford makes most of it when in DevolvingEngl4h Literature he claimsthat the energieswhich drive modernismderive from the modernist writer's peripheralposition in relationto Englishculture (Crawford 1992:218-19). CairnsCraig reachesa similar conclusionin his introductionto the twentieth-century volume of TheHistory ofScottishLiterature wherehe ascribesthe rising North American,Australian, Irish andScottish canons to the collapseof Englishtradition in the aftermathof the war (C. Craig 1987:5). It is necessaryto be cautiousof such readings,however. Scottish writers andintellectuals of the inter-waryears were capable myth-makers,and they had everyinterest in portrayingEngland as an old, decadent culturein oppositionto a youngScotland on the rise. The threeissues, which morethan any otherput the nationalquestion back on the political agendain post-warScotland, were the VersaillesTreaty, events in Irelandand a generaldiscontent in Scottishsociety. With the principleslaid down in the Versailles Treaty,Scottish nationalists gained a moral backingfor their claims.The right of small nationsto self-determinationwas probably never meant to be appliedto problematic areassuch as Scotlandand Ireland, but oncethe fire of nationalismburnt fiercely throughoutEurope, its spreadcould no longerbe controlled.First Ireland,then Scotland, raisedthe questionwhy Versaillesgranted to new countriessuch as Finland and Lithuaniawhat the Celtic nationscould not have.Versailles told the world that the Irish and Scotswere, in theory,right, andits principleswere consequentlyabsorbed into nationalistpropaganda. In the light of that, it is not surprisingthat the post-warera came to representa new departurefor the Scottishnational movement. On the eighthof May, 1923,Hugh MacDiarmidwrote in TheScottish Nation: The War, however,brought a sharpreaction. The dangerof the submersionof our distinctivenational culture is lessto-day than it has beenfor many decades.The whole processof assimilationhas not only beenarrested but hasbeen in manydirections strikingly reversed.The ScottishHome Rule movement after mysteriouslyhanging fire for generationshas leapt into a flamewhich is illuminating on all handsthe Into the Renaissance 23 irreconcilablediversity of Scottishand English interests and tendencies. (MacDiarmid 1923a:2)

As regardsthe Irish question,there were few placesthe Irish strugglehad been followed more intenselythan in Scotland.In the 1880sit was assumedthat HomeRule for Ireland would inevitably leadto increasedScottish autonomy-, and asJames Hunter notes in "Ibe Gaelicconnection: the Highlands,Ireland and nationalism, 1873-1922", a mutual concernwith the EasterRising broughtsocialist John Mac4an andnationalist Ruaraidh Erskineof Marr togetherin the 1916(Hunter 1975:198-99). In the 1920s,Scottish polemicssuch as the writings of Hugh MacDiarmidshow a stronginterest in the happeningsin Ireland,but suchconcerns seem to havewaned in the 1930s.A major factor behindsuch a loss of intereston the Scottishside was the economicdepression which underlinedthat socialreconstruction was a more urgentconcern than constitutionalchange. The Irish Civil War andthe differencesbetween Scottish Presbyterianismand Irish Catholicismprobably played a part too, however. A final issuein post-warScotland is the generalmood of discontentwithin the nation.For Scottishveterans, the returnto Scotlandwas not a happyexperience. If they cameback to the industrialregion, they would experiencedifficulties in finding a place to work andto live, while the rural areasrepresented a world in declinewhere the inhabitantshad no choicebut to struggleor leave.Many eitheraccepted such bleak conditionsor emigrated,but a minority of writers and intellectualsstarted to question how things had cometo this. Suchspeculations are at the heartof Scotland'snational awakeningand resulted in a seriesof publicationson the stateof the nationin the late 1920sand early 1930s.Scotland had a moral basisfor its claimsin the principlesof the VersaillesTreaty, the nation had in Irelanda possiblemodel for imitation aswell as a group of citizensunhappy with the statusquo, and in combination,these factors provided a breedingground for Scottishnationalism. The first stagein the developmentof the nationalmovement in inter-warScotland runs from 1919to the foundationof the National Party in 1928.It is characterisedby relative agreementamong the factionswithin Scottishnationalism, and major events include Hugh MacDiarmid's call for a Scottishliterary renaissancein 1922and the formation of the National Party of Scotlandin 1928.The amountof attentionpaid to the national questionat the time in Scottishnewspapers such as 71e GlasgowHerald suggestsa concernwith the nationalquestion in the Scottishpopulation more generally. Into the Renaissance 24 Much was madeof the Home Rule motionsput forwardby membersof ScottishLabour in the 1920s,nationalist rallies were coveredextensively, while the establishedpress openedits pagesto announcementsfrom the nationalistorganisations. On the first of November,1923, The Glasgow Herald publishedthe following letter from the Scottish Home Rule Associationto delegatesof the Irnperial.Conference: The needfor self-governmentin Scotlandhas never been more urgent. Many post-warproblems are pressing for solution.Our countryis like a man with his right handtied behindhis back,unable to help himself -a most humiliating positionwhen it is rememberedthat Scotland'srecord of unconquerednational existence is hardly paralleledin Europe,and that its peoplehave no lack of experiencein the affairs of government.Is it becauseScotland has been too constitutionalin its methodsof pressing for self-governmentthat its demandhas been ignored? (Steel and Mukhead 1923:6)

The most impo4antnationalist organisations in the 1920swere the ScottishHome Rule Association(SHRA) andthe ScotsNational League(SNL), for many of the individuals that were later to play a largepart in the ScottishNational Partystarted their careerin one of thesegroupings. Since Richard Finlay hasprovided a detailedaccount of these associationsin Independentand Free, I shall sketchtheir developmentbriefly. The SHRA was originally foundedin 188 6. Its activitieshad beenhindered by the outbreak of war in 1914,which madethe HomeRule issueseem somewhat unpatriotic. The organisationcame to play a vital part in Scottishpolitics after its reorganisationin 1918, however.Richard Finlay namesRoland Eugene Muirhead, a wealthybusinessman, as the centralfigure in the post-warassociation because of his financial resourceswhich providedthe basisfor Tom Johnston'sweekly Forward, the SHRA and from 1928the National Party (Finlay 1994a:1). The key concernof the associationwas ScottishHome Rule within the Empire, andthe SHRA hopedto achievethis throughthe encouragementof a broad cross-partyalliance on the devolutionquestion (Finlay 1994a: 2). In practice,the SHRA becamethe platform on which LabourNgs actedout their ideason Home Rule. Onceparliamentary Labour made it clear that it had no intentionof standingup for Scottishself-government before more "serious" problemssuch as the economiccrisis andhousing shortage had been solved, the SHRA's dayswere numbered.The final blow camein 1928when Muirhead announcedthat he would join the newly foundedNational Party.With him he took the financial supportthat had kept the organisationgoing, andin 1929the SEER.A was dissolved(Finlay 1994a:23-24). Into the Renaissance 25 The only othernationalist body with an influencecomparable to the SHRA wasthe ScotsNational Leaguewhich had beenformed in 1920by a groupof peopleassociated with the HighlandLand League.Central to the organisationwere the Celtic revivalists RuaraidhErskine of Marr andWilliam Gillies, andwhile the SHRA primarily foughtfor the pragmaticprinciple of HomeRule, SNL propagandawas foundedon the notion of spiritual revival. An importantissue was the rewriting of Scottishhistory. Accordingto t4e SNL, the Englishhad used history to weakenScottish ties with the nation's Celtic origins, andthat had left Scotlanda divided nation.In Independentand Free, Finlay quotesthe following exampleof suchpropaganda: We in Scotlandhave much to learnfrom Ireland;in this respect,we are more thanten yearsbehind her. First we mustbuild up our national conscience,and blushing from its discovery,we must setourselves to build up our nationalityfrom the foundation.The foundation- the builders, bedrockof our Celtic origin - is alreadythere awaiting the and the cornerstone- our Gaeliclanguage; the only nationallanguage of Scotland,is alreadyin the handsof the hewers.(Finlay 1994a:39)

Similar ideaswere incorporatedin the nationalmythology developed by Scottishwriters in the thirties, and althoughthe SNL later distanceditself from suchgross, racist statements,they undoubtedlyinfluenced the ideaof Scotlandin the popularimagination. Yet therewas moreto the SNL than Celticism.As opposedto the SHRA, the Scottish National Leaguewas outright separatist,anti-imperialist and againstany attemptto co- operatewith otherpolitical groupings,which left the organisationfree to attackon all sideswhere the SHRA had to steercarefully between its potentialallies of Labourand the Liberals.

Outsidethe SHRA andthe SNL, the most prominentnationalists were John MacCormickof the GlasgowUniversity ScottishNationalist Association, Lewis Spence of the ScottishNational Movementand early convertssuch as Hugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn, and the Duke of Montrose.Their differencesin opinion were aswide as the social gaps.From. the beginning,the nationalmoyement was made up by a numberof individualswhose sole meeting point seemedto be the notion that somethingneeded to be donefor Scotland.Initially, their commonbelief in the needfor a parliamentfor Scotlandwas powerful enoughto overrulepotential areas of conflict. Accordingly,the Scottishnationalist groupings met in the late twentieswith a view to form a more effective,political body. The result of their effortswas the National Party of Scotlandwhich was foundedin 1928. Into the Renaissance 26 On the cultural front, thingshad been developing since the early 1920s.C. M Grieve, or Hugh MacDiarmidas he was later to call himself,had returned from the war with an ambitionto changethe attitudesof his fellow-Scotsto all mattersScottish, and although he initially held on to the Scottishliterary establishmentwhen he invited Neil Munro andJohn Buchan to contributeto his NorthernNumbers anthology, he soonparted with his forebears."Not traditions- precedents!" read the sloganon the coverof TheScottish Chapbook,which is wherethe ScottishLiterary Renaissance begins. At first, it wasless thanobvious that Grieve'sconcept of a Scottishrevival shouldbecome so heavily associatedwith the Scotsvernacular. Annals ofthe Five Senses,his first collectionof poetry andprose, was composedin experimentalEnglish at a time whenthe authorwas campaigningheavily againstthe attemptby the VernacularCircle andBums Federation to revive the Scotslanguage. Their intentionswere conservative,Grieve stressed in a 1922letter to TheAberdeen Free Press,which madethem incompatiblewith his modernistprinciples of innovationand experimentation (MacDiarmid 1922/1984a: 754- 6). Six monthslater, the writer appearsto havechanged his mind. At this point, he had publishedhis first vernacularpoetry under the pen-n=e of Hugh MacDiarmidand in August, 1922,he proclaimedin the first edition of TheScottish Chapbook: The principal aimsand objectsof TheScottish Chapbook are: -

To report, support, and stimulate, in particular, the activities of the Franco-Scottish, Scottish-Italian, and kindred Associations; the campaign of the Vernacular Circle of the London Bums Club for the revival of the Doric; the movement towards a Scots National Theatre; and the 'Northern Numbers' movement in contemporary Scottish poetry. To encourageand publish the work of contemporary Scottish poets and dramatists, whether in English, Gaelic, or Braid Scots. To insist upon the truer evaluations of the work of Scottish writers than are usually given in the present over-Anglicised condition of British literaryjournalism, and, in criticism, elucidate, apply, and develop the distinctively Scottish range of values. To bring Scottish Literature into closer touch with current European tendenciesin technique and ideation. To cultivate 'the lovely virtue'. And, generally, to 'meddle wi' the Thistle' and pick the figs. (MacDiarmid 1922: iiij

In different ways, language,criticism and internationaloutlook were all centralto the modemrevival. MacDiarmid soughta Scottishliterature that was at oncemodem and national,and after a few early experimentswith English,he consideredthat the bestway to achievethis was throughthe Scotslanguage. A concernwith the mediumof literature Into the Renaissance 27 was not peculiarto Scotland.James Joyce and Ezra Pound had alreadydemonstrated waysin which experimentallanguage might expressa modemexperience, and the Scottishpoet was undoubtedlyinfluenced by their example.Peculiar to MacDiarmid was the choiceof a poeticvehicle that was at onceScottish and contemporary, however. Although the abovemanifesto in principle openedThe Scottish Chapbook to work in English and Gaelicas well as Scots,the Scottishrevival becamesynonymous with MacDiarmid'svernacular verse of the 1920s.Such linguistic experimentation representeda radical departurefrom the conventionsof previousgenerations and the poetwas celebratedby fellow-poetsand nationalists as the voice of a youngScotland on the rise. Although the languagequestion tends to dominatecontemporary and later accounts of the ScottishRenaissance, literary criticism was equallyimportant to MacDiarmidand his contemporaries.A Scottishrevival dependedon the amountof attentionpaid to literaturein Scotlandand abroad, which requiredcritics andreviewers who could draw the attentionto the new trendsin Scottishculture. Yet the modemsfound the Scottish Pressreluctant to openits pagesto their work. As David Finkelsteindiscusses in his 1998essg "Literature,Propaganda and the First World War", Blackwood'sMagazine, which was the sole survivor from the heydayof the Scottishliterary magazinesin the nineteenthcentury, had declinedinto a mereoutlet for establishmentpropaganda during the war, and suchconservatism was incompatiblewith modernistradicalism (Finkelstein1998: 2-3). Scottishnewspapers were no more enthusiasticabout modernism.In orderto accommodatecritics suchas Edwin Muir, who had hithertobeen writing for English and Americanpresses, MacDiarmid thereforeestablished Scottish journals suchas TheScottish Chapbook, The Scottish Nation and TheNorthern Review. Despitethe gesture,Edwin Muir remainedsceptical. I-Es contributions to the venturedid not preventhim from characterisingThe Scottish Nation as a "very bad paper"in a 1923 letter,which suggeststhat it may havebeen his admirationfor MacDiarmid's energy ratherthan a commitmentto the Renaissanceproject that madehim offer his work (Muir 1923/1974:29). Whatevertheir individual motivations,MacDiarmid's contributorswere united in the belief that an alternativeapproach to Scotlandwas needed,and their commitmentbecame the foundationfor muchRenaissance propagandain the thirties when the critical revaluationof the Scottishscene got under way. Into the Renaissance 28 Internationalism,finally, may be the most significantaspect of the culturalrevival. To Scottishintellectuals, an internationaloutlook partly involved an attemptto bring Scottishwriting to a wider audience,partly the introductionof Europeanideas into Scottishculture. The obviousinternationalists within the Renaissancegroup were Willa andEdwin Muir, who had spenta considerabletime in Europein the 1920sand who becamethe Englishtranslators of writers suchas Franz Kafka andHerman Broch. Hugh MacDiarmidalso claimed recognition as a translatorwhen in A Drunk Man Looksat the Thistlehe adaptedtranslations of Dostoevksy,Rilke andSolovyov. The efforts of the Muirs andMacDiannid areinteresting in the light of following passagefrom Susan Bassnett'sintroduction to ComparativeLiterature: Evan-Zoharargues that extensivetranslation activity takesplace when a cultureis in a period of transition:when it is expanding,when it needs renewal,when it is in a pre-revolutionaryphase, then translation plays a vital part. In contrast,when a cultureis solidly established,when it is in an imperialiststage, when it believesitself to be dominant,then translationis lessimportant. (Bassnett 1993: 10)

Bassnettoffers onepossible explanation why translationactivities were so importantto the Scottishwriters: that is, the Scotswere looking for modelsthat would at onceenable them to renewtheir tradition andpreserve a senseof Scottishdifference against the English cultural hegemony.In the 1920s,the internationalelement was mainly artisticas the Renaissancegroup looked to Europeanmodernism in orderto expandits cultural horizon. In the 1930s,on the otherhand, the external'inputwas often political asthe youngergeneration of GrassicGibbon and James Barke startedto defineits position in relation to ideologicaltrends such as Ita4an fascism and Sovietcommunism. In spiteof their different priorities, the writers of the 1930scontinued to follow European developmentsclosely, however, which is to saythat internationalismremained a factor in Scottishintellectuals' battle againstprovincialism throughout the inter-warperiod. When in 1928members of Scotland'svarious nationalist organisations met with the purposeof foundinga National Partyfor Scotland,the political and cultural wings of the nationalmovement were still in touchwith eachother. Renaissance authors Hugh MacDiarmid, ComptonMackenzie and Neil Gunnwere actively involved at executive level in the youngnationalist party, while in 1932Alexander MacEwen, founder- memberof the Scottishparty and future chairmanof the ScottishNational Party, emphasisedin The Thistleand the Rosethat the literary revival was a significantpart of the nationalawakening (MacEwen 1932: 1-2). By the mid-1930s,political and cultural Into the Renaissance 29 nationalists were moving in different directions. It was no longer possible for political pragmatics such as John MacCormick and idealists like MacDiarmid to find common ground, and Tom Nairn has identified this separationbetween politics and culture as one of the major ideological weaknessesof Scottish nationalism. Nairn writes in The Break- Up of Biltain: The weaknessof the Scottishnational movement is the contraryof the Welshone: it is the consistent,canny philistinism of the movementfrom its earliestdays, and the chronicdivorce between what Lewis Spence calledthe "practical,Scotsman-like" policy andthe distinctly erratic flights of the intelligentsia.The Scottishmovement benefits from the existenceof a powerful middle-class;yet one of the traits of that class tendsto be a powerful distrustof culturein anyspectacular form. (Nairn 1981:214)

The developmentof the political movementfrom the establishmentof the National Party in 1928to the foundationof the ScottishNational Partyin 1934substantiates Naim's allegationof philistinism. In an attemptto consolidatethe partypsposition within Scottishpolitics, Party SecretaryJohn MacCormick tried to steerthe organisation awayfrom the outright separatismand anti-Englishsentiments it had inheritedfrom the ScottishNational Leaguetowards more moderate ideas. MacCormick wanted to accommodatethe right-wing ScottishParty, which hadbeen formed by AndrewDewar Gibb and GeorgeMalcolm Thomson,among others, in 1930,and in a panic-likemove, he decidedto suppressthe radicaltendencies within his own party in preparationfor a merger.As RichardFinlay discussesin Independentand Free, that involved the marginalisationof NationalParty activists, who were consideredtoo extremefor the right-wing nationalists(Finlay 1994a:140-41). Among MacCormick'sprimary targets were Hugh MacDiarmid,who hadbecome increasingly attracted to radicalismtowards the end of the 1920s.As Alan Bold hasdiscussed the detailssurrounding MacDiarmid's turbulentrelationship with the National Partyin his biography,however, I shall not elaborateon it here(Bold 1990:267-75). The 1933expulsion of the radicalsprepared the groundfor a meetingbetween moderate National Partyrepresentatives such as MacCormickand Neil Gunnand leadersof the ScottishParty. Together they drew up a commonpolitical platform for the new ScottishNational Party,which, as opposedto the original, separatistmanifesto of the National Party,accepted a placefor Scotlandwithin the Empire (Finlay 1994a:153-54). Meanwhile, the cultural activistswere becoming increasinglydetached from the National Party.With the exceptionof novelistNeil Into the Renaissance 30 Gum, it is thus fair to saythat the bridgesbetween literary andpolitical nationalismhad beenburnt by the time the ScottishNational Party came into existencein 1934. On the cultural scene,the ideaof a Scottishrevival continuedto developin the thirties. Many of the early contributorsto MacDiarmid'spublishing ventures only came into their own in the 1930s,while new voicessuch as Willa Muir, Eric Linklater and Lewis GrassicGibbon emerged. Though the joint activitiesof MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn, Edwin Muir, William Soutarand Catherine Carswell, among others, today seem adequateproof that a new generationof Scottishauthors was emerging,the modems found it hard to be recognisedin their homecountry. Members of the generalpublic accusedthe young authorsof beingtoo eagerto disclaim Scotland'sliterary iconswhen they had yet to produceany work of their own. The following extractfrom TheGlasgow Herald is representativeof suchcriticism: To speakof a Scottishrenaissance [is] misleading.Scottish literature has neverbeen in a moribundcondition. But a certainsection of ultra- modempoets and literary menwould seemto be seekingnotoriety by attackson the older writers, sometimesin the form of intelligent criticism, but more often merevulgar abuse.The public would, however, soongrow tired of vindicativeonslaughts on its old favourites,and demandthat theseyoung men do somereal creativework themselves, andproduce something other than bombastic criticism of their betters. (Anon. 1930:6)

The specificwork in questionmay havebeen MacDiarmid's ContemporaryScottish Studies(1926), which provokedmuch controversyat the time of publicationbecause of the poet's attemptto replaceold literary iconswith a group of new authors,but a browsingthrough Scottish newspapers in the late twentiesand early thirties confirms that suchlanguage is not unique.In spiteof this lack of recognition,it becameobvious around1930 that somethingwas happeningin Scottishculture. In poetryMacDiarmid remainedthe predominantfigure becauseof the radicalnature of his experiments, althoughthe work of William Soutar,Sorley Maclean and Edwin Muir, amongothers, showsthat the poetic revival was nevera one-manband. As early as 1,920Catherine Carswell's Openthe Doorl had demonstratedthat MacDiarmidwas wrong whenin 1926he dismissedthe narrativegenre in ContemporaryScottish Studies, and her lead was followed by the work of Neil Gunn,Eric Linklater, Willa Muir andLewis Grassic Gibbon in the 1930s(MacDiarmid 1926/1995:348-49). The attemptto encourage Scottishcriticism culminatedin a numberof works on the stateof the nation,while new journals suchas YU Modern Scot,Outlook and The VoiceofScotland tried to fill the Into the Renaissance 31 gapthat had beenopened when YheScottish Chapbook and YheScottish Nation ceased publication.The critical revaluationof Scotland,which MacDiarmidhad started,when in 1922he calledout for a greatScottish literary renaissance,reached a climax with the eight volumesof the VoiceofScotland series,initiated and editedby Gibbonand MacDiarmid,all of which providevaluable insights into the way ScottishRenaissance writers perceivedtheir contemporaryScottish scene. With referenceto the questionof political nationalism,the cultural revivalists adopteda different agendain the 1930s.While in the 1920sMacDiarmid, Neil Gunn and ComptonMackenzie had been engaged with nationalissues, Scottish writers were increasinglyattracted to socialismin the thirties. As a result, it was not just that the political movementexpelled the poets,but to an equalextent, the cultural movement that withdrew from nationalism.Several factors contributed to the processthat between 1928and 1935brought the political andthe culturalwings of Scottishnationalism from a stateof mutual sympathyto hostility and divorce.Firstly, it soonbecame clear that the National Party lackedvoter appeal.It had achieveda coupleof successesat the Glasgow University RectorialElections in 1928and 1931, but beyondthe universitythe nationalists'breakthrough came only too slowly. Obviousexplanations were organisatorialweaknesses and the economicdepression, which had madequestions of devolutionirrelevant to most Scottishvoters. To thoseJohn MacCormick added a third: the elitist outlook adoptedby Hugh MacDiarmidand the Renaissancegroup. In his autobiographyThe Flag in the WindMacCormick writes on MacDiarmid: Although I haveno doubtthat he hasdone invaluable work in the whole field of Scottishliterature I am certainthat C. M. Grievehas been politically one of the greatesthandicaps with which any national movementcould havebeen burdened. His love of bitter controversy,his extravagantand self-assertive criticism of the English, andhis woolly thinking, which could encompasswithin one mind the doctrinesboth of Major Douglasand Karl Marx, were takenby many of the more sober- minded of the Scotsas sufficient excuseto condemnthe whole casefor Home Rule out of hand.(MacCormick 1955: 35)

Not surprisingly,MacDiarmid was amongthe first to go oncethe politically pragmatic MacCormick launchedhis endeavourto moderatethe National Party.With the poet went a strongtie betweencultural andpolitical nationalism,as MacDiarmid was oneof the cultural movement'smost prominentHome Rule supporters. The National Partywas not entirelyto blamefor the divorcebetween culture and politics, however.In the early 1930sMacDiarmid and fellow-writers suchas Fionn Mac Into the Renaissance 32 Colla and ComptonMackenzie adopted very extremeviews on nationalismand they showedno more sympathywith MacCormick'sideas than he with their radicalism.In a 1929contribution to TheScots Independent, MacDiarmid emphasised how the national movementwould haveto distanceitself from the establishmentthrough a confrontationalstrategy which he describedas a "speciesof Scottishfascism! ' (MacDiannid 1929/1997:80). By 1930,that ideahad beendeveloped into a programme for a militaristic organisation,which MacDiarmidnamed Clann Albain and advertised in TheDaily Recordin May, 1930: ClannAlbain is no new thing. It hasbeen built up steadilyduring the past two years.The majority of its membersare members of the nationalparty (though]the latter hasno responsibilityfor it. Oneof the most distinguishedof living Scotsmenis the Chief of ClannAlbain. I am not at liberty to divulge his name,or thoseof the otheroffice bearers.The organizationis an exclusiveone - no one is admittedto membershipwho is not thoroughlyguaranteed and tested. The members,apart from an inner circle, do not know the namesof any of the office bearers.The whole organization'ison a militaristic basis,and in this resemblesthe Fascistmovement. (as quoted in Bold 1990:282)

To the novelist's greatembarrassment, MacDiarmid identified Mackenzieand himself as the leadersof this fascistgrouping, which may havedetermined the poet's future within the National Party,for to manymoderate nationalists, fascism was a label that was bestavoided. Accordingly, the ClannAlbain projectprovided MacCormick with a strongcase against MacDiarmid, who was eventuallyexpelled from the party in 1933. The relationshipbetween the NationalParty andthe Renaissancegroup was not made any easierwhen writers associatedwith the literary revival openlyattacked the nationalistprogramme. Edwin Muir's ScottishJourney, which cameout of his 1935 encounterwith a Scotlandridden by physicaland spiritual depression,concluded that it was socialism,not nationalismthe countryneeded. The problemwith nationalism,Muir suggested,was that it offereda constitutionalanswer to an economiccrisis (Muir 1935/1985:248). The Scottishmalaise was related to the fundamentalproblems of the capitalistsystem, not a declinein nationhood,and increased autonomy was therefore unlikely to improvethe conditionof Scotland(Muir 1935/1985:248-49). Muir's argumentresembles that of Lewis GrassicGibbon, who in 1934dismissed nationalism in his essay"Glasgow". "What a curseto the earthare small nations!" Gibbondeclared, thenwent on to challengethe significanceof nationhoodto modemlife (Gibbon/MacDiarmid1934: 144). Other writers suchas the communistnovelist James Into the Renaissance 33 Barkewere equallydismissive of nationalism,which seemsto justify MacCormick's doubtsabout the literary movement. To sumup, the dev'elopmentof the nationalmovement in Scotland1919-1935 dividesinto two stages,1919-1928 and 1928-1935.Phase one is characterisedby co- operationbetween the HomeRule movementand the culturalrevivalists. The various factionsmeet in the belief that it is necessaryto act for Scotland,and on the basisof their consensus,the NationalParty is foundedin 1928.In contrast,the period 1928-1935 is markedby internaldivides within Scottishnationalism. John MacCormick's attempt to steerthe National Partyin a moderatedirection alienates his supportersfrom the party's more extremeelements. The 1934merger with the ScottishParty turns out to be at the expenseof National Partyprinciples, with the choiceof a pragmaticpolitical line eventuallyleading to the split betweencultural andpolitical nationalism.

The voice of Scotland In 1964,the Czechhistorian Ernest Gellner commented in Thoughtand Changeon the somewhatelusive nature of nationhood:"Nationalism is not the awakeningof nationsto self-consciousness:it invents nations where they do not exist" (Gellner 1964:169). Twenty yearslater Gellnerexpressed similar ideasin Nationsand Nationalism: Nations as a natural,God-given way of classifyingmen, as an inherent thoughlong-delayed political destiny,are a myth; nationalism,which sometimestakes pre-existing cultures and turns them into nations, sometimesinvents them, and often obliteratespre-existing cultures: that is a reality, for betteror worse,and in generalan inescapableone. (Gellner 1983:48-9)

Gellner's concernwith the imaginaryqualities of nationhoodis paralleledin Benedict Anderson'sImagined Communities. In his introduction,Anderson identifies four criteria which are centralto our senseof nationhood.Firstly, the nation is imaginedbecause, in Anderson'swords, "the membersof eventhe smallestnation will neverknow mostof their fellow-members,meet them, or evenhear of them,yet in the minds of eachlives the imageof their communion!' (Anderson 1991: 6). Secondly,Anderson perceives the limited nation as becauseit dependsupon specific,geographical boundaries - "No nation imaginesitself coterminouswith mankind!,(Anderson 1991: 7). Anderson'sthird criterion is not unsurprisinglysovereignty as all nationsrely on a senseof autonomy, while the fourth criterion is community,the conceptionof the nation as a "deep, horizontal comradeship"which hasinspired "so manymillions of people,not so much Into the Renaissance 34 to Id1l,as willingly to die for suchlimited imaginings"(Anderson 1991: 7). Anderson's final words identify him as a scepticwith regardto the possiblebenefits of nationalism. His definition of nationhoodhighlights visibility, limitation, sovereigntyand cohesion as crucial to the strengthof the nationalcommunity, however, which arethe aspectsof his work I find relevantin relation to the ScottishLiterary Renaissance. Applying Anderson'sgeneral theory of nationhoodto the particularconditions of inter-warScotland, we find that therewere severalpotential problems with the ideaof Scotlandin the 1920sand 1930s.Firstly, the Renaissancewriters found it hardto envisageScotland as a distinct,national entity. The nationwas imagined,Anderson claimed,because it establisheda sharedsense of belongingbetween individuals who might nevermeet. In most Europeannations that commonidentity wasbased upon a combination of constitutionaland historical factors,but in Scotland,the 1707Union had resultedin the divorcebetween national identity, which was Scottish,and political identity, which becameBritish. As RichardFinlay discussesin his essay"National Identity in Crisis", that had not causedany difficulties beforethe 1920sas eighteenth- andnineteenth-century intellectuals accepted Scotland as "an equalpartner with Englandin the foundingand running of the British Empire" (Finlay 1994b:242). In contrast,the inter-wargeneration wanted to emphasisethe Scottishelement at the expenseof the British, becausethat would strengthentheir casefor self-determination. Anderson'ssecond concept of the limited nation is more easily appliedto inter-war Scotland,for evenif the Union hadremoved the countryfrom the political map of Europe,a separatereligious, legal andeducational system survived. Moreover, the bordercontinued as an administrativeboundary, which allowedthe idea of Scotlandas a distinct, geographicalunit to prevail. If suchclear-cut limits to the nation increasedthe senseof Scottishnationhood, Anderson's third principle of sovereigntyundermined it for Scotlandwas hardly autonomousin the 1920sand 1930s.Since the 1707Union the countryhad been ruled from Westminster,and after the First World War, it became commonto regardthe dominanceof English representativeswithin the British Parliamentas a disadvantageto Scottishinterests. From The GlasgowChamber of CommerceJournal, RichardFinlay quotes:"Scotland has her own particularproblems andwe will nevermake much progressuntil mastersand men realisethat what applies to Englanddoes not necessarilyapply here" (Finlay 1994b:246). Anderson'sfourth criterion raisedother concerns,for to many Scots,the senseof nationhoodhad to be Into the Renaissance 35 measuredagainst a varietyof regional,ethnic and sectarianidentities. In the nineteenth centuM Walter Scott'sfictional historieshad presentedScotland as a nation divided betweenHighlanders and Lowlanders, Presbyterians and Catholics,to which the process of industrialisationhad addedthe gapbetween the industrialCentral Belt andrural Scotland.With referenceto this, it is interestingthat two of the most significantsocial uprisingsin modemScottish history wereboth confinedto a relatively limited area:the land wars of the Skyecrofters gained little supportoutwith the Highlands,the Clydeside movementwas a Glasgowphenomenon primarily, which is to saythat pre-existing ethnic,social and geographicalloyalties were allowedto overrulea generalsense of Scottishness.In short:inter-war Scotland was hardly an imaginedcommunity in BenedictAnderson's understanding of the term. The principal achievementof the nationalmovement in the 1920sand 1930swas thereforethe consciousness-raising project of the ScottishLiterary Renaissancebecause it madethe Scottishnation imaginable.

The Renaissanceconcern with the stateof Scotlandcomes to the fore in the non- fiction of the inter-waryears. An early exampleis GeorgeMalcolm Thomson's Caledonia:or TheFuture ofScotland (1927),in which the authorreveals the dismal conditionsof his contemporaryScotland, but Thomsonhad onlyjust predictedthe end of the Scottishrace when Hugh MacDiarmidretorted in the somewhatmore optimistic Albyn: or Scotlandand the Future. The titles aresignificant. On the one hand,these works containan analysisof the stateof Scottishsociety as well as the developments that had broughtthe nation to that stage.On the other,they stressthat theremight be a future for Scotland,but that it involves a strong,ideological commitment. Thomson's Caledoniaand MacDiarmid's Albyn areearly specimensof a genrepeculiar to inter-war Scotland.I havenamed this type of writing the "Condition of Scotland"literature, and other examplesare David CleghornThomson (ed. ), Scotlandin QuestofHer Youth (1932),, Scotlandin Eclipse (1930),Alexander MacEwen, The Thistleand the Rose(1934), George Malcolm Thomson,Scotland That Distressed Area (1935) andAlexander Maclehose, The Scotland of Our Sons(1937). The titles underline the authors'concern with the contrastingideas of contemporarydepression versus future regeneration,and, asthe symbolismsuggests, the majority point to a nationalist solution.Although the aboveworks were mostly composedby politicians and journalists,the creativewriters engagedwith similar ideas.The result of their efforts is a Into the Renaissance 36 long list of non-fictionalpublications, among the most famousNeil Gunn's Nisky and Scotland(193 5), Edwin Muir's ScottishJourney (193 5), ComptonMackenzie's Catholicismand Scotlýnd(193 6), Lewis GrassicGibbon/Hugh MacDiarmid's Scottish Scene(1934), Eric Linklater's TheLion and the Unicorn (1935)and Willa Muir's Mrs Grundyin Scotland(1936). All of theseshare with the political writings two basic concerns:What is wrong with Scotlandand what canwe do aboutit? In his essay "'Facts' and 'Vision' in ScottishWriting of the 1920sand 1930s",the Germancritic EdmundStegmaier comments on the characteristicmanner in which Scottish intellectualsbegin with a surveyof the realitiesof contemporaryScotland, then proceed with a considerationof how Scotsmight movebeyond their depressingpresent: My enumerationof termssuch as "stir up", "rouse", and"awaken" indicatesthat thesewriters arenot contentmerely to draw the line after presentingthe factualside of things.Precisely because of the depressing statisticaldata they demandthat the Scottishpeople discover a new consciousnessin the ideaof a betterfuture. And the writers themselves provide an impetustowards the fulfilment of this demand.(Steginaier 1982:72)

Accordingto Stegmaier,this combinationof a pessimisticpicture of pastand present and an optimistic vision of future revival andrenaissance is uniqueto Scottishinter-war writing (Stegmaier1982: 73). In additionto the potentialfor political revival, most Renaissancewriters engaged with Scottishnational mythology. As mentionedin my discussionof Benedict Anderson,the visibility of the nation is centralto the imaginedcommunity, and one way to makea countrymore visible is via the promotionof certainimages of thenation. The Classicalexamples are national landscapes or history,but as the ScottishRenaissance stressed,not all iconswill do. Nineteenth-centuryScotland had been presented to the world throughthe novelsof Walter Scott,and althoughhe hadmade the nationinstantly recognisable,he essentiallyconfined Scottishness to the past.In responseto that, the inter-war authorsaimed to makeScottish identity a concernof the present.Such a project relied on a deconstructionof paststereotypes as well asthe constructionof a contemporarymythology, and it is typical of much inter-war literature.With referenceto this, five pre-occupationsseem particularly relevant. They are Scottishgeography, history, religion, languageand literature,and I believeit is possibleto usethem to approachthe Renaissancevision more generally.The following is a brief examinationof Into the Renaissance 37 the individual motifs in relationto the ideaof the imaginedcommunity as it comes acrossin ScottishRenaissance writing.

Geography:

Possibly,the most centralaspect of nationhoodis the conceptof territory.In National Identity Anthony Smith commentson the relationshipbetween a peopleand its landscape:

[The nation] is, in the first place,a predominantlyspatial or territorial conception.According to this view, nationsmust possess compact, well- definedterritories. People and territory must,as it were,belong to each other,in the way that the early Dutch, for example,saw themselvesas formedby the high seasand as forging (literally) the earththey possessed andmade their own. (A. Smith 1991:9)

The senseof belongingas such was not a problemfor the ScottishRenaissance movementfor the survival of the borderas an administrativeboundary ensured that a senseof Scotlandas a distinct, geographicalspace prevailed. What was debatablewas the questionof which landscapewas the mostrepresentative. In the nineteenthcentury, Walter Scotthad imagineda Scotlanddominated by dramaticHighland scenery, whereasthe Kailyard novelistspreferred a nation composedof pastoralLowland villages,but neitherrepresentation satisfied the modems.Scotland, they would argue, could not be containedwithin suchimagery which simplified what was to the inter-war authorsa very complexlandscape. Against the distortionsof the past,they therefore placeda picture of the nation which, in their opinion,was more true to the reality of inter-war Scotland.In Scotlandand the Scots,journalist William Powerreflects on that process: The majority of the bookson Scotlandthat arewritten by Scotsare inspiredby a genuinelove of Scotland,a genuineconcern for the welfare andtrue honourof her people,and a genuinedesire for her national advancement.The averageScottish writer no longerviews his own countrythrough the narrow anddistorting media of feudalromanticism, Kailyard sentimentalism,or Imperialistinsularity. He tries to beholdher as shereally is, in the light of her own naturaland human history, of world history and of foreign travel; andhe finds that sheis far more wonderful than any of her lovershave ever dreamt.It is the Scots themselveswho have still most to learn aboutScotland. (Power 1934: 30-31)

The purposeof this paragraphis clearly educational.After suchintroductory remarks, Powerguides his readeron a topographicalj ourney through Scotland, for to know Into the Renaissance 38 Scotlandis to.love it. His aims arenationalist in the sensethat he assumesthat Scots, oncethey realisewhat naturalwealth lies within their reach,will want to erasefrom the map of Scotlandthe black blot that is the IndustrialBelt in orderto repopulatethe areas that had beenemptied in the previouscentury. A similar understandingof the nation asa predominantlyrustic spacecharacterises much of the period literature.Although writers suchas Lewis GrassicGibbon and Edwin Muir engagedwith the processesof industrialisationand urbanisation in their writings, they neverseem comfortable in their rendition of an urbanenvironment, which hasinspired criticism of the Renaissance vision. Prominentamong these is ChristopherWhyte, whose 1990 essay "Imagining the City" holds the inter-warwriters to accountfor their apparentfailure to cometo terms with a modemscene (Whyte 1990:318-19). At the heartof Whyte's attackis the argumentthat Glasgowwas neglectedin ScottishRenaissance literature, which is true in the caseof Eric Linklater, ComptonMackenzie and William Power,who all imagined the Scottishnational landscape as a rural space.Whyte employsa narrow definition of the ScottishRenaissance, however, which not only excludesthe likes of JamesBarke, GeorgeBlake and CatherineCarswell, who all employedurban settings,but fails to acknowledgethat Gibbon,Muir andMacDiarmid all commentedon the industrialcity. In his 1934travelogue The Heart qfScotland,George Blake thus stressesthat it would be wrong to ignore the industrialregions: "The Coatbridgeman standswith the crofter of Skyeand the shepherdof Peeblesas a representativeScot in his own right''(Blake 1934:45).

Blake's insistenceon the Coatbridgeworker as equallyrepresentative of Scottish experienceas the more traditionalicons of Scottishnessis connectedto the ideological constructionof Scotlandas a unity in diversity.The ideabehind this vision is that the exclusionof any single fragmentwill result in a distortedimage of the nation,and that it is crucial to incorporateall aspectsof Scottishness.In his prefaceto TheHeart of Scotland,Eric Linklater observes: To find the mind's constructionin the faceis often a pretty exercisein ingenuity.To seekthe Scottishmind's constructionin Scotland'sface is sometimesan exercisein piety, sometimesin pathology:piety if you confine your examinationto the romanticforehead of the Highlandsand the pastoralcomplexion of the Lowlands,pathology if you seeonly municipal architectureand the industrialbelt. You shouldlook at both: on the one handbeauty in abundance,on the other scar-tissuein superfluity.(Linklater in Blake 1934:v) Into the Renaissance 39 The notion of Scotlandas a unity-in-diversityurges the Renaissancewriters to consider all elementsof the nationallandscape. A concernwith rural Scotland,in contrast,is symptomaticof a focuson part of the nation only, which offersno improvementon the nineteenth-centurymisrepresentations. On an ideologicallevel, the unity-in-diversity approachrepresents an ideaof a Scotlandlarge enough to containall difference.It acceptsindustrial Scotland as well asrural Scotland,the Highlandsas well asthe Lowlands,because of its aim to fuseall oppositesinto one.Such a vision of Scotlandis very idealistand hard to sustain.More often thannot, the celebrationof multitudes collapsesinto merepraise of the Scottishcountryside as Linklater underlinesin his parodyMagnus Merriman whereMagnus's great epic of revival endsup in literary failure andthe poet's returnto Orkney(Linklater 1934/1990:263-64).

History:

If the conceptof a nationalspace necessarily comes first, the notion of a sharedpast, a nationalhistory, is the secondconcern of a would-benationalism. "(The] earthin questioncannot be just anywhere",Anthony Smith emphasisesin Nation and Nationalism:"It is, andmust be, the 'historic' land, the 'homeland',the 'cradle' of our people" (A. Smith 1991:9). As with geography,not anyhistory will do. 'Tew thingscry so urgently for rewriting as doesScots history", Lewis GrassicGibbon declared in his essay"rhe Antique Scene"(Gibbon/MacDiarmid 1934: 19), and if the amountof attentionpaid to historicalquestions in the inter-warliterature is anythingto go by, Gibbon's contemporariesseem to haveagreed. In order to achievewhat they considered an objectivetreatment of the past,the Renaissancewriters found it necessaryto challengethe nineteenth-centuryaccounts of Scottishhistory. One of the primary targets was Walter Scott.In his historicalfiction, Scotthad centredon romanticepisodes such as the 1745Jacobite Rising in Waverleyand the CovenantingWars in Old Mortality, which accordingto the inter-wargeneration had resultedin an overtly sentimentaland unbalancedpicture of Scottishhistory. Heroic and colourful as they might seem,these eventswere both synonymouswith civil war, poverty anddisruption, which is to say that they presentedan imageof a divided nation.Against suchhistorical divisions,Scott would placethe stability of his own age.His fiction thusjuxtaposed a violent pastand an enlightenedpresent in a mannerthat indirectly advertisedthe 1707Union asthe incident in Scottishhistory that hadbrought an end to the disruption and enabledthe nation to prosper.Scott's Renaissance critics found this readingproblematic on two Into the Renaissance 40 accounts:on the onehand, it underminedthe casefor Scottishsovereignty in the sense that it presentedpre-Union Scotland as a nationridden by civil war andviolence; on the other,it reducedScottish history to a few stereotypessuch as Bonnie Prince Charlie, Mary Queenof Scotsand Bonnie Dundee. In the literature,the attackon Scottwas accompaniedby an attempton behalfof the inter-wargeneration to constructa history that was moreto their liking. In Scotlandand the ScotsWilliara Powerdescribes the processof historicalrevaluation: At the back of all (theyounger writers] write is a critical synthesis.By slow degreesthey arescaling off from the picture of Scotlandall the spurious,excrescent Scotlands that havebeen imposed upon it sincethe daysof Mary Stuartand John Knox - the Scotlandsof fanatics,sadists, flunkeys,renegades, careerists, romanticists, sentimentalists, buffoons, snobs,exploiters, hucksters, game-preservers, and 'heids o' Scotland, depairtments'- andrevealing the essential,the European the Scotlandthat is a productof immemorialracial experience,of authentic spiritual and intellectualprocesses, of geographicalposition, of soil and climate,and of scenery.(Power 1934: 26)

Wherenineteenth-century writers suchas Scotthad viewedhuman development as a continuousprogress towards a presentclimax, the inter-warintellectuals read Scottish history in termsof decline.This reflectsa post-warpessimism that manifesteditself throughoutthe WesternWorld in suchworks asH. G. Wells'An Outline ofHistory (1920)and OswaldSpengler's Der Untergangdes Abendlandes (1922-26). Scotland appearsto havebeen hit particularlyhard, however. During the previousdecades, Scots had grown accustomedto the ideaof the British Empire asthe height of evolution,and now the reality of inter-warScotland, hit by economicdepression and spiritual disillusionment,undermined such comfort. The Renaissancealternative to nineteenth- centuryhistoriography offered little consolation:Scotland had onceprospered as an independentnation. Unfortunately, the nation's goodfortune was broughtto an endby the Reformation,the 1707Union andthe IndustrialRevolution, which in differentways shatteredthe basisof the countryand hastened the processof degeneration.Highland Clearancesand the horrorsof the World War led the Scotsinto the modemage, which offered little comfort for a nation that was politically, economically,socially and culturally bankrupt."The first fact aboutthe Scotis that he is a man eclipsed",George Malcolm Thomsonwrites in Caledonia:"The Scotsare a dying people" (Thomson 1927: 10).Together with Thomson'sScotland That Distressed Area, Andrew Dewar Gibb's Scotlandin Eclipsereinforces such conclusions through its insistenceon the Into the Renaissance 41 dismalconditions of contemporaryScotland. Yet thereis hopefor Scotlandwithin the Renaissancevision. In the discussionof Scottishnon-fiction I referredto previously(P. 36), EdmundStegmaid noted the visionaryqualities of Scottishinter-war literature, and Eric Linklater's conclusionto TheLion and the Unicornproves his point: History, moreover,would seemto be on the side of the Nationalists,for a quality of resurgencehas been so regulara characteristicof Scotlandas to appear,if not inevitable,at leastnormal. Scotsmen have, in recent memory,reclaimed elsewhere a poorersoil thanmany deer-forests, enrichedless noble rivers than the Clyde,and ruled peopleas intractable as LowlandPresbyterians. If somebreath of wisdom decidesus to do for ourselveswhat we havedone for others,Scotland will againplay a part in the world, and find for its own peoplea worthy andcongenial life at home(Linklater 1935a:192)

Thoughconservative in outlook,Linklater's vision is representativeof Scottish Renaissanceliterature as a whole. Scotlandhad experienceda GoldenAge beforethe disruptioncaused by the Reformation,the Union and industrialism.It might still enjoy anotherGolden Age, andwhether in ideologicalterms, they approachedtheir subjects from a conservative,a liberal, a nationalistor a socialistangle, the inter-wargeneration sawit as their duty to steerthe countryin the right direction.Accordingly, most Renaissanceaccounts of Scottishhistory culminatein a call for the nationto put a halt to the decayand participate in the building of a new Scotland.

Religion:

More paradoxical in relation to the issue of nationhood is the Renaissance preoccupation with religion. When the boundaries of the religious community are identical with the borders of the nation, a communal faith may strengthen the national senseof belonging. When on the contrary, religion cuts acrossa nation's historical and geographical limits, the integrity of the nation suffers in consequence.Eric Hobsbawm observes in Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: [Religion] is a paradoxicalcement for proto-nationalism,and indeedfor has it modemnationalism, which usually... treated with considerable reserveas a force which could challengethe nation's 'ýmonopoly"claim to its members'loyalty. In any casegenuinely tribal religionsnormally operateon too small a scalefor modemnationalities, and resist much broadeningout. On the other handthe world religions which were inventedat varioustimes between the sixth centuryBC andthe seventh centuryAD, areuniversal by definition, andtherefore designed to fudge ethnic,linguistic, political and other differences.(Hobsbawm 1995: 68) Into the Renaissance 42 ThoughI am reluctantto applyHobsbawm's terms "tribal" and"universar' to the churchesin Scotland,I think his argumentis relevantin a Scottishcontext. Protestantism,when introducedin Scotlandin 1560,was largerthan the nationitself and ignoredthe bordersthat had hithertodistinguished Catholic Scotlandfrom Anglican England.Catholicism, in contrast,in the form that survivedthe Reformation,was marginalisedto sucha degreethat it could no longerunite a nation. Like the work of older writers suchas Robert Bums and JamesHogg, Scottish Renaissanceliterature is characterisedby a hostile attitudetowards the CalvinistKirk of Scotland.The chapterin Scottishhistory subjectto most scrutinyby the modemswas the Reformation,for the inter-warwriters claimedthat Calvinismhad split the national experiencein two andconsequently undermined Scottish nationhood. The most prominentexponent of suchviews was Edwin Muir, who employedmuch of his criticism in a campaignagainst the legacyof JohnKnox, althoughFionn Mac Colla, Eric Linklater and ComptonMackenzie voiced similar concerns.At the centreof the debatewas the seriesof non-fictionalworks plannedby Hugh MacDiarmid andLewis GrassicGibbon in 1934.The VoiceofScotland books include suchpublications as Edwin Muir's Scottand Scotland,Neil Gunn's Hisky and Scotlandand Willa Muir's Mrs Grundyin Scotland,but evenif the contributorswere askedto focus on different aspectsof Scottishlife, all but Gunnused the opportunityto tackle the questionof Calvinism.The generalstructure of theseworks readsas follows: firstly, the authors evokeScotland as it was beforethe Reformationwhether it be symbolisedby the grandeurof Scottishcathedrals (Mackenzie), the beautyof Scotspoetry (Power)or the integrity of the kingdom (Linklater).Then the writers turn to the Reformation,which comesacross as an eventthat physicallyand spiritually wreckedthe country.They may considerthe fanaticismof the Covenantingwars in the seventeenthcentury or the connectionbetween Calvinism andcapitalism in the eighteenthcentury, but they inevitably endwith a picture of the contemporarywasteland -a Scotlandwhose spirit hasbeen strangled by the Calvinist creedof predestinationand whose body is wastedby a capitalistethos inspired by the Kirk. A key argumentin the Renaissancecriticism is that the introductionof Calvinism destroyedScottish art. Before 1560,the Scottishnation had enjoyeda spell of prosperity during the reign of JamesIV. That period in Scottishhistory is commonlyreferred to as the GoldenAge, andit is associatedwith the poetry of andRobert Into the Renaissance 43 Henryson,who successfullycombined native concernswith a Europeanoutlook. Such wealthwas dependentupon the twin influencesof Scottishtradition andEuropean ideas. They werepresent in the fifteenthcentury when Scotlandhad beena strong, independentcountry with sufficientresources to engagein an exchangeof culturewith the Continent;after the Reformation,the Renaissancewriters claimed,such advantageousconditions disappeared, because Protestantism, on the onehand, severed Scottishties with CatholicFrance, while on the other,it allied the Puritanelement in Englandand the CalvinistKirk of Scotland.In return for a closerrelationship with their Southernneighbour, the Scotsgained English manners and an EnglishBible, which in the long run reducedScottish difference. To suchdisadvantages, the Renaissancewriters addedthe impactof Calvinismon the Scottishmind. The world-view of Catholic Scotlandwas perceived as a balancedphilosophy sympathetic to artistic accomplishment.In contrast,the Reformationdiscouraged creativity because it had turnedthe attentionaway from God. Victor MacClureobserves in Scotland'sInner Man:

For the reformersto havehad any eyefor beautywould havebeen to imitate the luxuriousclergy they were displacing.The Puritanismof the new ministersand their flocks, destroyingeverything ecclesiastical that savouredof idolatry, smashedmore than the artistic embellishmentsof the churchesand abbeys. It smashedall the culture,and all the artistic aspirationsthat were alreadygrowing in the Scotsmind. Therewas to be no beautybut the beautyof Holiness,a beautyof bone structurewith no sweetcurving flesh to coverit. (MacClure 1935: 101)

The fact that MacClure'scomments appear in a book on Scottishcookery underlines how widespreadsuch a thesiswas. The majority of Scottishintellectuals thus rejected the Calvinist legacybecause they thoughtit restrictedtheir imaginationand outlawed their questfor aestheticbeauty. In addition,some argued that Calvinismwas hostileto Scottishnationhood because it had contributedto the over-all declineof Scotland,but sucha connectionis problematic.Although creativewriters tendedto be critical of Presbyterianism,other inter-war intellectuals such as Andrew Dewar Gibb and George Malcohn Thomsonaccepted Calvinism as part of the nationalheritage, and they were supportedby most contributorsto TheScots Observer, which paradoxicallyfunctioned as a mouthpiecefor the Kirk aswell as for the ScottishLiterary Renaissance.

Language: Into the Renaissance 44 Languagehas traditionally been acknowledged as a fundamentalaspect of national identity. Oneof BenedictAnderson's central claims in ImaginedCommunities is that thereis a connectionbetween the rise of the nation-statein fifteenth-centuryEurope and the spreadof vernacularlanguages such as English, French and German (Anderson 1991:37-41). In the nineteenthcentury it was generallyaccepted that the successof a would-benation dependedon the strengthof its linguistic heritage,which madea recoveryof the Norwegianand Finnish tongues a key concernfor the national movementsin Norway andFinland. Around 1900,Scottish intellectuals were somewhat morepessimistic with regardto the future of Scots.In his Literary History ofScotland (1903),J. H. Millar commentson the prospectsfor literary Scotsin poetry: Its resourcesas regards verse appear to be exhausted,and all its conventionshave been worn to a thread.Everything has the air of a more or less- and generallya less- sldlful imitation of Bums.Bums himself, aswe haveseen, was not "originar' in the senseof havingfounded a new schoolof poetry.He was ratherthe consummationof an old one; andfor that very reasonhe presentsan insuperableobstacle to the triumph of thosewho alsowould fain be disciples.It was easyfor him to borrow from Ramsayand from Fergusson,and to improveupon what he borrowed.It is alsopossible for later generationsto borrow from Bums; but who is to improveupon him? (Millar 1903:679-80)

The ScottishRenaissance changed that. Its representativesrealised that Scots,as a literary language,had ceasedto function as a mediumfor original thoughtby the time Nfillar cameup with his conclusions,but refusedto acceptthat the vernacularcould not be restoredto its formerposition. As a result,one of the inter-warrevival's greatest triumphsis its recoveryof the Scotslanguage. Many Renaissancewriters werepreoccupied with the questionof whetheror not the vernacularwould work as a vehicle for modemart. Although it had survivedinto the nineteenthcentury, the useof Scotshad been restricted to rural Scotland,which is to say that it hardly seemedcompatible with a modernistagenda. In earlytwentieth century, North Eastpoets Violet Jacob,Charles Murray andMarion Angustried to changethe attitudeto the vernacularthrough the employmentof Scotsin their writings. Their approachwas not radical enoughfor Hugh MacDiarmid,however, who campaigned fiercely againstthe useof Scotsin YheAberdeen Free Pressbetween December, 1921, andJanuary, 1922 (N4acDiarmid 1984a: 749-56). Soon thereafter, the poet realisedthat it might be desirablefor the particularbranch of the modernistmovement that wasthe ScottishRenaissance to employthe vernacular,which enabledthe writer to underline Into the Renaissance 45 the native aspectsof Scottishtradition, whilst challengingthe Englishhegemony. He recognisedthat Scottishauthors were caughtbetween a nationalistand a modernist impulse,and the only Wayto satisfyboth was througha modernisationof the vernacular. Accordingly,he developedwhat becameknown as"Synthetic Scots". In orderto write modempoetry in Scots,MacDiarmid found it necessaryto extendthe vocabulary availableto him. Throughthe reintroductionof words from earlierstages Of the ,as well asvarious regional glosses, he developeda linguistic mediwn that allowedhim to transcendprovincialism and engagewith modemideas. The poet's contemporadeswere enthusiasticabout his departurefrom Scottishtradition. In "Towardsa ScottishRenaissance", which is includedas a prefaceto the Carcanet edition of ContemporaryScottish Studies, Alexander McGill singlesout MacDiarmidas the key figure in the revival on accountof his Scotslyrics (MacDiarmid 1926/1995:3- 4). In Literature and OatmealWilliam Powerwrites: The real difficulty is the break-throughof the Doric from the realmof pure descriptionand simpleemotion into the realm of pure ideas. MacDiarmid achievesit now andthen, but the rushingflood of his thoughtswirls him back into a streamof English,where only an occasionalScots locution remindsus of the Doric intention.Yet the spirit of the poemsis Scotsthroughout, because MacDiarmid is the most vitally representativeof living Scots.At times he canbe clumsy,abusive, unjust, and irritatingly perverse.But he is neverfor onemoment dull, becausehe is alwayshis own arnazingself He is more thought- provoking than any of his English contemporaries.He hasmanaged to bomb the Scotsmind out of its bourgeois-Victorianfunk-holes, and makeit take to the open.(Power 1935: 183)

In the light of the Renaissancewriting as a whole, Poweris interestingon two accounts: on the onehand, he praisesMacDiarmid for his contributionto the vernacularrevival. Suchpraise is perhapsnot surprising,given that the use of Scotswas an efficient way to increasethe visibility of Scotland,and that it was equallycelebrated with referenceto the proseof Lewis GrassicGibbon. More significantis Power's insistenceon MacDiannid's ability to conveystrong Scottish loyalties evenwhen he employsa of Scotsonly. If MacDiarmid could successfullychannel his Scottishness througha mediumthat is only vaguelycoloured by the vernacular,little would seemto preventother writers from obtainingsimilar effectswithin StandardEnglish. In additionto the vernacularand StandardEnglish, the inter-warwriters accepted Gaelicas part of their nationalheritage. The suppressionof Highland culturein the past meantthat the languagehad been confined to a minority, but activistssuch as Ruaraidh Into the Renaissance 46 Erskine of Marr actively promoted a re-Gaelification of Scotland (Erskine 1931: 31-34). Most Renaissanceauthors were happy with a more passive recognition of Gaelic as one of the languagesof Scottish literature, however. As argued by Erskine in Changing Scotland, Gaelic had suffered a decline comparable to Lowland Scots, and it needed development in order to become a suitable vehicle for modem ideas (ErsIdne 1931: 32- 33). The implication was that Gaelic could be extended in a manner similar to MacDiarmid's reworking of Lowland Scots, and such a fusion of modem thought and Gaelic tradition was realised with Sorley Maclean's poetry of the 1930s and 1940s.

Literature:

Although his/herchoice of languageappears to be the most obviouscontribution the creativewriter makesto the constructionof the imaginedcommunity, culture more generallycan be employedin a nationalistcampaign. In Nationsand NationalismErnest Gellnerstresses how in the modemage it hasbecome common to associatenationhood with a continuous,national tradition: Culture is no longermerely the adornment,confirmation and legitimation of a social orderwhich was also sustainedby harsherand coercive constraints;culture is now the necessaryshared medium, the life-blood or perhapsrather the minimal sharedatmosphere, within which alonethe membersof the societycan breathe and surviveand produce. For a given society,it mustbe one in which they canall breatheand speakand produce;so it must be the sameculture. Moreover, it must now be a great or high (literate,training-sustained) culture, and it can no longerbe a diversified,locality-tied, illiterate little cultureor tradition. (Gellner 1983:37-38)

The ScottishRenaissance authors were ambitiousin their attemptto make literature participatein the nationalawakening. In their proseand poetry, the authorsexpressed ideasthat embracedmodernism as well as Scottishness,and they promotedtheir art as a departurefrom the old-fashioned,provincial outlook associatedwith nineteenth-century Scotland.Before they were ableto declaretheir revival a SecondGolden Age, however, the modemssaw a needto part with their more immediatepast. In Contemporary ScottishStudies (1926) Hugh MacDiarmid stressedthat "Scotlandto-day possesses at leastten poetssuperior to all exceptthe greatestten it hashad in the whole courseof its literary history" (MacDiarmid 1926/1995:114). Other writers appearto havebeen motivatedby similar concernsas much of the inter-war criticism denouncessuch Scottishicons as Walter Scott,Robert Bums and J. M. Barrie. Into the Renaissance 47 The Renaissanceversion of Scottish literary history reads similarly to the interpretation of history as a whole. It begins with the Golden Age of Scottish letters in the fifteenth century when drama, poetry and other forms of the arts thrived. In 1560 the Reformation initiated a processof decline in the quality and the quantity of the arts. The decay culminated in the nineteenth century when Scottish literature reachedits low point with the Victorian Kailyard, but hopefully the tide was now turning and the inter- war revival would prove a renaissancein the true senseof the word. In a 1924 contribution to The Glasgow Herald William Power appealsto the modems: Europe,wounded and weakened and disillusionedby the war, is a prey to parasiticalinfluences of morbidity, spiritualism,freakishness, pseudo- psychology,and deadly materialism. Her aeroplanescleave the clouds, but her soul remainsbelow. Onceagain, as two centuriesago, after the dreadfulwars of Louis NIV, shelooks aroundfor springsof healing.May shenot find themonce again in the waterscalled forth by Scottishpoets from the rocksof their native land?(Power 1924:4)

Although Power'srhetoric is wonderfulin its universality,most Renaissancewriters settledfor the more manageabletask of a critical revaluationof their literary heritage. To receivethe heaviestrebuke were the modems'most immediatepredecessors, the creatorsof the Kailyard andthe Celtic Twilight. The nineteenth-centurywriters were chargedwith parochialism,narrow-mindedness and sentimentalism,which accordingto the ScottishRenaissance had resultedin a misrepresentationof Scottishlife in literature. The legacyof Walter Scottcaused more problems for the modems.On the onehand, his writings relatedto Scottishaffairs, which was positive in the light of the inter-war insistenceon Scottishness.On the other,his versionof history presentedthe 1707Union betweenScotland and England in a positive light, which was at oddswith the nationalist concernsof the 1920sand 1930s.The criticism of Bums, finally, is the hardestto understand.Standard allegations of parochialismand populism occur, but the problem appearsto havebeen the usesBum's poetrywas put to ratherthan the writings themselves.In the openingofA Drunk Man Looksat the Thistle,MacDiarmid therefore denouncesthe Bums Federation,Bums Clubs andmiddle-class Burnsites, then moves on to proclaim "A greaterChrist, a greaterBums" as the future hope for Scotland (MacDiarmid 1926/1987:12).

With the Kailyard, nationalicons suchas Scott andBums andmost Scottish literatureafter the Reformationdismissed, the modemswould turn to pre-Reformation writing for inspiration.Hugh MacDiarmid evokedWilliam Dunbar,whereas Edwin Into the Renaissance 48 Muir preferredRobert Henryson, but therewas a consensusamong Scottish writers of the 1920sand 1930sthat the authorwho soughtexamples of a genuine,native tradition, shouldturn to the fifteenthcentury. Eric Linklater writes in TheLion and the Unicorn: In the first JamesScotland had a king whom Chaucerhad taughtto be a poet, andthe fourth James,himself a scholarand a musician,had for subjectsthe greatmakars, Dunbar and Henryson and Gavin Douglas. With themto useit, the Scottishtongue acquired an amazingstrength. The makarshave commonly been called Chaucerians, but in someways theywere rather pre-Elizabethans. Like Marlowe's, their vocabularyhad the seeminglyinexhaustible and ever-growing riches of a new-found Golconda.They had the many-sidednessof men whoseminds were alive in all quarters.They had sucha frank delight in their art that, thoughan art of suchhigh accomplishment,it was still a plaything.It was the art of the Renaissance,and under James IV the Renaissancemade a bravestart in Scotland.(Linklater 1935a:111-12)

An awarenessof suchpast accomplishments, the modemsargued, allowed Scottish authorsto reachbeyond years of provincialismand narrow-mindedness to graspthe universalsthey desired.

With referenceto BenedictAnderson's four principlesfor nationhood,I will claim that the ScottishRenaissance attempted to constructa nationalmythology on all levels. Centralto the project is the reimaginationof Scotland.Since 1707Scots had leamtto think of themselvesas a small part of a largerwhole, the unitedIdngdom of Great Britain, but the new generationstressed that it neednot necessarilybe so; that a reconsiderationof Scottishgeography and history might prove it possibleto see Scotlandas a nation in its own right. The limitation of the nation is lesssignificant. Therewere intellectualsin the thirties who arguedthat the Englishand the Irish populationsshould be excludedand Scotlandonly include thosewho could claim direct descentfrom an elusivetribe of prehistoricScots. Yet they were a minority asmost Renaissancewriters were more concernedwith the overcomingof old divides thanthe constructionof new ones.The third questionof sovereignty,in contrast,is at the heartof the discussionbecause of the modems'close association with political nationalism.Not surprisingly,much of the controversyover Scottishhistory, Calvinismand literaturewas meantto prove Scotland'sright to self-determination.In the Renaissanceperspective, the GoldenAge of Scottishhistory had endedwhen the Reformationintroduced an EnglishBible andinitiated the processof anglicisation.Scottish Calvinism hastened the declinebecause of its discouragementof the arts,while native Scottishtradition was Into the Renaissance 49 erodedby the closerrelationship between Scottish and English culture.Hence the inter- war Renaissancewould arguethat Scotlandwas onceindependent and prosperous, that the nation was impoverishedbecause of its lost nationhood,and that only a returnto Scottishself-determination might savethe nation.A senseof community,finally, is called for in muchRenaissance propaganda. The unity-in-diversityapproach to Scottish geography,as well asthe attemptsto follow Scottishhistory back to a GoldenAge beforethe yearsof civil war anddisruption, evoke the dreamof a unitedScotland, whereall the individual partsperceive themselves as members of onefamily. To conclude:what was undertakenin Scottishliterature in the 1920sand 1930swas a grand nation-buildingscheme, which was meantto teachthe Scotsto think of their countryin termsof an imaginablecommunity and indirectly,provide an ideologicalbasis for nationalism.

Beyond the Renaissance

A number of common featuresunite most Scottish writing of the inter-war years. On the broadest level, Scottish authors participate in a modernist reaction against an older, pre- war civilisation, which involves the denunciation of nineteenth-centurymorals, manners and taste. This criticism may be read as an attempt on behalf of the modems to createa spacefor their art, for many literary eras started out with a reaction by younger writers against the conventions of their literary forebears.With reference to Scottish issuesin particular, the Renaissancewritings are characterised,by a concern over the state of the nation and a regenerative vision of the new Scotland that needs to be built. How did it ever come to this, the writers ask, and their answer is denationalisation: Scotland's loss of nationhood had led to the country's physical and spiritual decline, and only a rise in national consciousnessmight save Scotland from premature death. The Renaissance thesis is backed in the literature by the revaluation of Scottish geography,history, religion, literature and language, and it is such thematic parallels that make it possible to talk of one literary movement, the Scottish Literary Renaissance.The problem with such terminology is that it ignores the diversity within the group. The authors associatedwith the revival were individuals before they became connected with any specific grouping, which raises the question of whether indeed the notion of a Scottish Renaissanceis viable outside the mind of the literary critic. With reference to modernism as a whole, Randall Stevenson claims in Modernist Fiction that Into the Renaissance so unlike other contemporary movements such as Imagism, Futurism or Vorticism - modernism involved very little direct association of the writers involved. It was never a movement fostered through participants' contacts or collective agreementabout aims, goals, ideas or styles. Modernism is a critical construct, a recognition, some years after writers completed the works involved, of substantial similarities, even a collective identity, in the initiatives they took and the styles and concerns which they made a priority. (Stevenson 1992: 8)

Thoughthe artistsof the ScottishLiterary Renaissanceall sharethe ambitionto revitalisethe nation andthus represent a more cohesivegroup than modernism in general,there are differences of opinionsthat havebeen obscured by my attemptto presentthe Renaissanceas a unified movement.In orderto foregroundsuch diversity, I will proceedwith an examinationof four representativeauthors who in differentways engagedwith the questionsof Scotlandand Scottishness.I have chosen to focuson Hugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn,Lewis GrassicGibbon andEdwin Muir, becausethey arethe most centralin relationto the thematicconcerns of my particulardiscussion. This is not to suggestthat they equalthe ScottishRenaissance, which embraceda multitude of voicesfrom different social,ethnic andregional backgrounds. Arguably, their ideasof Scotlandwere amongthe most influential, however,while their disagreementswith regardto the questionof nationalismprobably constitute the most disruptivefactor within the Renaissancegroup. In the secondpart of my analysis,I win thereforeconcentrate on the imageof the nation that emergesfrom the work of MacDiarmid,Gunn, Gibbon andMuir. In someareas, I expectthem to sharethe concernsI identified in-the"Voice of Scotland"section; in others,they may deviate from the generalconsensus in orderto pursuetheir own interests.Just asRandall Stevensoncharacterised modemism as the meetingof agendasthat did not necessarily cohere,I believeit is the sum of suchsimilarities and differenceswhich constitutesthe ScottishLiterary Renaissance.Or as literary historianDavid Perkinsargues in Is Literary History Possible?:"We must perceivea pastage as relatively unified if we are to write literary history; we mustperceive it ashighly diverseif what we write is to representit plausibly" (Perkins1992: 27). Part Two

0% Four Visions of Scotland 52 Introductory

Wherein the initial part of my discussion,I tried to showhow on the most generallevel Scottishculture contributed to the constructionof the imaginedcommunity in the 1920s and 1930s,I want to usethe secondpart to examinefour specificvisions of Scotland.I havechosen to focuson Hugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn,Lewis GrassicGibbon and Edwin Muir becauseof their centralposition in Scottishinter-war literature. In their writings, the themesof history, geography,religion, languageand literaturerecur, which underlinesthe authors'engagement with the critical revaluationof the nation.Yet I have decidednot to follow thesemotifs slavishlyin orderto avoid thematicconcerns overshadowingthe diversity amongthe writers. In consequence,I shall postponemy reflectionson the artists' stanceon the Renaissanceideology in a wider senseuntil my concludingchapter and, for the time being, consideronly the themesthat appearmost relevantin relationto eachparticular writer. I havestructured my discussionof the authorson the basisof chronologyas well as their positionwithin the nationalmovement. I will beginwith Hugh MacDiarmid(1892- 1978)because it washis call for a Scottishrevival that in the 1920slaunched the processof revaluation.In the 1930s,the poet's attractionto extremepolitical ideassuch as fascismand communism led to his expulsionfrom the National Party,whereas his contactswith fellow-writerssuffered as a resultof his 1933withdrawal to Whalsay. Nevertheless,he remainedloyal to his conceptof Scotlandand is possiblythe most idealistic of the four. The examinationof MacDiarmidis followed by the chapteron Neil Gunn (1891-1973).Gunn was born a yearearlier than MacDiarmid,yet it was the poet,who in the 1920sdirected the Highlandwriter towardsthe literary mainstream,and it is uncertainwhether Gunn would havebecome so importanta spokespersonfor the Renaissance,had he lackedsuch stimulation at this crucial momentin his career.My third writer, Lewis GrassicGibbon (1901-35), standsout becauseof his late arrival on the Scottishscene as well ashis prematuredeath. With regardto literature,he shared with MacDiarmid an interestin the vernacular,while his views on political nationalism aremore reminiscentof thoseof Edwin Muir. Finally, Edwin Muir (1887-1959)is the authorwho is most critical of the nationalistprinciples behind the literary movement, which is why I haveplaced him at the end of my discussion.In termsof chronology,that may seemproblematic, for Muir was five yearsMacDiarmid's senior,four years Introductory 53

Gunn's. Yet t,here appearsto be no other appropriate place for him, when his attitude to the Scottish revival is taken into account. As a result, my survey of Scottish Renaissance literature begins with Hugh MacDiarmid's call for a national awakening in 1922; it ends with Edwin Muir's dismissal of nationalism in the 1930s. 54

On seeingScotland whole: Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43

In the early 1920s,when he flist set out to revive Scottishculture, Hugh MacDiarmid appearedcertain that it waspossible to changethe public attitudeto all mattersScottish. "Let Scotlandgo forwardboldly asBelgium did, as Irelandhas done, to thecreation of its naturalnational literature", he declaredin the 1922piece "Scotland and Belgium" from TheDunfermline Press, which indicatesthat the questionsof cultureand nationalitywere interconnectedfrom the beginning(Mac; Diarmid 1922/1996b:3 0). MacDiarmidcontinued with a call for action:"The difficulties to be overcomeare largelythose which the Belgiansovercame and Scotsmencan surmountthem in much the sameway if they aresufficiently setupon it. Wherethere's a will there'sa way" (MacDiarmid 1922/1996b:30). The tone of "Scotlandand Belgium! ' is representativeof the confidencewith which MacDiarmid launchedhis programmefor a Scottish Renaissancein the twenties.Inspired by the examplesof othersmall nationssuch as Belgium andIreland, he believedthat Scotland,too, might enjoy a cultural revival, and that the meritsof suchwere so obviousthat he could only be met with sympathyby his fellow-Scots.Twenty yearslater, the writer seemsto have lost his original faith in the Scottishnation. In his autobiography,Lucky Poet from 1943,he characteriseshis position in inter-warScotliind as follows: To mix my metaphorsfrom the animalworld, my function in Scotland during the pasttwenty to thirty yearshas been that of the cat-fish that vitalizes the othertorpid denizensof the aquarium.And what a job! Sincethe Union with England,Scotland's has been simply the role of caterpillar-grubstung into immobility by devouringwasp; a paralysisthat will certainlylast the lives of 99 per cent.of all Scotsnow over forty yearsof age,and was completeand lifelong in the lives of nearly 100per cent.of their fathers,grandfathers, and great-grandfathers.(MacDiarmid 1943:xv)

MacDiarmid'swords arebitter. Although he admitshe hasmade some progress among the youngergenerations, most Scotshave been untouched by his campaignfor national regeneration,which leaveshim wonderingwhether Scotland has indeed been worth his efforts. Wherein 1922,the authorhad beenpositive with regardto the prospectsof a nationalrevival, he appearsless certain by 1943.While the youngMacDiarmid was confidentin his ability to affect change,the older MacDiarmid realisesthat he hasbeen unableto transformthe outlook of his compatriots.Between 1922 and 1943,the poet Hugh MacDiarmid 191943 55 hasmoved from optimismtowards scepticism regarding the prospectsof the Scottish Renaissance,and in orderto explainsuch a development,it is necessaryto examinehis relationshipwith the nationalmovement more closely. Hugh MacDiarmid'searliest declaration of a life-long commitmentto the Scottish causeoccurred in a 1916letter to his former schoolmasterGeorge Ogilvie: "I shall come back andstart a new Neo-Catholicmovement. I shall enterheart and body andsoul into a new ScotsNationalist propaganda! ' (MacDiam3id 1916/1984a: 14). The initial referenceto Catholicismis interestingin the light of the developmentof T. S. Eliot and Edwin Muir, who becameincreasingly preoccupied with religious questionstowards the endof their careers.Yet it is as a Scottishpoet andpropagandist, not as a spiritual revivalist, that MacDiarmidmade his impacton inter-warScotland. Although he bad alreadyvoiced his concernwith the nationalquestion in 1916,it is likely that the author was influencedby the climatein Scotlandwhich was generallyfavourable to nationalismin the early 1920s.As I discussedin my historical survey,nationalist organisations,which had beensuppressed by the war, re-emergedfrom around1919 (p. 21ff. ). The establishedPress would print accountsof the fortunes,or misfortunes,of the Home Rule campaign,which indicatesthat therewas an interestin the issueamong the populationas a whole. Suchan atmospheremay haveconvinced MacDiarmid that Scotlandwas readyfor a new kind of Scottishliterature. Where prior to 1922he had maintaineda balancebetween the work of establishedwriters suchas John Buchan and Neil Munro andcontemporary poetry in the Northern Numbersanthologies, he became moreradical in approachafter his launchof YheScottish Chapbook in 1922.In the first editorial,MacDiarmid explainswhy he had found a redirectionof Scottishliterature necessary: In my opinion, then,for severalgenerations Scottish literature has neither seennor heardnor understoodwhat was taking placearound it. For that reasonit remainsa dwarf amonggiants. Scottish writers havebeen terrified evento appearinconstant to establishedconventions. (Good wine would haveneeded no "Bonnie Brier Bush!'. ) They have'stood still and consequentlybeen left behindin techniqueand ideation.Meanwhile the Scottishnation hasbeen radically transformedin temperamentand tendency-,Scottish life hasbeen given a drasticreorientation, with the result that Scottishliterature today is in no senserepresentative or adequate.(MacDiarmid 1922/1992:4-5)

MacDiarmid'sjournals servedtwo purposes.First of all, they were meantto provide an outlet for contemporaryScottish writers suchas the poet himself, Neil Gunn,William Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 56

Soutarand Edwin Muir. As MacDiarmidlater observedin his essayon Muir from ContemporaryScottish Studies (1926), the ScottishPress was too parochialfor the criticism of Edwin Muir, who in the early 1920swas writing mainly for Englishand Americanmagazines. The "interestin literaturein Scotlandis infantile", MacDiarmid points out, "while Muir is a Pan-Europeanintervening in the world-debateon its highest plane" (MacDiarmid 1926/1995:93). MacDiarmid's new Scotlandcould not afford to lose a talent like Muir, whoseEuropean outlook would introducea muchneeded internationalelement into Scottishculture. Accordingly, one of MacDiarmid!s primary motivationsbehind ventures such as YheScottish Chapbook, The Scottish Nation and TheNorthern Reviewwas to offer a Scottishforum for Muir, andthe latter's contributionsto thesejournals in the early 1920sshow that theeditor had somesuccess in turning the attentionof prominentScottish intellectuals to nationalmatters. In additionto the attemptto put Scotlandback in focus,MacDiarmid's publications were meantto prepareScottish readers for a new kind of literaturethat was at oncenational andmodem. In the seventh,eighth and ninth issuesof TheScottish Chapbook, the editor developedhis ideasinto a "theory of Scotsletters", which stressedthat the forcebehind the ScottishLiterary Renaissancewould be 'ýffiegenius of our Vernacular"combined with the "newestand truest tendencies of humanthought" (MacDiarmid 1923/1992: 19).Nationalism, internationalism and universalism were to meetin MacDiarmid's programmefor a nationalrevival, in otherwords, ashe demonstratedin an artisticsense with A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistlefrom 1926. From the beginning,Hugh MacDiarmid's radical departurefrom the conventionsof past generationsattracted the attentionof his countrymen.Contemporary reports and lettersin establishmentpapers such as The GlasgowHerald imply that manywere provokedby the writer's manifestos,which encouragedyoung Scots to discard establishedinstitutions such as the Bums Federation,whereas his poetryproved too experimentalfor the generalpublic. Nevertheless,the author'scalls for a culturalrevival broughthim in contactwith other Scottishwriters suchas Neil Gunn,'Helen B. Cruickshankand Edwin Muir, manyof whom would play a centralrole in the developmentof Scottishculture in the yearsto come.In spiteof an obvious,nationalist agenda,the poet primarily focusedon culture in his writings until 1927,when he sent out Albyn: or Scotlandand the Future as a retort to GeorgeMalcolm Thomson's Caledonia.To somedegree, the priorities of Albyn were determinedby Thomson's Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 57 pamphlet,which waspolitical in content.If one comparesthe polemicsfrom the first volume of TheRaucle Tongue, the recentlypublished anthologies of MacDiarmid's hitherto uncollectedprose, with the contentof the second,however, the pieceswritten prior to 1926tend to be cultural in content,whereas they become more concernedwith political, economicand socialissues from around1927. One example of that tendencyis "Nationalismand Socialism!', which was publishedin TheScots Independent in 1928. In the following extract,the authorresponds to a recentattack on Scottishnationalism by a JohnS. Clarkein the Labourweekly Forward, thenstresses why nationalismmust takepriority over socialism: Our purblind anti-nationalScottish Socialists have, in fact, sacrificed ScottishSocialism to Englishrequirements in the most irrational fashion. Socialismis not incompatiblewith Nationalism;there is nothing whateverto preventthe growth of Socialismin a ScottishFree State any more than in Franceor Germany- thereis no reasonto supposethat that growthwould be slowerin a ScottishFree State than underthe present is conditionsof affairs- it all dependsupon the Scottishpeople. It absurd to saythat ScottishNationalism, therefore, is a capitalistdodge - or an anti-capitalistone - althoughit may well developa tendencyin the former direction for a time if ScottishSocialists persist in violent, vituperative,and insensate anti-Nationalism of the kind servedup by Mr. Clarke.(MacDiarmid 1928/1997:72)

This was written at a time in MacDiarnud'scareer when he was becomingincreasingly involved with nationalistpolitics. In 1928he was thus amongthe foundingmembers of the National Party of Scotland. Hugh MacDiarmid's position in Scotlandaltered in the early 1930s.As the economic recessionstruck Britain, the poet underwenta seriesof financial andemotional crises which eventuallytook him to the remoteShetland island of Whalsayin 1933(Bold MacDiannid 1990:326). Although his exile may havebeen beneficial in an artistic sense,it cut him off from the circleshe had frequentedin the 1920s.Through letters, he maintainedcontact with writers suchas Neil Gunn,Helen B. Cruickshank,Edwin Muir, CatherineCarswell and Lewis GrassicGibbon, among others, but wherehe had previouslybeen at the centreof affairs,he was now more of a spectator.His 1933letters to Neil Gunn,in particular,suggest that he felt he was losing touch with Scottishlife, while his attackson the nationalmovement implies a changingideological outlook (MacDiarmid 1933/1984a:249-50 and 252). In his prose,MacDiarmid remainedas ferociousas ever.In the 1931essay "English Ascendancyin "he turnedfrom the celebrationof native geniusthat had characterisedThe Scottish Hugh MacDiannid 1919-43 58

Chapbookto a direct attackon the enemy.Yet his creativeefforts no longer seemedto matchsuch radicalism. To CircumjackCencrastus, which MacDiarmidhad announced in a 1926letter asthe "synthesis"to A Drunk Man's "antithesis",appeared in 1930 (MacDiarmid 1926/1984a:91). Exceptin size,the sequeldid not rival the accomplishmentof the previouswork, and eventhe authoradmitted it hadbeen a relative failure: As a whole I do not think [Cencrastus]is so completelyachieved as my Drunk Man: nor did I succeedin working out my intention- indeedI deliberatelydeparted from it, realisingthat I was not yet capableof that task, andthat it was necessaryfirst of all to get rid of all kinds of elements(not without their own values)which havebeen standing betweenme andmy realjob. I believeI've donethat now; and can go aheadto a far biggertask. (MacDiarmid 1931/1984a:457)

Throughoutthe thirties,MacDiarmid was looking for a voice that could expresshis ideasas effectivelyas the vernacularidiom of his early lyrics. At the sametime, he was lessconcerned with the nationalistpropaganda that had beenso centralto his writings of the 1920s.The ScottishRenaissance no longer seemedto be at the heartof his vision, which may be the consequenceof his alienationfrom the nationalmovement. In 1928,the writer appearedon the sameplatform as JohnMacCormick, Compton Mackenzieand the Duke of Montrosein an attemptto boostR. B. 'srectorial campaignat GlasgowUniversity. The sameyear he was involvedin the foundationof the National Party,which consolidatedthe connectionbetween the new tendenciesin Scottishculture andnationalist politics in the wider sense.As Richard Finlay points out in Independentand Free, MacDiarmid soonbecame associated with the fundamentalistwing of the National Party."Whatever his literary merits,politics was not his forte", Finlay argues:"[MacDiannid] becamea focal point for Celtic nationalismand he endeavouredto give ideologicalbody to its romanticnotions" (Finlay 1994a:83). Partly as a result of his idealistic outlook, partly becauseof his role in the fascistClann Albain organisation,1933 brought an endto the poet's activities within the National Party.In an attemptto accommodatemore moderatenationalists, JohnMacCormick called for the expulsionof party radicals,and one of the first to go was MacDiarmid,whose Romantic commitment to Scotlandwas incompatiblewith party discipline.The writer respondedwith fierce attackson the National Party politicians in his proseand poetry of the mid-1930s,but the expulsionmust havehit him hard.Although he hadbeen moving towardsa more militaristic strategyin his campaign Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 59 for Scottishindependence from around1930, he remainedloyal to his personal programmefor nationalregeneration and probably felt that MacCormickhad deprived him of his rightful placewithin the nationalmovement. In consequence,the propagandistwho had originally beenat the centreof eventsin the twenties,was cut off from his former associationsfrom around1933. For a period,the self-declaredherald of the ScottishRenaissance was reducedto a lone islandprophet, which explainshis pessimismtowards the end of the period. In the following, I am going to examineHugh MacDiarmid'svision of Scotlandas it comesacross in his writings from the period 1919to 1943.1want to focuson his prose writings becauseI think that is wherehis revaluationof Scotlandcomes across most clearly,but will considerthe poetrywhenever it is appropriateto do so.I havedivided my discussioninto threeparts: "'dalling Out the ScottishRenaissance', "Lourd on my Hert" and'Toet's Lucie'. The first sectiondeals with MacDiarmid's ideasof the 1920s. Of the threeparts, that offers the most detailedexamination of the author'swritings, which I believeis justified by the fact that this was when he definedhis conceptof a Scottishrevival. The following sectionsdiscuss MacDiarmid's politics andpoetics of the 1930s."Lourd on my Hert" will look at Cencrastusand the political writings of the mid-1930s,while the third chapterconsiders the aestheticsbehind such publications as TheIslands ofScotland (1939)and Lucky Poet (1943).In the thirties, the artist wasnot necessarilyin a positionto print his writings at the time of composition,however, which is why I havechosen a thematicapproach to the late MacDiarmid.

Calling out the Scottish Renaissance1919-30 As RobertCrawford notes in the openingpages of "ScottishLiterature and English Studies"from TheScottish Invention ofEnglish Literature, Hugh MacDiarmidwas not the first to worry aboutthe stateof Scottisharts when he launchedhis campaignfor a Scottishrevival in the early 1920s(Crawford 1998:225-32). In 1898T. F. Henderson hadprovided his accountof nativetradition in ScottishVernacular Literature, andin the third edition from 1910, he addedthe following preface: On the appearance,some twelve yearsago, of the first edition of this book, doubtwas expressedas to the fitnessof the term "vernacular"to designatethe literatureof which it treats.It may, therefore,be explained that herethe term is not usedto denotemerely a common,vulgar, provincial or dialectliterature, but what, in a looseform, may be termed native or nationalScottish literature, as distinguishedfrom the Scottish Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 60 literaturefor which the mediumof expressionis modernEnglish. (Henderson1910: v)

Henderson'sinsistence on the statusof vernacularliterature as a nationaltradition implies a generaluneasiness with the role of Scottishculture. The final distinction betweenvernacular writing andAnglo-Scottish literature suggests that Scottishculture was comingunder increased pressure from its English neighbour,and similar concerns were voicedby Henderson'scontemporaries J. H. Millar andGregory Smith, whose A Literary History ofScotland(1903) and Scottish Literature: Characterand InJ7uence (1919)had identified traits which the authorsthought peculiar to Scottishtradition. It is probablyno coincidencethat threemajor studiesof Scottishtradition werewritten within twenty yearsof eachother. On the contrary,the critics may havebeen responding to a fear in the populationthat Scotlandwas losing distinctiveaspects of its nationhood, and that the nation might eventuallydisappear into the largerentity of GreatBritain. Creativewriters, too, were stimulatedby the prospectof the possiblesubmergence of Scotland.In "Modem Poetryin ScotsBefore MacDiarmid! ', Colin Milton mentions RobertLouis Stevenson'sdecision to write poetry in Scotsin spiteof his pessimism with regardto a possiblefuture for that language(Milton 1987: 15).John Buchan, CharlesMurray andViolet Jacobalso chose to composeverse in the North EastDoric ratherthan StandardEnglish, and althoughtheir efforts were later discardedby MacDiarmid,they contributedto the processthat would eventuallytransform the vernacularfrom a mediumfor rustic verseto a vehicle for modemthought QvIilton 1987:35).

Despitesuch long-term trends, which imply that the nation was not asblind to the stateof the arts as its Renaissancecritics later claimed,it makeslittle senseto speakof a nationalrevival beforeHugh MacDiarmid.T. F. Henderson,1. H. Millar and G. Gregory Smith might havebeen aware of the neglectof Scottishculture, but they focusedon the older Scottishwriters exclusively,which meansthat they aimedto preserverather than revive. As for the dialectpoets, they may haveproved Scotsa possibI6medium for poetry,but they tendedto be conservativein their use of the language.Accordingly, they would saveScots phrases from obscurity,but found little reasonto renewthe language- to seekout expressionsthat allowedthem to voice contemporaryideas. In the light of that, MacDiarmid's early denunciationsof the North Eastrevival arejustified. In responseto the LondonBums Club's campaignfor the Doric in the early 1920s, Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 61

MacDiarmiddeclared in TheAberdeen Free Pressthat suchactivities were essentially reactiverather than progressive (MacDiarmid 1922/1984a:754). The North Eastdialect reflectedrustic sentimentsrather than modemphilosophy, which madeit an unsuitable vehicle for a revival that intendedto engagewith the latter.MacDiarmid continues: My main points hereare that the VernacularCircle havenot really addressedthemselves at all to the root problemsof the Doric as a literary medium,and that the VernacularCult in its presentform - like its wider aspect,the Bums Cult, which Dr Bulloch has significantly admittedis mainly maintainedby peoplewho readlittle or nothing andpoetry least of all, andmust accordinglybe regardedas a greatinhibiting agency, preventingthe developmentof an atmospherein Scotlandcongenial to modemideas and ideals - cannotbe dissociatedfrom its reactionary elementsand from the consequencesof an inherentcontempt for culture andthe tendencyto regardpeople of progressiveculture and ideasas "superior" and snobbish.(MacDiarmid 1922/1984a:755).

On the surface,the author'sdismissal of the Doric readslike a specimenof the inconsistencywhich he was famouslyassociated with throughouthis career.Yet his criticism was not targetedat the languageitself, but at the way it had beenused by North Eastrevivalists and Bums Clubs enthusiastsalike. Experimentalism,not conservatism, was the key to MacDiarmid'sRenaissance project, which suggestsa fundamental changeof attitudeto Scotlandand Scottishculture. A clear indicationthat somethingwas happeningin Scottishliterature, came with the announcementof TheScottish Chapbook in 1922.Prior to that, MacDiarmidhad edited threeanthologies of contemporarypoetry, but wherein NorthernNumbers he had relied on establishednames such as JohnBuchan and Neil Munro, TheScottish Chapbook was intendedas a forum for the young.The first issue,which wasprinted in August 1922, included,besides the editor's own writings, work by ChristineOrr, JohnFergusson, William Soutarand Robert Crawford. Later editionsintroduced Helen B. Cruickshank, Neil Gunn,Edwin Muir, andJames Pittendrigh Macgillivray, and thereis an interesting correspondencebetween the contributorsto TheScottish Chapbook and the artists MacDiarmid later portrayedin ContemporaryScottish Studies (1926). In relationto the presentdiscussion, it is for the polemicsrather than the poetrythat TheScottish Chapbookis important.In additionto creativework, eachissue contained a long editorial comment,and it was in these"Causeries" the poet setout his programmefor the ScottishRenaissance. The format of MacDiannid's proclamationsis significant. Sincethe publicationof the Futurist Manifestoin YheNew Age in 1914,it hadbecome Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 62 fashionableamong the modemsto declaretheir beliefs in public, and as a readerof The NewAge, MacDiarmidwould havebeen aware of this trend.As a result,he adopteda manifestostyle for his editorialsas we seein the following extractfrom the 1923 "Causerie"that becamethe initial part of "A Theory of ScotsLetters": We baseour belief in the possibility of a greatScottish Literary Renaissance,deriving its strengthfrom the resourcesthat lie latentand almostunsuspected in the Vernacular,upon the fact that the geniusof our Vernacularenables us to securewith comparativeease the very effects andswift transitionswhich other literaturesare for the most part unsuccessfullyendeavouring to cultivate in languagesthat havea very different andinferior bias. Whateverthe potentialitiesof the Doric may be, however,there cannot be a revival in the real senseof the word -a revival of the spirit as distinct from a mererenewed vogue of the letter- unlessthese potentialities are in accordwith the newestand truest tendenciesof humanthought. (MacDiarmid 1923/1992:19)

As a declarationof the editor's aims,the aboveparagraph is centralin at leastthree respects.First of all, the tone differs radically from that of the T. F. Hendersonpassage I quotedpreviously (pp. 59-60).While Hendersonhad felt the needto justify his interest in Scottishwriting througha referenceto its nationalstatus, such concerns were no longerrelevant to MacDiarmid,who took for grantedthe existenceof an autonomous Scottishtradition aswell as its importanceto the world at large.The secondinteresting elementin the editorial is the useof "we". Suchpluralism could be tied to the declamatorymanner of the "Causerie",but it may also representan attempton behalfof the authorto presentas a movementwhat in the early 1920swas essentiallya one-man project. On MacDiarmid's tendencyto boosthis numbers,Angus Calderwrites in his introductionto the first volume of TheRaucle Tongue: Grieve-MacDiarmid-etc.were a tribe of scribblerswho frequentlyquoted and evenreviewed each other. They were not alwaysin full agreement. Bums is sometimesa major but misunderstoodpoet, sometimesa brainlessdead-end. People whom we now regardas minor poetsmight be puffed to the sIdeshere, as harbingers of ScottishRenaissance, or put down mercilesslythere, as examplesof the generalfeebleness of recent Scottishwriting - in English,in Scots,orjust generally.The p'ointwas to draw attentionto issueswhich the tribal assemblycould not claim to have fully resolved.(in MacDiarmid 1996b:4)

The third and final characteristicof MacDiarmid's style in "A Theory of ScotsLetters" is his emphasison the necessaryfusion of modernismand nationalism.New Scottishart would be developedfrom the native traits that had beenidentified by GregorySmith, amongothers, in suchworks asScottish Literature: Characterand Influence,but Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 63 modem Scottish artists were to recognise their heritage as a starting point, not a goal in itself Innovation, not preservation, was at the centre of MacDiarmid's programme, which representsa departure from Henderson's defeatism.

On the cover of The Scottish Chapbook was printed the slogan "Not Tradition - Precedents"above the drawing of a lion rampant. Such images refer to the principles of Scots, nationalism and modernism which were at the core of MacDiarmid's campaign for a new Scotland.The vernacularand nationalism were essentialbecause an insistence on Scottishnesswould enablethe nationbreak free from Englishdomination. Modernism,on the otherhand, was to ensurethat the Scottishrevival wasprogressive andin line with contemporarytendencies in the arts in a wider sense.Initially, MacDiarmidappears confident that therewas enoughof his countrymenwho had understoodthe needfor changeand who would thereforebe sympatheticto his programmefor nationalregeneration. In an openletter to The GlasgowHerald he advertisedYhe Scottish Chapbook as a forum for "that minority in Scotland,sufficiently interestedor capableof becominginterested in experimentalpoetics" (MacDiarmid 1922/1984a:757). In practice,this "minority" must haveturned out smallerthan the authorhad expected,for in 1923Yhe Scottish Chapbook ceased publication. The ScottishNation and TheNorthern Review fared no better,and in 1925,MacDiarmid put a temporaryhalt to his editorial activities.Following the collapseof his own ventures, the poet's main outlet becameYhe Scottish Educational Journal to which he contributed a weekly columnunder the heading"Contemporary Scottish Studies" from 1925to 1926.In comparisonwith the earlierprose, Contemporary Scottish Studies represented a changeof strategy.As an appendixto the 1926edition, the authorprinted a list of works he considereduseful for the readerintending to take up Scottishstudies, which suggests that he had adopteda pedagogicalapproach that was in line with the aims andobjectives of TheScottish Educational Journal. Although it would havebeen less obvious to a contemporaryreader, who receivedContemporary Scottish Studies in weekly instalmentsrather than as a whole, MacDiarmid!s argumentwas cleariy underpinnedby his personalagenda for the Scottishrevival. In the third essay,for instance,he observes on novelistNeil Munro: Thereare quite a largenumber of competentwell-read Scots even today - albeit fewerthan there were ten yearsago, and like to be progressively fewer asthe yearspass and post-war mentality assertsits complete differencefrom pre-waror wartimementality - who swearby Neil Munro andregard him as a greatwriter. Thereis no needto be hard upon Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 64

them for this misconception:rather let us seekto understandit - for it is perfectly,if a little subtly,understandable, and understanding of it is a key to manyot her thingsin contemporaryScottish literature. For the ' truth of the mattermay be just asdogmatically - if regretfully!- statedas the untruth is: Neil Munro is not a greatwriter, 'he is not evena good writer - at besthe is no more than a (somewhatpainfully) respectable craftsman.(MacDiarmid 1926/1995: 18)

As a critique of Munro's work, suchcomments are of little significance,for, although Munro may not havebeen the greatestnovelist of his time, it is presumptuousto discard him altogether.As a specimenof MacDiarmid's Renaissanceethos, on the contrary,the passageis central.On the most generallevel, ContemporaryScottish Studies moves betweencondemnation and praise. The first essayschallenge establishment icons such asJohn Buchan, Charles Murray andJ. M. Barrie, whereasthe piecesthat follow introduce"new" facessuch as R. B. CunninghameGraham, James Pittendrigh Macgillivray, Edwin Muir andFrancis George Scott. On a similar note,MacDiarmid's attackon Maýory Kennedy-Fraser'sSongs ofthe Hebridesis pairedwith a celebration of Ifighland novelistNeil Gunn,who hadbeen among the first respondentsto the poet's 1922manifestos (MacDiarmid 1926/1995:308-21). Where the older generationis dismissedfor its old-fashionedmanners and provincialism, young Scotsare singled out for their adherenceto the ideasof nationalismand modernism, which the author believedrepresented the way forward for Scotland.When readas a whole, the message of ContemporaryScottish Studies is that progressiveScots must abandonall aspectsof Scottishculture prior to the First World War in order to embracethe principlesof the ScottishLiterary Renaissancewholeheartedly. Scottish artists were making a difference, MacDiarmid stresses,but only a few Scotshad showntheir appreciationof it, andin orderto reachthe rest,he felt he had to shout.As a result, the readersof Contemporary ScottishStudies were not to be convertedto the programmeof the ScottishRenaissance on the basisof artistic merit exclusively.They were to learn that MacDiarmid'sblend of nationalismand modernism represented the only modemtendency within Scottish the Murray Barrie culture, whilst alternativesofMunro, and were symptomaticof past parochialism. The optimistic vision of a renascentScotland, which MacDiarmidhad promoted in his earlyprose, and the growing disenchantmentwith the conservatismof fellow-Scots that comesacross in ContemporaryScottish Studies, meet on an artistic level in A DrunkMan Looks at the Thistle(1926). In A DrunkMan, W. N. Herbertobserves in his Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 65 study To CircumjackMacDiar? nid, "MacDiarmid attempts both to align himself with andfree himself from heterodoxnationalist thinking" (Herbert1992b: 43). The nationalismthe poet aninedto dissociatehimself from is the somewhatconservative insistenceon Scottishnessfor its own sake.In the early twenties,he had objectedto the campaignfor a vernacularrevival on the groundsthat it would preserverather than revitalisethe Scotslanguage. In the openingstanzas of A Drunk Man, he consolidates his position with the following attackon the Bums Federation: You cannagang to a Bums suppereven Wi'oot somewizened scrunt o' a knock-knee Chineeturns roon to say,'Um Haggis- velly goot! And ten to wan the piper is a Cockney.

No' wan in fifty kensa wurd Bums wrote But misappliedis a'body's property, And gin therewas his like alive the day They'd be the last a kennin' haundto gVe-

Croose London Scotties wi' their braw shirt fronts And a' their fancy freen's, rejoicin' That similah gatheringsin Timbuctoo, Bagdad - and Hell, nae doot - are voicin'

Bums' sentimentso' universallove, In pidgin English or in wild-fowl Scots, And toastin' ane wha's nocht to them but an Excuse for faitherin' Genius wi' their thochts. (MacDiarmid 1926/1987: 6-8)

The secondstanza suggests that it was their celebrationof traditional icons suchas RobertBums that had madeMacDiarmid's contemporariesinsensitive to modemart. They had failed to acknowledgethat renewalwas necessaryif Scottishliterature was. to, resumeits former strength,and their ignorancehad causedthe tradition to decline.As with culture, so with the nation.Through his personaof the Drunk Man, the poet searchesfor a glimpseof hopewithin the different spheresof Scottishlife, only to discoverthat the old symbolsof Scottishnesshave failed the nation. As a result, Scotlandhas been reduced to the superficialimages of bagpipe,kilt andBums supper, while the nation hasceased to exist on an aestheticlevel. Against suchflawed patriotism MacDiarmid placesthe real nationalismof the ScottishRenaissance. In "A Vision of Myself', the sectionthat follows the initial attack on the Bums Cult, the authorexpresses his refusalto compromisewhen he proclaimsto Hugh MacDiannid 1919-43 66 be "whaur extremesmeef '. He continueswith the following lines which in a neat mannerembrace both the internationaland national dimensions of his Renaissanceidea: "I We naedoot someforeign. philosopher/Has wrocht a systemoot to justify/A'this: but I'm a Scotwha blin'ly follows/Auld Scottishinstincts, and I winna try." (MacDiarmid 1926/1987:14). MacDiarmid's message is that it is necessaryto startwith Scotland. Only when Scotshave proven their worth as individuals andnationals, may they aspire towardsmore universal matters, which explainswhy he found it necessaryto introduce A Drunk Man with a fierce condemnationof his fellow-Scots."ro be yersel's- andto mak' that worth bein", the poet declaresat a later stagein the poem,which in essence epitomiseshis programmefor the nationalrevival (MacDiarmid 1926/1987:62). MacDiarmid!s argumentin the openingofA Drunk Man may be comparedwith that of ContemporaryScottish Studies, which is perhapsnot surprising,given thatboth were completedin 1926.In theseworks the authorinsists that the old symbolsof Scottishness aresymptoms of "bad" nationalismbecause they areessentially reactionary, whereas radicalism,experimentation and innovationare welcome signs of a new age.Indirectly, that defineseverything relating to the older generationof Barrie andMunro as"bad! ', while the achievementof the emerginggeneration, the representativesof the Scottish Renaissance,is "good!'. Onceagain, progressivism and modernism are associated with the Renaissance,which suggestsan elementof self-promotionon behalf of an artist whoseaim it was for himself andhis fellow-modemsto be recognisedas breakers within Scottishtradition. MacDiarmid'schoice of Scotsrepresents a more subtledeclaration of his nationalist objective.Since 1922, he hadbeen experimenting with different ways in which the vernacularmight accommodatehis ideasin lyrics s4chas "The Watergaw","Empty Vesser' and"The EemisStane", and asKenneth Buthlay hasdemonstrated in his essay "Hugh MacDiannid's 'Conversion'to Scots",his preferredmethod was to adoptan alreadyexisting phrase, then add a twisting conclusionwhich underlinedhis modernist perspective(Buthlay 1989).In "Braid Scotsand the Senseof Smeir 6om TheSco ttish * Nation (1923),MacDiarmid claims to havechosen Scots because it enabledhim to procureeffects similar to thoseof JamesJoyce in Uysses.The Scotslanguage, he points out, might seemmore amoralthan StandardEnglish because of its sensualnature, but impressionismwas a key elementin Europeanmodernism and one of the progressive featuresof Scots(MacDiarmid 1923/1996b:73). MacDiarmid's referenceto Joyce Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 67 suggeststhat it might havebeen his fascinationwith languageand formal experimentationthat broughthim to the vernacular.In relationto that,W. N. Herbert writes in a contributionto the MacDiarmidcentenary issue of Chapman: I would seriouslydispute that MacDiarmid's interestin Scotswas principally to do with nationalistquestions of the integrity of the languageand its usein an independentScotland. In the sameway I would disputethat his interestin Marxism stemmedentirely from his genuine desireto liberatethe working classof Scotland.And by the sametoken, I very much doubtthat his interestin sciencewas solely inspiredby his burningneed to reconcileall specialisms.Principally, entirely, solely. MacDiarmidwas, above all andbefore any otherconsiderations, a poet obsessedby the functionof language.(Herbert 1992a: 18-9)

ThoughHerbert is right to stressthat the poet's ambitionswere primarily literary in kind, I think nationalismremains a factorbehind his choiceof Scotsas the mediumfor A Drunk Man. In the most generalsense, language was still considereda key aspectof nationhoodin the aftermathof the First World War. In my historical survey,I mentioned how a recoveryof their nationaltongues had beenessential to the Norwegianand Finnishmovements of the nineteenth-century(p. 44), andMacDiarmid's references to the Norwegianpoet andnationalist Henrik Wergelandin "Gairmscoild"proves that he was awareof that (MacDiarmid 1926/1978:73). On top of that, the Scotslanguage ties in with the "bad" nationalism/"good"nationalism theme which I consideredabove. In "A Theoryof ScotsLetters! ', MacDiarmidhad identified Scotsas oneof the central concernsof the ScottishRenaissance because it allowedthe artist to combinenationalist sentimentsand modernist experimentation, and A Drunk Man was meantto provethat sucha poetic strategywould work in long, philosophicalpoems as well asthe short lyrics with which he hadpreviously been connected. Meanwhile, the Scotslanguage ensureda Renaissancepresence even in partsof the poem,where the poet appearsto be moving beyondhis Scottishtheme. Eageras he might havebeen to foregroundthe Scottishdimension in his poem, MacDiarmidwas equallyconcerned that A Drunk Man shouldbe readin relationto Europeanmodernism in a wider sense.In the section"The Gothic Thistle', he acknowledgeshis debtto T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland!% whereas his adaptationinto Scotsof poemsby AlexanderBlok, GeorgeRamaekers and Edmund Rocher points to the Europeancontext of his work. The messageof MacDiarmid's modernismseems to be that the artist may standon Scottishground, yet reachout towardsthe absolute."T. S. Eliot - it's a Scottishname - /Afore he wrote 'The WasteLand' s'ud ha'e come/To Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 68

Scotland here!', the writer stresses(MacDiarmid 1926/1987: 30). The implication is that

Scotland provides adequatescope for modernist art - that the poet's home town of Montrose offers as much material for contemplation as Eliot had found in the metropolis of London. At a later stagein A Drunk Man, MacDiarmid compareshis personal struggle in "the Thistle's land" to Dostoevsky's trials in Russia (MacDiarmid 1926/1987: 130). Once again, that reads as a dismissal of the suggestionthat Scotland might be too small to leave an impression upon European culture. "Montrose or Nazareth?", the poet asks,only to demonstratethat in the existentialist quest that confronts the modernist artist, it hardly matters at all (MacDiarmid 1926/1987: 16). Towards the end of A Drunk Man the opposite poles of Scotland and Cosmosare brought together in the image of a Great Wheel that embracesall times and all places. On the edge of the Wheel, MacDiarmid sees"Wee Scotland squattin' like a flea," which underlines the insignificance of Scotland's squabbleswithin a universal frame (MacDiarmid 1926/1987: 176). This vision leaves the speakerwith an impossible choice: if he wants to pursue a nationalist agenda,he will inevitably have to enlarge Scotland out of all proportion to its proper size, which may be at the expenseof individual achievement.If, on the contrary, he prefers to follow his poetic ambition, he will have to reduce Scotland to a minimum as any kind of nationalist commitment would hinder his artistic quest for absolutes.Instead of trying to resolve the dilemma, however, MacDiarmid avoids the issue. In Hugh MacDiarmid, Kenneth Buthlay observes: The humanmind finds no ultimate answerto its questioning,of course. The Drunk Man leavesus in the dark.He dropsthe GreatWheel not with a bangbut a whimper,and turns to his wife for comfort.MacDiarmid the intrepid cosmonautleaves us with a row of asteriskson the page.Even the questionof how to write a greatnational poem when you are unfortunateenough to be a Scotsmanin 1926is, in the words of Saintsburydeferring judgment on the Russiannovelists, "taken to avizandum".(Buthlay 1982:56).

The unresolvedissues at the end of A Drunk Man indicatethat the artistic principlesof nationalismand modernism may not havebeen as easilycompatible as MacDiarmid had announcedin his earlyprose. The writer's idea of a modemScotland contains some fundamentalflaws, in otherwords, which cometo the fore in his writings of the 1930s. In a sense,Albyn concludesMacDiarmid's work of the 1920s.It containsan analysis of the stateof Scottishpolitics, economicsand culturetowards the end of the decade Hugh MacDiarmid 191943 69 and elaborateson suggestionsthe poet had madeearlier rather than raiseany new concerns.In the initial part, for instance,the authorunderlines what impacthas been madeby his campaignfor a ScottishRenaissance through a list of contributionsmade to the revival within the fields of Scottishdrama, music andliterature (MacDiarmid 1927/1996a:4-5). Sucha waveof creativity,he argues,represents a liberationof Scottishart from the Calvinist influencewhich for centuriesrestricted the freedomof the artist,but one difficulty remains: Scottishgenius is being liberatedfrom its Genevanprison-house. But the centralizationof British arts andaffairs in Londonis still restrictingit in waysthat can only be addressedby that re-orientationof facilities which would follow the re-establishmentof an independentScottish Parliament, or, in the eventof a returnto the systemof Provinces,a federationof assemblies.The movementcannot manifest its full statureand move freely, savewithin that frameworkof a Scotlandbecome once again a nation in everysense of the term for which it hasbeen designed. (MacDiarmid 1927/1996a:5)

As one gathersfrom the passageabove, the prospectsfor the cultural revival is closely connectedwith the successof political nationalismin Albyn, which is perhapsnot surprising,given that the poetwas becoming increasingly involved with nationalist politics around1927. In addition,it may reflect a growing disillusionmentwith the nation's failure to respondto the call for a literary renaissanceas MacDiarmidmight havethought it easierto reacha largeraudience from a political platform. Whateverhis reason,the writer engageshimself more seriouslywit h politics at this stagein his career. 11iscontributions to political organssuch as TheScots Independent, The Pictish Review and Die ScotsObserver grow in number,while his opinionson the unequalpartnership betweenScotland and England become more pronounced. For a period, the propagandist takesover from the poet.

I'Lourd on my Hert": Hugh MacDiarmid's politics in the 1930s

Hugh MacDiarmidmaintained an uncompromising,separatist line throughoutthe 1930s.In Albyn he hadhighlighted the inhibiting impact of anglicisationand centralisationon Scottishart, and in 1931he developedsuch views in "English Ascendancyin British Literature".In comparisonwith previouspolemics that were predominantlyScottish in content,"English Ascendancyin British Literature" extended his argumentto the whole of the British Isles.At the heartof MacDiarmid's analysis was the thesisthat the future developmentof British culturedepended on a restored Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 70 balancebetween the centreof Englandand the Celtic nationsScotland, Ireland and Wales.Prominent modernists such as T. S. Eliot andRobert Graves, the authorclaimed, had alreadyrecognised that contemporarytrends were working againstEnglish domination(MacDiarmid 1931/1992:65). Now the most promisingwork camefrom Scottish,Irish andWelsh artistsrather than the Imperial centreof London,but unfortunatelythe combinedarrogance and ignoranceof the Englishhad hitherto preventedtheir acknowledgementof such facts (MacDiarmid 1931/1992:67). Accordingto MacDiarmid,the solutionwas a renewedemphasis on the Celtic element. Throughthe work of W. B. Yeats,Douglas Hyde andDaniel Corkery,Ireland had recoveredits Gxlic heritage,which for generationshad beensuppressed by the English hegemony(MacDiarmid 1931/1992: 63). The Scotswould be the next to recognisethe value of their neglected,national tradition, but the successof the ScottishRenaissance relied on threeconditions: The first hasperhaps already been secured or is likely to be, andthat is a rising tide of Scottishnational consciousness. The secondis a thorough- goingreconcentration, in our schoolsand universities and elsewhere,on the studyof ScottishLiterature.... The"third point is the necessityto bridgethe gulf betweenGaelic and Scots.Both havebeen tremendously handicappedby circumstances,and yet in their evolution,thus miserably attenuatedand driven undergroundby externalfactors, they have continuedto complementand correcteach other in the most remarkable way. (MacDiannid 1931/1992:73-74)

"English Ascendancyin British Literature"invites a postcolonialreading because of its emphasison a necessaryre-negotiation of the relationshipbetween centre and periphery. One shouldbear in mind that MacDiarmidwas usingthis particularpiece to arguethe casefor an autonomousScottish within a British context,however, which explainshis frequentreferences to the Irish andWelsh situation.In his Scottishprose of the early 1930s,on the otherhand, he is as dismissiveof his fellow-Scotsas ever,since it had beentheir "bad!' nationalismthat had allowedthe nation to degeneratein the first place. As in ContemporaryScottish Studies and A Drunk Man, it is thus the Anglo-Scottish establishmentrather than the English that is the poet'smain targetin the 1930s,which weakensthe postcolonialargument. Although he continuedto expresshis sympathyfor a separatistline in suchpieces as "Whither Scotland?" (1931), "The Lion UpsideDown! ' (1932)and "A Letter from Scotland"(1934), A Drunk Man appearsto havemade MacDiarmid awareof the unresolvedproblems within his twin philosophiesof nationalismand modernism. The Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 71

1926poem had beenintended as a grand,nationalist gesture, but, asKenneth Buthlay remarked,it went "not with a bangbut a whimper" (Buthlay 1982:56). Accordingto a 1926letter to GeorgeOgilvie, MacDiarmi&snext project, To CircumjackCencrastus, was to remedythat: It will be a muchbigger thing than the Drunk Man in everyway. It is complementaryto it really. Cencrastusis the fundamentalserpent, the underlyingunifying principle of the cosmos.To circumjackis to encircle. To CircumjackCencrastus - to squarethe circle, to box the compass,etc. But wherethe Drunk Man is in onesense a reactionfrom the "Kailyard!', Cencrastustranscends that altogether- the Scotsmangets rid of the thistle, "the bur' o' the world!' - andhis spirit at last inherits its proper sphere.Psychologically it representsthe resolutionof the sadismand masochism,the synthesisof the varioussets of antithesisI was posingin theDrunk Man. It will not dependon the contrastsof realism and metaphysics,bestiality andbeauty, humour andmadness - but move on a planeof purebeauty and pure music. (MacDiarmid 1926/1984a: 9 1)

As the poet admittedin the 1930letter I quotedin the introduction(P. 58), Cencrastus did not meethis high expectations.He was not readyfor sucha task,he stressed, becausehe first had "get kinds havebeen of all to rid of all of elements... which standingbetween me andmy realjob" (MacDiarmid 1931/1984a:457). In a sense, Cencrastusdeepens the ideologicaldivisions that were alreadymanifest in A Drunk Man. In her discussionof the poem,"The UndeservedlyBrouldt Bairn!', Margery McCulloch identifiestwo basicthemes within the work. The Cencrastus;theme, which is representedby MacDiannid!s symbolof the snake,explores the individual questfor spiritual fulfilment andmaybe comparedto thejourney of the Drunk Man in the 1926 poem.As a contrastto that, McCulloch puts the Scottishtheme, which relatesto the "bad" nationalismparagraphs ofA Drunk Man, andwhich is constitutedby the poet's contemplationon the stateof the nation.Where in 1926the two themeshad interacted, however,they now evolve independentlyof eachother asMcCulloch observeswith referenceto the Scottishtheme: (The] Scottishtheme, instead of being part of the larger explorationof material andtranscendental reality as in A Drunk Man, acquiresa life of its own which in the endoverwhelms the more universalCencrastus themeof the poemand destroysthe equilibrium betweenits parts. (McCulloch 1982: 166)

In relation to the presentdiscussion, the Cencrastustheme reflects MacDiarmid's vision of spiritual revival, whereasthe Scottishtheme is characterisedby a growing Hugh MacDiannid 1919-43 72 disappointmentwith the reality of inter-war Scotland.The generalmovement of the poemis falling. Although the work setsout on an idealisticnote, it is undercutby the poet'sobservations on his fellow-Scots,which eventuallybrings the readerto the point wherebitterness and a lossof confidenceobscure the original idea. In spite of the frustrationthat lingerson at the end of the poem,MacDiarmid sets out with his idealismintact. The aim of the poem,he pointedout in his 1926letter to Ogilvie, is somehowto get aroundCencrastus, encircle the serpentwhich he imagines as"the underlyingunifying principle of the cosmos"(MacDiannid,1926/1984a: 91). Suchcommitment to universalismis underlinedby the initial invocationof Cencrastus: Thereis naemovement in the warld like yours. You areas different frae a'thing else As water frae a book, fear frae the stars... The licht that History shedson onything Is naethingto the licht you shedon it. Time's dourestriddles to solution slide Like Latreaumont'scormorant: and Man Shuddersto seeyou slippin' into place... The simpleexplanations that you gi'e 0' age-langmysteries are little liked Evenby themwha best appreciate The soondadvice you gied to Mither Eve, Or think they dae. (MacDiarmid 1930/1978:18 1)

MacDiarmid!s choiceof Cencrastusas his symbol of the life-giving force is sigriificant, for, like the poet's generalvision, it blendsthe particularwith the universal.The serpent is the Celtic symbolof wisdom,but, as Alan Bold points out in The Terrible Crystal,it is also the Curly Snake,a childhoodmemory from the Langholm.landscape (Bold 1983a:128). In a neatmanner Cencrastus thus fusesHighland and Lowland, Gaelicand Scots,but it embraceseven more. In Norse mythologythe snakeencircles the cosmos, yet it is a child of evil, the trickster god Loke, and only when it is left undisturbed,will the balancebetween good and evil prevail. Suchequilibrium is at the heartof MacDiarmid's philosophy.In "English Ascendancyin British Literature",he had argued that a Celtic revival was necessaryin order to restorethe balancebetween England, Scotland,Ireland andWales, and in Cencrastusthat thesisis appliedto world affairs in a wider sense.Hence the artist suggestsin the following passagethat the world has becometemporarily unbalanced with the rise of SovietRussia, but that the hidden resourcesof the Celtic world might restoreharmony: Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 73

If we turn to Europeand see Hoo the emergenceo' the RussianIdea's Brokenthe balanceo' the North and Sooth And needsa coonterthat can only be The GaelicIdea To mak' a parallelogramo' forces, Completethe Defenceo' the West, And endthe Englishbetrayal o' Europe. (MacDiarmid193 0/1978: 222-23)

MacDiarmid!s presentationof the Gaelic spirit asthe force that will restoreorder, complementsOswald Spengler's image of the rise and fall of civilisations in Der Untergangdes Abendlandes. Against the decayof Englandand Lowland Scotland,he placestriumphant Gaeldom, and that idea is developedthroughout the 1930s. It is neitherthe elusiveserpent nor the Gaelicidea that epitomisesCencrastus, however,but the picture of an individual confinedby personaland national factors. The most memorableaccounts of his trials arethe lyrics "The Mavis of Pabal" and"Lourd on my Herf '. "The Mavis of Pabal"appears only ten pagesinto the poem,which underlineshow closelyrelated are the optimistic movementof Cencrastusand the underlyingsense of individual andnational decay. Through images characteristic of MacDiarmid'sRenaissance writings of the 1920s,the lyric portraysthe poet asthe lone heraldof revival, eagerto seelife return to the barrenlands of Scotland,but it endsin frustration.The speakerrecognises the merits of his exaltedposition, the bright horizon that can only be approachedfrom the brink of this "bricht impossiblehilr', but he is alone(MacDiarmid 1930/1978:192). His fellow-Scotshave eitherforgotten the path to the summitor Redthe country,and his songis likely to be the last. A more humorous variation on that themeis "Lourd on my Hert": Lourd on my hert as winter lies Thestate that Scotland'sin the day. Spring to the North has aye comeslow But noo dour winter's like to stay For guid, And nofor guid!

0 wae'sme on the wearydays Men it is scarcegrey licht at noon; It maunbe a'the stupidfolk Diffusin'their dullnessroon and roon Like soot, That keepsthe sunlicht oot. Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 74

Nae wonderifl think I see A lichter shadowthan the neist Finfain to cry: "The dawn,the dawn! I seeit brakin'in the East. But ah, - It'sjuist mair snaw! (MacDiarrnid1930/1978: 204-5)

Thoughironic andself-mocking in tone,MacDiarmi&s winter imageryis reminiscentof Edwin Muir's "Scotlan&sWinter"frorn ScottishJourney (1935). It communicatesthe feeling that the poeVsattempt to . awakenthe Scottishnation hasbeen in vain becausethe majority of Scotsdo not seethe needfor revival. The authorfeels defeated by mediocrity,which explainswhy his idealistic Cencrastustheme eventually disappears into a condemnationof Scottishreality. As his lack of successin the 1920sshows, ' Scotlandhad not respondedto the call for a ScottishRenaissance, and in consequence, the artist now turnshis back on the Scots. In ideologicalterms, Hugh MacDiarmid seemsto be changinghis priorities afterthe completionof Cencrastusin 1930.In his biographyof the poet,Alan Bold notesa previousinvolvement with the Welsh labourmovement around 1911 as well asthe poet's electionas a socialistto the MontroseTown Council in 1922,and suchleft-wing sympathiescome across in A Drunk Man, for instance,when in "The Ballad of the Crucified Rose"the speakermourns the failure of the 1926General Strike (Bold 1990: 83 and 167).In spite of suchpublic manifestationsof his commitment,socialism remainedsecondary to nationalismin the 1920s.In my introductionI quotedthe poefs 1928retort to the socialistJohn Clarke, and the basisof his argumentin that piecewas the needto procureScottish autonomy first (p. 57). After Cencrastus,on the otherhand, which had highlightedMacDiarmid! s growing disenchantmentwith Scotland, communismmoves to the centreof his vision in suchpoems as "First Hymn to Lenin", "The SeamlessGarmenVand "Second Hymn to Lenin". In "SecondHymn to Lenie' from 1932,for example,the writer declareshow it is necessaryfor art to win throughto the people: Are mypoems spoken in thefactories andfields, In the streetso' the toon? Gin they're no, then1"infailin'to, dae nat I ocht to hadune.

Gin I cannawin through to the man in the street, Thewife by the hearth,- Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 75

A'the. clevernesson earthll no'mak'up For the damnabledearth.

"Haud on, haud on; whatpoet's dunethat? Is Shakespeareread, Or Dante or Milton or Goetheor Burns? - Youheard what I said. (MacDiannid 193211978:323)

In a decade,when British poetssuch as W. H. Auden, Cecil Day-Lewisand Stephen Spenderwould famouslydeclare their ideologicalbeliefs in public, MacDiarmidwas the first to stressthe needto bridge the traditional divide betweenpoetry and the working classes.In hindsight,the third stanzais ironic, however,for, while RobertBums had alwaysappealed to the Scottishpopulation at large,MacDiarmid never attracted more than a selectfollowing. With referenceto that, one wonderswhether MacDiarmid's notion of communismwas everintended as a massmovement. It seemstoo closely connectedwith the Romanticimage of the artist asthe soleherald of revival, which he had presentedin "rhe Mavis of Pabax',as well as the individual questfor spiritual fulfilment that lay at the heartof modernistart. It is associatedwith a perceptionof the artist,MacDiarmid, as the leaderof a revolutionaryelite, in other words;not the identificationof the poet with the masses.Accordingly, the implication of "Second Hymn to Lenire' is not that poetrymust be written for the people,but that the revolution would raisethe workersto a level of culturethat enabledthem to appreciate (MacDiarmid's) genius. Occasionally,one suspectsthat MacDiarmid adoptedcommunism because he felt the Scottishmovement had failed to recognisehis efforts. In the polemic "C. M. Grieve SpeaksOut' 'from 1932,he refersto the nationalistleaders as "the old dead-headswho for decadeshad beenresponsible for Scotland'sdecadence", and the solebasis for such allegationsseems to havebeen their inability to sympathisewith the poet's radicalism (MacDiannid 1932/1997:391). On a more solemnnote, he writes in a 1935letter to Neil Gunn:

I havegone very far along a road from which thereis no turning back and upon which one cannothave more than an irreducibleminimum of companyat any time. I haveno idea how you standnow - in relation to ScottishNationalism and in your generaloutlook and cultural conclusions;but I personallyam implacablyopposed to everythingI have yet heardvoiced in regardto any of thesematters by any of my compatriotsand striving incessantlyto find meansof expressionfor ideas at the utmostremove from all they can entertainor express.And I am .

Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 76

confidentalike that I shall yet succeedin doing so and that my doing so will be an extremelyimportant matter for Scotlandand for far morethan Scotland.(MaýDiarmid 1935/1984a: 256-57).

At the time of writing, MacDlarmidwas at a low point in his career.Since 1933,the combinedeffects of his"expulsionfrom the National Party andthe withdrawalto Whalsayhad placedhim at considerabledistance from the Scottishscene, and gradually, the consequencesof his marginalposition dawnedupon him. As the Gunnletter implies, he felt cut off in the Shetlands,which may have contributedto the nervousbreakdown he sufferedlater that year(Bold MacDiannid 1990:380-83). In spiteof his personaltrials, Hugh MacDiarmid continuedhis ideologicalbattle for Scotlandin poetry andprose. In 1934the 'Tirst" and"Second Hymn to Leniif 'were followed by an "Ode to All Rebels",in which he wantedto settlehis relationshipwith his surroundingsonce and for all, but the contentof the pieceproved too controversial for the publisher(Bold 1990:365-66). When StonyLimits cameout, "Ode to All Rebels"had been replaced by "Lament for the GreatMusic", and althoughless obviouslydogmatic in its message,the latter is probablythe finer poem.MacDiarmid's troublescontinued with RedScotland from the mid-1930s.When Routledgeagreed with Lewis GrassicGibbon andHugh MacDiarmid's proposalfor a serieson Scottish culture,the VoiceofScotland books, the poet was to contributea pieceon the role of Lenin in Scottishlife. Suchwork was in line with the political outlook of both editors, and a 1934letter from the publisherto MacDiarmid confirms that Routledgeaccepted the suggestion(MacDiarmid 1934/1984a:536). In the end,Red Scotland was never published.What remainsof the manuscriptis locatedin the National Library of Scotland,and in additionto a sizemore than twice the length of the average contributionto the series,the contentmight explain why that is so. More than anything, RedScotland reads as the author'sfinal crusadeagainst his former allies within the National Party-

So for as generalpolitics areconcerned the majority of Nationalistsin the National Party are Conservatives,Liberals, Labourites,and those queer birds who claim to "have no politics but Nationalism" - the majority of Nationalistsoutside the National Party are left-wing Socialistsand Communistsand people sympathetic to and inclining towards Communism.The National Party is constitutionalistand Monarchical; the excludedand now subterraneouslyorganised elements are disposed to revolutionarymethods and, for the most part, out-and-out Republicans.(MacDiarmid 1935/36:234-35) Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 77

As a manifestation of MacDiarmid's position in the latter half of the thirties, Red Scotland is crucial. The work combines the poet's wish to argue his case against the National Party with an advertisement for his Scottish brand of communism, and where the National Party never seemsradical enough for MacDiarmid's taste, the Communist Party is found wanting in terms of Scottishness.From the two he takes what he requires for a personal philosophy of Scottish republicanism, which may be incompatible with its parent ideologies of nationalism and communism, but which is highly congenial with MacDiarmid's imagination. In 1938 the Red Scotland material was worked into the essay"The Red Scotland Line: Forward to the John Maclean Line", in which the author describeswhat progresshe has made towards the Scottish republicanism that will eventually supersedethe flawed Scottish Renaissance.In a manner not unlike his 1922/23 manifestos, he imagines himself as the leader of an intellectual vanguard that will revolutionise Scottish politics (MacDiarmid 1938/1998: 10-11). The parallels between such a vision and the writer's earlier call for a Scottish Renaissanceare evident, and it appearsthat, although the shadeof his politics had altered in the course of the 1930s, the content remains recognisably MacDiarmid.

Poet's luck: Hugh MaMarmid's poetics in the 1930s To CircumjackCencrastus was written at a momentof transition in Hugh MacDiarmid's development.On the onehand, he was trying to hold on to the regenerativevision of a ScottishRenaissance which he had activelybeen promoting sincethe 1920s;on the other,he wasbecoming increasingly concerned about the obviouslimitations of Scotlandand the nationalmovement. Such a changingoutlook seemsto haveinfluenced his attitudeto language.Prior to 1930,he had demonstratedin his early lyrics aswell asA Drunk Man how the Scotsvernacular might expressa commitmentto cultural nationalismand modernism alike. His poetic vehiclewould haveto be Scottish,MacDiarmid had insisted,because it representedan alternativeto the centralisedculture of StandardEnglish. In addition,it was to be modern,for only by following the modelsof contemporaryart might the Scottishartist shedthe parochialism of the previouscentury and interactwith the world at large.By the time he had completedCencrastus in 1930,his priorities were different. In comparisonwith the experimentalScots ofA Drunk Man, Cencrastuswas composedin a diluted versionof the vernacular,which implies that formal questionswere no longer to the fore of the poet's mind. In Hugh MacDiarmid KennethButhlay ascribesthe declinein the intensity Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 78 of MacDiarmid's Scots to his growing preoccupation with Celtic culture. Such an association,Buthlay claims, convinced MacDiarmid that he had been deprived of his authentic voice, which was Gaelic, and that Lowland Scots representedan inferior, anglicised language(Buthlay 1982: 67-68). Buthlay continues: MacDiarmid'sdescription of his languagein Cencrastusas "hauf- EnglisW'is accurateenough. It is a thin mixture, which, while closeto actualmodem Scots speech, is deployedwithout much vitality, in contrastto the rich variety of Scotshandled with suchverve and flexibility in A Drunk Man. But MacDiarmid's biggestlimitation is not perhapsthe languagehe is usingbut the languagehe cannotuse: Gaelic, the right languagefor a man who wants to stakethe claims of the Gaelic Idea.(Buthlay 1982:68)

Although powerful lyrics suchas "Kinsfolk! ', 'Milk-Wort andBog-Cotton! ' and"Water Music" prove that he neverlost his ability to composepoetry in Scots,MacDiarmid appearsto havebeen looking for a new languagein the 1930s.With specificreference to ScotsUnbound, W. N. Herbertargues in To Circum/ackMacDiamid how the artist was comingto view the role of languageas "'linked to intellectualfreedom in terms which prefigureIn MemoriamJames Joyce directly" (Herbert 1992b:118). Herbert's mention of the Joycepoem, on which MacDiarmid commencedwork around1935, is significant,for, in a linguistic sense,that is probablythe piecewhich is finthestremoved from A Drunk Man: that is, the 1926poem had beencomposed in a mediumthat, in spite of its experimentalcharacter, was essentiallyScottish. Such connotations tied in with the poet's nationalistoutlook becauseit ensureda senseof Scottishdifference was maintainedthroughout the work, whilst substantiatingthe claim that modernistart was possiblewithin a Scottishcontext. Yet suchnationalist associations might be restricting on a philosophicallevel. Alan Riach recognisesin Hugh MacDiarmid's Epic Poetry how the focusof MacDiarmid's versechanged in the 1930sin favour of a universalidea that would allow him to bring togetherall the contradictoryelements within his vision (Riach 1991a: 14). Suchan ever-expandinguniversalism required a more inclusive vehicle, and Scotswas consequentlyreduced from its former statusasý the sole language of the ScottishRenaissance to one of the many dictions that madeup this new medium. As Carl Freedmanhas discussed in his essay"Hugh MacDiarmid, JamesJoyce and World Language",MacDiarmid's new poetic vision is most clearly expressedin the 1955work In MemoriamJames Joyce where in true Joyceanmanner, the poetpresents the fusion of all languages,all ideas,as the future of poetry (Freedman1992). Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 79

In the light of MacDiarmid'smove from linguistic nationalismtoward multilingualism,his persistencewith regardto Scotsin the criticism of the mid-1930sis paradoxical.In 1934,Stony Limits demonstratedhis masteryof a wide rangeof different typesof Scotsand English, but had it appearedin 1935/36,when it was due,Red Scotlandwould havemaintained that Scotswas the only mediumavailable to the ScottishRenaissance. In RedScotland, George Pratt Insh,whom MacDiarmidhad praisedin ContemporaryScottish Studies, was thus denouncedbecause he had suggestedin a 1934review of Nan Shepherdthat the future of Scotspoetry lay with the "treatmentof Scottishthemes in the mediumof standardEnglisW'(MacDiarmid 1935/3 6: 191). In 1936, MacDiarmid'sviews on the vernacularbrought him to a confrontationwith Edwin Muir over Scottand Scotland.As I shall return to in my chapteron Muir, the critic had his personalreasons for his pessimismwith regardto the future of Scots.Yet MacDiarmidresponded with anger,which is perhapsnot surprising when the following passagefrom Scottand Scotlandis takeninto account: Scottish poetry exists in a vacuum; it neither acts on the rest of literature nor reacts to it; and consequently it has shrunk to the level of anonymous folk-song. Hugh MacDiarmid has recently tried to revive it by impregnating it with all the contemporary influences of Europe one after another, and thus galvanize it into life by a series of violent shocks. In carrying out this experiment he has written some remarkable poetry; but he has left Scottish verse very much where it was before. (Muir 1936/1982b: 9)

To MacDiarmid,Muir's predictionsrepresented a betrayalof everythinghe hadbeen strugglingto achievesince the 1920s.Although he might condemnthe national movementhimself, he was not readyto be told by Muir, or anyoneelse, that his vision of revival hadbeen a one-manband only. On top of that, Muir was voicing serious doubtsabout the vernacularas a mediumfor literature,which had beenone of the core principlesin MacDiarmid's early programmefor the ScottishRenaissance. Hence Muir questionedthe very basisof MacDiarmid's idea of a renascentScotland when in Scott and Scotlandhe declaredthe vernaculara deadlanguage. In hindsight,MacDiarmid tried to rationalisehis angryresponse. In a 1936letter to CatherineCarswell, he implies that Scottand Scotlandwas merelyhis "pretext" for enteringinto a "big cultural fight' which he hadbeen planning anyway (MacDiarmid 1936/1984a:427). However,a numberof factorssuggest that MacDiarmid's retort was indeedprovoked by Scottand Scotland,which had appearedat a very unfortunatemoment in the poet's career.First of Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 80 all, MacDiannidwas still recoveringfrom his nervousbreakdown in 1935.The collapse was partly dueto his arrival on Whalsay,which had alienatedhim from his former intellectualand nationalist circles. Such isolation madethe poet sensitiveto criticism, and the impactof suchwould increasein the caseof Muir, whom MacDiarmidregarded as an old friend and ally. In additionto his intellectualsolitude, MacDiarmid was being marginalisedwithin the nationalmovement more generally.His 1933expulsion from the National Party,as well asthe problemshe had encounteredin his searchfor publishersin the thirties,convinced him that he was being deliberatelysilenced by the Scottishestablishment. In a letter to CatherineCarswell that seemsto havebeen motivatedby his exclusionfrom the Scottishissue of TheLeft Reviewthat had appeared in November,1936, he declaredthat "[Edwin] Muir (J. ] Whyte and -H. werepartly instrumentalin stoppingmy RedScotland boole', and suchfear of conspiracymade him ratherinflexible with regardhis original principles for the cultural revival (MacDiarmid 1936/1984a:428). A final factor is MacDiarmid's growing insecurityon the language issue.Hitherto therehad beena straightforwardconnection between his nationalist ideologyand his linguistic programme,but from 1932that was no longerthe case.In his searchfor a mediumthat correspondedto his universalvision, the poet was trying out variousforms of English andScots, and he may have felt suchexperimentation compromisedhis earlierposition on Scots.As a result, MacDiarmidhad his reasonsto be sensitiveon the languageissue, which explainshis hostility towardsMuir in the years that followed. Whilereferences to Muir in suchworks as the 1938 essay"rhe RedScotland Line", theintroduction to TheGolden Treasu? y ofScottish Poet? y (1941) andLucky Poet (1943)ensured that MacDiarmid! s objections to Scottand Scotland were made absolutelyclear, it is thelinguistic universalism of In MemoriamJames Joyce that representsthe poeVs vision of Scotlandin thelate 1930s.Just as he was abandoning Scotsin favourof anEnglish inclusive of differentlinguistic codes, he was becoming increasinglysceptical as to whethernationalism alone provided the aýswers he sought. Scotland,it hadappeared in Cencrastus,was too narrow-mindedto offerthe artist the intellectualfreedom he craved, and in orderto remedythat, he adopteda moreidealistic approach.As regardsthe questions of Scotlandand Scottishness, MacDiarmid! s new philosophyfirst comesacross in Cencrastuswhere he employsthe image of theCeltic serpentas a symbolof perfectionin art.In thatwork, the elusivesnake is eventually Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 81 buried beneaththe authorsbitter observationson the stateof the nation.Yet it was developedas an ideathroughout the thirties, with MacDiarmidcoming increasingly to acceptGaelic culture as the salvationfor a world gonemad. In "Lament for the Great Music", he characterisesthe art of pibroch as follows: It is the supremereality (not the Deity of personaltheism) Standingfree of all historical eventsin past-orfuture, Knowable- but visible to the mind alone; Whereforethe Churchfor its own purposesborrowed The methodyou carriedto perfection,and in plain-song Foundthe musicalvoice of a dividuality Which hasno communallink with manIdnd Though,having the mystic associationof primitive music, It still hasthe power to work on humansuperstition. (MacDiarmid 1934/1978:474)

With In MemoriamJames Joyce, the artist strugglesto achievethe perfectionin poetry that he had found the pibroch representedin music. In a symbolicsense, that connects Celtic culturewith the ideal of a renascentScotland, which he had supportedthroughout his career,but which had temporarilybeen upset by his experienceof Scottishapathy. Accordingly,the bleak Scottishscene, which had broughthim to despairin Cencrastus, might be redeemedthrough an emphasison the nation!s Gaelicheritage. -MacDiarmid! s concernwith Gaelicculture inspired him to adaptinto English classicGaelic poems suchas "The Birlinn of Clanranald!' and "The Praiseof Ben Dorain!' aswell as the compositionof poemsthat refer to Gaelicthemes. More significantlyin the contextof the presentdiscussion, it invited him to reconsiderhis relationshipwith Scotland,which is one of the motivationsbehind YheIslands ofScotland (1939) andLucky Poet (1943). As a topographicalaccount of the nation, TheIslands ofScotland addsa geographical dimensionto the argumentof "Lament for the GreatMusic". Throughouthis introductorysection, the writer stresseshow life on the Hebridesrepresents a counterpointto Lowland Scotland,and such notions bring him to "Island Funerar', a poemthat mournsthe declineof Gaeldom."Island Funerar' concludeson an optimistic note: "The comet solo of our Gaelicislands/Will- sound out everynow and again/Throughall eternity" (MacDiarmid 1939:36). The timelessqualities of an island existencewhich is celebratedin "IslandFuneral" relates to the perfectionismthe poet had discoveredin the pibroch and to the core of his Celtic philosophy.It appears somewhatdisplaced in TheIslands ofScotland, however,which in spite of its introductionprimarily focuseson the Norse archipelagosof Orkneyand Shetland. Hugh MacDianuid 1919-43 82

In Lucky Poet, MacDiarmid! s ideal of a Celtic Scotland, which embracesartistic perfection and timelessness,is accompaniedby an emphasison the need to recover the nation' s ancestralroots. The English hegemony, he claims, has separatedthe Scots from their Gaelic legacy, and it is urgent that such trends are countered: Not to go too far afield at the moment,however, while I am dealingwith this incredibleignorance of and indifferenceto the pastof our country andits culturein Scotland,and the incapacityof most peopleto contemplatefor a momentany reconsideration of the basesof our nationallife, or evento displayany curiosity or interestwhatever, no matterwhat proofs or probabilitiesare adducedof premature formulation,masses of evidenceat variancewith the established conclusions,and new interpretationsof the unassailabledata even, it must suffice to saythat in Scottishhistory it is preciselyas I havesaid it is in regardto the greatpipe-music. (MacDiarmid 1943:29 1)

The BordererMacDiarmid never stops to questionwhether his own claim to a Celtic pastmight be somewhatdubious, nor to admit that a majority of Scotshave been influencedby their Englishneighbours rather than a tradition confinedto the Highlands. On the contrary,he is guilty of the tendencyto underestimatethe impact of English cultureon Scotland,which PeterZenziger identifies in his 1989essay "Nationalism in Twentieth-CenturyScottish Literary Criticism!' as characteristicof Scottishinter-war writing as a whole (Zenzinger1989: 148-49).Hence MacDiarmid activelypromotes the ideaof Scotlandas a Celtic nation,for, in his opinion, only the recognitionof the country'sGaelic heritage will restorethe balancebetween Highland and Lowland that was temporarilylost as a result of the suppressionof Gaelic culture,but on which the re- emergenceof Scottishnationhood depends. Hugh MacDiarmi&scrossing of the historical divide betweenHighlands and Lowlandsis symptomaticof the "unity-in-diversity" ideology that movesto the centreof his vision in the late 1930s.As early as 1934,he had adopteda pluralist approachwhen in StonyLimits he demonstratedhis masteryof variouslinguistic codes.Such work underlinedhis awarenessof languagedifference, but by printing Scotspoems next to English,his "ShetlandLyrics" togetherwith "On a RaisedBeach! ', he stressedthat his dictionscomplemented each other rather than competingagainst each other. Five years later,he managedto combinethis ambitionto fuse all oppositeswith the Gaelictheme in his introductionto TheIslands ofScotland. On the openingpage, he describeshow Scotlandis composedof multitudesof islands: Hugh MacDiannid 1919-43 83

They areof all shapesand sizes. No symmetryof effect is obtainable. [Scotland]seems to haveno control over them.Several groups appear to haveescaped from the concertedmovement of which sheis the centre altogether.And while someremain in groupsothers are isolated stragglers.It is a chaoticspectacle seen from above.And it is impossible to get them all into focusat onceeven then. (MacDiarmid 1939: 1)

Although it appearsfragmentary, MacDiarmid's jigsaw imageof Scotlandbrings the mainland andislands together into a singlevision. Their geologies,histories, climates andinhabitant might differ, but a Scotlandthat cannotcontain such discrepancies, the poet emphasises,is no adequaterepresentation of his nation.In Lucky Poet, he elaborateson sucha philosophyin the "Direaff' poems,which areincluded in extracts in the chapter"On SeeingScotland Whole". In the first "Direadh"poem, he proposes the generalthesis that only the spectatorwho embracesall aspectsof Scottishnessmay grasphis ideaof the nation."Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?" he asks,only to point out how a word like "heather"captures only a fragmentof the Scottishlandscape (MacDiarmid 1943:255). He continuesthe argumentin "Direadh Ir' wherefrom the specificviewpoint of a Borderscene, the speakerapproaches the roots of his Scottishness.The Lowlandbias of "Direadh Ir' is matchedby "DireadhIM wherethe nation is surveyedfrom the exposedsummit of SgurrAlasdair on Skye.At the end of that poem,MacDiarmid conjures up an imageof Deirdre,a female personificationof the GaelicIdea, which allows him to becomeone with Scotland."I am with Alba - with Deirdre", he declaresand suggeststhat this commitmentwill enablehim to overcomeall obstacleson his questfor perfection(MacDiarmid 1943: 305). "The InaccessiblePinnacle is not inaccessible"he concludeswith a confidence that is only paralleledby his most militant manifestosof the 1920s(MacDiarmid 1943: 305). Thoughless bombastic in tone,the finest expressionof MacDiarmid's unity-in- diversity motif occursin the chapterthat follows the 'Tireadif' poems: So I havegathered unto myself All the looseends of Scotland, And by namingthem and acceptingthem, Loving them andidentifying myself with them, Attempt to expressthe whole. (MacDiannid 1943:324)

Thereis no bettermanifestation of the ardsfs life-long commitmentto Scotland.In comparisonwith Edwin Muir, it is significantthat where Scotlandto the latter becomes "that difficult land!', MacDiarmidhas no quarrelwith his nation.He may be at odds Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 84 with certainaspects of Scottishlife or dismissiveof his compatriotswhen he finds them wanting in termsof his personalstandards of Scottishness.Yet the ideal of Scotlandis at the centreof his philosophythroughout his career,which indicatesthat he maintains his optimismwith regardto a future for Scotlandin spite of his breakwith the national movement.Critics may objectto MacDiarmid!s final vision as an impossibledream that hasno bearingon Scottishreality in the 1930s.After his trials of the early thirties,it allowedhim to cometo termswith Scotlandnonetheless, which, arguably,makes him the most idealisticrepresentative of the ScottishRenaissance.

Hugh MacDiarmid in the Scottish Renaissance Hugh MacDiarmidcontinued to publish volumesof poetry at regularintervals until the mid-1970swhen he was eighty-twoyears of age.In MemoriamJames Joyce was sent out in 1955,The Kind ofPoet?y I Wantappeared in 1961,while it was only aslate as 1974that the poet finally collectedhis "Direadh" poems.Fragments of all of thesehad previouslybeen printed in Lucky Poet,however, and it is possibleto arguefor the autobiographyas the conclusionto the productiveperiod of MacDiarmid's career.After that point, he primarily pickedup the piecesthat he for one reasonor otherhad failed to publish, adjustedthem if necessary,then advertisedthem asnewly-written compositions.He hadplenty of materialto choosefrom. In an illuminating discussion that opeupiesthe final chaptersof To Circum/ackMacDiarmid W. N. Herbertfollows the growth of MacDiarmid!s ClannAlbann project as it becomesMature Art, Cornish Heroic Song,Impavadi Progrediamur and eventuallypublications such as In Memoriam JamesJoyce, The Battle Continuesand TheKind ofPoetry I Want(Herbert 1992b:157- 225). The aim of MacDiarmid!s undertakingwas to dwarf all previousaccomplishments in poetry, including his own achievementin A Drunk Man and Cencrastus.In Hugh MacDiarmid's Epic Poetry, Alan Riach sumsup Hugh MacDiannid!s later productions underthe headingof "epic", a term that underlinesthe all-inclusivenessthat characterisesthe authoesvision: When MacDiarmidasserted that the scaleof the modemepic poemwas the only thing it had in commonwith epicsof the past,he provideda rubric underwhich all the categoriesI havebeen considering might be included:the sensesof heroismand nationality, the epic subject,and the notion that identity and struggleare. inseparable. The term epic itself implies magnitude,inclusiveness, aspiration. Epic poetry is full of beginningsand endings,arrivals and departures;it is advocatingand enacting,full of self-proclamationand oppositions.(Riach 1991a: 23) Hugh MacDiannid 1919-43 85

The poethas come a long way sincethe writing of his vernacularmasterpiece A Drunk Man in 1926,yet we shouldnot overestimatethe differencesbetween his verseof the 1920s/early1930s and the work he publishedat this stagein his career.MacDiarmid's key concernsremain the desireto reachout towardsuniversals from a particularly Scottishstance as well asthe perceptionof the artist as an isolatedindividual, who may or may not chooseto suffer for his Scottishness,but who is awarethat he shall haveto do so on his own. The author,who in the late thirties satdown to composeIn MemoriamJames Joyce, could not expecta warm receptionfrom his readers,but neitherdid the drunk personawho in the 1926poem had abandonedwife and croniesin pursuit of transcendence.New ideasin the 1930sare the Gaelictheme, the imagination of Scotlandas a unity-in-diversityand the adoptionof a linguistic philosophythat perceivesexperimentation with different dictions as a way to approachuniversalism, but neitheris incompatiblewith the poeVsearlier beliefs. HenceI will arguethat the continuitiesin MacDiarmid!s work supersedehis inconsistencies,and that the incorporatingvision of his late poetrymay be readas the result of a developmentthat might havebeen slowed down by the occasionalrupture, but which as a whole is continuousin nature. As regardsthe poet'spersonal experience, the post-1945 years finally meanta recognitionof MacDiannid!s importancewithin Scottishtradition. Financially,the awardof a Civil List Pensionin 1950gave the authorthe securitythat had beenmissing in the 1930s,whilst during the 1950she becamepatron of a growing numberof young Scottishwriters, many of whom practisedthe literary principlesMacDiarmid had advertisedin the thirties. The resultsspeak for themselves:the Scotspoetry of Sydney GoodsirSmith, RobertGarioch, Alexander Scott and othersensured that literary Scots did not disappearwith the representativesof the inter-war revival, while it is likely that the experimentationof Edwin Morganhas been stimulated by the late MacDiarmid.In the 1960sand 1970soptimism characterisedthe cultural scenein Scotland,which is the beginningof the contemporaryrevival. Yet the celebrationof MacDiarmid had its problemstoo. The Lallanspoets, as the group of SydneyGoodsir Smith, Douglas Young andothers, became known, madeof Hugh MacDiarmid a cult figure in the mannerof Bums, andthey wereno more receptiveto alternativeviews than hadbeen the Bums Federationwhich in the 1920sstood in the way of MacDiarmid'sScottish Renaissance. In a personalmemoir, Morley Jamiesonreveals how SydneyGoodsir Smith would thus Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 86 openlyprotest against the companyof the Muirs as if the presenceof Edwin Muir in any way endangeredthe reputationof MacDiarmid (M. Jamieson1987: 27-28). Eventually, the growing interestin MacDiarmid!s art installedhim asthe grandold man of Scottish literature.In the 1960sand 1970she was awardednumerous prizes for his life-long contributionto art, in 1970pictures of him in conversationwith Ezra Poundunderlined his importanceas a modernistinnovator, while, in responseto his deathin 1978,the ScottishPress mourned the loss of a greatScotsman. At last the rebel,Hugh MacDiarmid,had been turned into a nationalicon. In the previousdiscussion I haveattempted to map the authorsoften ambivalent relationshipwith the Scottishpolitical and literary movementsof the 1920sand 1930s. Not surprisingly,MacDiarmid emerges as a key figure in the twentieswhen his propagandainspired such writers asNeil Gunn andEdwin Muir to reconsidertheir ideas of Scotland,but from around1929 the Renaissanceconnection becomes increasingly problematic.On the onehand, the writer's recognitionthat it would be more difficult to awakenthe nation thanhe had originally assumed,made him appearsomewhat pessimisticwith regardto the prospectsfor the ScottishRenaissance and Scotlandmore generally.On the other,he was as insistentas everto makean impacton Scottishlife, which explainshis growingradicalism. In Scotlandand Nationalism,Christopher Harvie sumsup his troublesin a readingsympathetic to MacDiarmid: The literary revival waspolitical in the sensethat its cohesionhad to be maintainedby continualbalance and negotiation. MacDiarmid was - almostby his own definition - no politician. But he had actedfor so long as the arbiterof the literary movementthat he becameidentified with it. His discomfortactually increased as it becamemore political, as its journalists andAnglo-Scots didn't sharehis revolutionaryviews, or even thoseof the National Partyhe hadhelped found in 1928.The moderate Scottishparty wasmore to their taste,and when amalgamationof two partiesloomed in 1933,the left wing of the Nationalistswas purgedand MacDiarmidwent. He had madeintellectual concessions to promotethe political movement;it rejectedhim for the conservativeestablishment. (Harvie 1998:108) rthink Harvie is wrong to assumethat this is merely a questionof pro- or anti- MacDiarmid.The extremismthat hadbeen the shapingforce behindthe poet's modernism,is not so easilyaccommodated within a political grouping.Whatever the nationalmovement tried to do, the authorwould find a way to undo.He desiredthe role ashero, the solemartyr that was sacrificedon the altar of Scottishmediocrity, and such a self-imageis not congenialwith party politics. If the National Partywanted an Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 87 electoralbreakthrough, it hadto steerin the moderatedirection of JohnMacCormick, which explainswhy it preferredthe pragmaticNeil Gunnto the idealistMacDiarmid. MacDiarmid!s radicalismis equallyproblematic in relationto the ScottishLiterary Renaissanceas it turnedout in the 1920sand 1930s.True, he had himself formulated the principlesthat in the twentiesinspired his contemporariesto breakwith the pastin orderto cultivatea vision of Scotlandthat would containEuropean modernism as well as Scottishnationalism, but he only lived by that programmehimself aslong asit was compatiblewith his literary practice.Tractice beforetheory", Kenneth Buthlay subtitles his 1989examination of MacDiarmid!s conversionto the vernacular,and that characterisesthe poet's careeras a whole (Buthlay 1989).In the 1930sMacDiarmid would thus arguethat Scotswas the only languageopen to Scottish'althoughhe had himself turnedto Englishbecause it madeavailable to him a multitude of dictionsthat were unattainablein the vernacular.On a similar note,he usedhis polemicsto denounce the Anglo-Scottishhegemony which hadpromoted English culture to suchan extentthat Scotshad forgottentheir Celtic ancestry,but by so doing,he deniedthe positive influenceof Englishtradition on Scottishliterature, without which his modernistverse would havebeen unimaginable. MacDiarmid advertised numerous extreme ideas throughouthis career,but they had little control over his creativemind andmay be read as examplesof the artist preachinghell-fire in orderto makeheadlines and indirectly promotehimself. The fierce individualism anduniversalism that cometo the fore of MacDiarmid's writings in the late 1930s,are harder to justify within the contextof the Scottish Renaissance,for betweenthe polesof the individual andthe cosmos,there seems little scopefor the demandsof nationalism.In A Drunk Man the speakerhad to choose betweena cosmicvision that embracedeverything, but by so doing reducedScotland to a minimum, and a philosophythat placedScotland at the centre,but confinedthe author. That paradoxunderpins MacDiarmid! s work as a whole. He may arguein Lucky Poet that he can standon Scottishground and reach out towardsthe supreme,but his claim doesnot alwaysconvince as poeticpractice. The idea at the core of In MemoriamJames Joycecombines a desireto expressa personalsearch for absoluteswith the notion that all languagesmay be containedwithin a universalvision, but that leavesonly little room for Scotland.The readeris remindedof Lewis GrassicGibbon, who in "Glasgow" revealsthere is little future for Scots,although that mediummay servehim as well as Hugh MacDiarmid 1919-43 88 any until the emergenceof "the perfectedspeech of CosmopolitanMan" (Gibbon/MacDiannid1934: 146). Passages occur in the Joycepoem that could be interpretedas expressions of cultural nationalism.One exampleis the sectiontitled "England is Our Enemy"),in which the poet denouncesthe English for their inability to creategreat art, but wherein his earlyprose he had spokenas a Scotsmanwhen he presentedhis caseagainst the English hegemony,MacDiarmid now adoptsthe position of the world at large.English ignorance is placedagainst the accomplishmentsof France,Germany, Japan and Russia, and evenif the conclusionis akin to his ideasof the twenties,the directionhe hastaken to reachit has altered(MacDiarmid 1955/1978: 858-70).Hugh MacDiarmidseems to be losing track of Scotlandsomewhere along his road towardsworld-philosophy, which explainswhy his later work is lesseasily accommodatedwithin his original programmefor a ScottishRenaissance. 89

The periphery moves to the centre: Neil M. Gunn 1926-41

One of the initial respondentsto Hugh MacDiarmid's call for a ScottishRenaissance was the future novelistNeil M. Gunn.In what appearsto be the beginningof their correspondence,MacDiarmid acknowledges Gunn" sf (encouraginglettee' on the fourteenthof June,1922, which establishesa connectionbetween the two authorsprior to August, 1922,when TheScottish Chapbook was launched(MacDiarmid 1922/1984a: 195).in the tenth issueof YheScottish Chapbook, which cameout in May, 1923,Gunn publishedhis initial contributionto MacDiarmid's Renaissanceproject in the form of a poem,and between July andDecember, 1923, that was followed by the short stories printed in TheScottish Nation. In his first novel,.The Grey Coast(1926), Gunn tried to departfrom pastconventions through the constructionof a realistic pictureof the Highlandsthat would counterbalancethe Romanticimagery of Walter Scott andthe Celtic Twilight. MacDiarmidwas so impressedby this effort that he in 1926declared the novelist "[practically] the only young Scottishprose-writer of anypromise" (MacDiarmid,Contemporary Scottish Studies 1926/1995: 308). Otherswere less enthusiasticabout the author'sHighland novels, which seemedto reducethe complexity of modemScotland to the experienceof croftersand fishermen.Prominent among the critics was fellow-novelistEric Linklater, who in the .193 5 essay"The Novel in Scotland7'underlined what he saw asthe limitations to Gunns,vision: (Among] the selectivistsNeil Gunnis easily the first with his Grey Coast andMorning Tide: in thesebooks he has donework that is artistically satisfying,but which has little relation to the main stream- suchas it is - of Scottishlife; they arenot Scottishnovels in the sensein which Sinclair Lewis'snovels are American. (Linklater 1935b:621)

It is possibleto challengeLinklater on two accounts.First of all, he voicesthe prejudice of a Lowland Scot,who, as spokesmanfor the nation!s cultural majority, found little room for Highland culturewithin Scottishnational experience.Against suchan argument,Gunn would arguethat a Caithnessperspective was indeedrepresentative of Scotlandand that it was no more limiting than the vision of Lewis GrassicGibbon, for instance,which was rootedin the Mearns.Related to this is the secondproblem, which is the notion of a "Scottis]Y'novel. Linklater is right to emphasiseGunn's geographical specificity,but he ignoresthe fact that this tendencycharacterises most Scottish Neil M. Gunn 192641 90 literatureof the inter-warperiod. There is not a singlewriter amongstthe four that I have chosento representthe Renaissance,who could not be chargedwith selectivism. Whetherthey speakfrom the Borders,the Mearns,Orkney or Caithness,they appear more comfortablewith a rural Scotlandthan with a countrythat was becoming increasinglyurban, industrial and anglicised, which, in Linklater's view, calls into questionthe relevanceof their art to the nation. If Eric Linklater choosesto dismissGum as a regionalnovelist with someartistic merit, but a vision too narrowto be anythingbut marginalto the nation,Kurt Wittig placesthe novelist at the centreof the ScottishRenaissance. In the conclusionto The ScottishTradition in Literature, Wittig writes: It is fitting to endthis surveyof the Scottishtradition in literaturewith Neil Gunn.More clearly eventhan C. M. Grievehe embodiesthe aims of the ScottishRenaissance. All his strength,his vision, his style comefrom his people,from the Scottishtradition, from the Gaelicpast, but he appliesthem to the crucial questionsof our time. What he hasto sayis a concernof all men.Scottish literature here is national,yet knowsno nationallimitations. (Wittig 1958:339)

Paradoxically,Wittig claimsit is Gunn!s geographicalperipherality that, in additionto his philosophicaland political conclusions,makes him centralto Scottishtradition. In the mannerof a Faulkneror a Hardy,he setsout from the surfacereality of his own people,the inhabitantsof the fishing-creeksand crofting communitiesalong the Caithness-Sutherlandcoast, but his attemptto reachbeneath appearances to the essence of the humancondition, "the patternof life, the underlyingritual, the myth" asWittig puts it, transcendsthe physicaland spiritual limits of his region in orderto ask universal questionsand provide universalanswers (Wittig 1958:336). In consequence,it is no longerof any significancewhether the narrativeis set in rural Caithnessor urban Glasgow;the experienceof a boy adventurerin the northernmostcomer of Scotland gainsa relevancebeyond regional and national boundaries because it is concernedwith the fundamentalsof life. The peripheryhas moved to the centreas the.fiction of a Highland novelistbecomes representative of Scotlandas a whole. Neil Gunn!s main contributionto the nationalrevival of inter-war Scotlandis his re- negotiationof the relationbetween centre and periphery in novels and essaysas it is suchwork that hasplaced the Highlandsso firmly on the map of modemScotland. As I previouslymentioned, he first becameassociated with MacDiarmid's Renaissance project around1923 when he beganto publish poemsand short sketchesin TheScottish Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 91

Chapbookand TheScottish Nation. In 1926Gunn published 7he Grey Coast,which markedthe beginningof his life-long careeras a novelist.Meanwhile, his interestin the nationalquestion brought him to join the youngNational Party of Scotlandwhen an Invernessbranch was foundedin 1929.By 1930he was thus active on both the political and cultural fronts of the nationalmovement. Nationalist leader John MacCormick, who becamea closefriend of the author,recalls in his autobiographyThe Flag in the Wind how debatesin the Gunnhousehold of Larachanprovided the ideologicalbasis for Scottishnationalism in the early 1930s: It was for suchreasons that in our long discussionsin Larachanwe constantlyreaffirmed our faith, not in anynarrow andbitter nationalism, but in the capacityof the Scottishpeople, given the chance,to reconcile in their politics the freedomand human dignity of everyindividual with suchmass organisation as modemtechnocracy has made inevitable. We believedthat this was the real humanproblem of our times and that Scotlandby virtue of her history, her traditionsand evenof her sizewas an ideal testingground for new solutions.(MacCormick 1955:48)

Significantly enough,Gunn! s nationalismnever appeared to be derivedfrom a senseof historical injusticedone to the Scots,nor from the prejudiceagainst the Englishand Irish that only too often dominatedthe Renaissancepolemics of the thirties. On the contrary,his commitmentwas based on a strongbelief in a future for Scotland,which madehim stressthe potentialsof an independentScotland as well as the needfor the Scotsto havefaith in their nation.Accordingly, he definedScottish nationhood positively - that is, as a love of the land, its peopleand its heritage- insteadof adopting a strategythat set onenation apartthrough an emphasison its difference,superiority and hate.Gunn's MSistenceon Scotland'sracial legacymay bring to mind the "Blut und Boden7principlesof fascism,however. "Out of that noiselessworld in the grey of the morning, all his ancestorscame at him", he writes in Highland River, andto a post-1945 readerthis emphasison blood instinctsreads somewhat suspiciously (Gunn 1937/1994: 2). In their biography,Francis Hart and J. B. Pick dismissany allegationsof fascist sympathies.When he visited Germanyin 1938,they claim, the authorwas approached by skilful Nazi propagandists,who eventuallyrealised that "he was of no usefor their purposes"(Hart/Pick 1981:163). The biographers'argument, however, leaves the readerwondering as to whetherit is possibleto excuseGunn on groundsof naivet6. Following his return from Germany,he publishedthe essay"As Drunk as a Bavarian7, which celebratesthe Germanway of life, andthat suggeststhat he was eithervery Neil M. Gunn 192641 92 impressedby the Nazi regimeor had no understandingof what was happeningaround him. If the latter is the case,Gunn must havebeen completely out of touchwith the internationalsituation in the late 1930s.As early as 1934,Lewis GrassicGibbon had usedhis sciencefiction novel GayHunter as a warning againstfascism, whereas Hugh MacDiarmid,the Muirs, andEric Linklater voiced their concernsafter the Munich Agreementof 1938(McCulloch 2000 and Linklater et. al. 1938). Although he may seemmore peripheral to the Scottishnational movement than outspokennationalists such as Hugh MacDiarmid andCompton Mackenzie, Neil Gunn playeda key role in the Scottishrevival of the 1920sand 1930s.On the cultural front he rarely madethe headlinesin the mannerof MacDiarmid,nor did his writings inspirethe samecontroversy as Edwin Muirs and Lewis GrassicGibbon! s. Becausehe had supportedMacDiarmid! s Renaissanceidea from the 1920s,when most were dismissive of the poet, andbecause he engagedhimself so fully in the attemptto revive Scottish letters,his contributionwas crucial nonetheless.In his novels,he challengedthe myth of the Highlandsthat had beendeveloped throughout the nineteenthcentury by such authorsas Walter Scott andFiona Macleod in order to underlinethe lessromantic aspectsof Highland experience.Gunn's sketchesdepicted life as it was lived in the Highlands,not aspeople imagined it to be, while his essaysin 71e ScotsMagazine examinedthe stateof the nation from the detachedpoint of view of his homeregion, only to concludethat something,nationalism, must be done.Yet the most significant aspectof the novelist'sinter-war writings is his consistency.As opposedto MacDiarmid,who sawincoherence as a poetic virtue, or Muir, who sometimesacted as a supporterof the Scottishrevival, at other times as one of its fiercestcritics, Gunns vision alwaysseems to be coming from the samesource: the integrity of traditional Highland societyand its corevalues of individualism,egalitarianism and co-operation. Begin with a reformationof the individual and the small nation,he would argue throughouthis career,and onemight establishthe basisfor an improvedrelationship betweenpeople, nations, which will eventuallylead to a new world oider whererespect for the individual andhis creativityrules. In his later fiction he shiftedthe focusfrom communityto individual and from problemswhich were specifically Scottishto more generalissues, but essentially,his ideologicaloutlook remainedthe same. Gunes most direct contributionto the developmentof Scottishnationalism is in the areaof politics, for, with the exceptionof Hugh MacDiarmid, he providesthe most Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 93 obviousconnection between the National Party'shopes for the Scottishnation andthe intellectuals'call for a Scottishrenaissance in literature.The authorbecame an active participantin Scottishpolitics when in 1929the National Party arrived in Inverness.As recalledby JohnMacCormick, the Gunnhome was a strongholdfor Scottish nationalism,although the novelist'semployment in the civil servicecompelled him to acceptthe somewhatpassive role of party "ideologue"(Hart/Pick 198 1: 110).In spiteof that, the friendshipbetween Gunn and MacCormick, aswell as Gunn!s quiet manoeuvresbehind the scenes,defined the natureof Scottishnationalism in the thirties. Accordingly,the writer orchestratedthe meetingsthat broughtthe leadersof the National Partyand the ScottishParty together when in 1934the two factionswere headingtowards a fusion. On the negativeside, sucha strongprofile within the National Party in the mid- 193Os, may havecaused a rupturein the relationshipbetween Gunn and MacDiarmid,who hadbeen expelled in preparationfor the party merger.In Neil M. Gunn,Gunn's biographers note the weakeningties betweenGunn andMacDiarmid in the mid-1930s,although they ascribeit to the characterof the poet ratherthan the novelist: In the 1920sboth menwere enteringtheir thirties and strugglingfor voicesand places. Suddenly in the 1930s,called by DuncanGlen "the most disturbingand dishearteningyears of MacDiannid!s tumultuous life, " Gunnseemed to move from successto success,while Grievewent thToughfinancial disaster,divorce, and poor health,and spentnine years of "penury andpoverty" in a cottagefurnished with orangecrates on remoteWhalsay in the Shetlands." In sucha position of partially self- imposedsiege, " Maurice Lindsayhas suggested,"the seedsof megalomaniafind fi-uitful soil." (Hart/Pick 198 1: 115)

Towardsthe endof the 1930s,Gum shiftedthe balancebetween his nationalist activities andcreative writing in favour of his art. In 1937the successof Highland River had encouragedhim to becomea full-time writer, and as a possibleresult thereof,his involvementwith the cultural andpolitical revival declined.The withdrawal from a position at the centreof the nationalmovement may havebeen prompted by a numberof additionalfactors. On the onehand, the literary revival was losing its coherenceafter Hugh MacDiarmid!s withdrawalto Whalsayin 1933,the deathof GrassicGibbon in 1935,and Edwin Muir's breakwith Scotlandin 1936.The political movement,on the other,was moving in a different direction as a youngergeneration, headed by MacDiarmid devoteeDouglas Young, challengedthe supremacyof JohnMacCormick. Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 94

It is likely that thesedevelopments inspired Gunn to reconsiderhis role within the ScottishRenaissance and the ScottishNational Party.He neverabandoned his former principles,however. Throughout his career,the writer would take in the Scottishscene from his Highlandcomer of the world, scrutinisehis objectcarefully, then deliver judgement.The natureof thesepronouncements might be critical, but they wererarely dismissivein the mannerof his contemporaries.In the 1930swhen Hugh MacDiarmid, Edwin Muir andLewis GrassicGibbon all developedextreme ideas on the questionsof Scottishnationhood, language and culture, and eventuallyclashed because of it, Neil Gunnremained a stableaxis againstwhich their digressioncould be measured.In consequence,the Highlandnovelist represents continuity and consistencyin the chaosof Scottishinter-war polemics, which is to saythat it neverappears to be Gunn,who deliberatelyabandoned the nationalmovement, but the nationalmovement that moved awayfrom Gunn. I havedivided my discussionof Neil Gunn'swritings into threestages. My initial part, "Too old andgoing undee',examines the artist's re-mappingof Scottishspace in the early novelsThe Grey Coast(1926), Morning Tide (1931) and TheLost Glen (1932).The secondsection, 'Two Scottishhistories", discusses Sun Circle (1933), Butcher'sBroom (1934), Risky and Scotland(1935) and TheSilver Darlings (1941), which all arguefor a necessaryrewriting of Scottishhistory. "rhe Macdonaldat the end of the day", finally, focuseson the ideologicalquestions that cometo the fore in Gunn's writings of the late 1930swhen he becameincreasingly preoccupied with maintaining the balancebetween individual freedomand social responsibility.I shall endwith The Silver Darlings becauseI believethe authorwas changinghis priorities at that stagein his development.With TheSilver Darlings, Gunn is thus moving awayfrom the nationalquestion towards issues that areat oncemore personaland universal,and althoughI shall makereference to later novelssuch as The GreenIsle of the GreatDeep and TheDrinking Well,the different ideasbehind these works justify my leavingthem out of the main analysis.

Too old and going under: Neil Gunn's space1926-32 In "LandscapeInside", a 1959essay on landscape,internal and external,Neil Gunn stresseshis need,as novelist, for a ffim groundingin space: A novelist cannotwrite aboutpeople in a vacuum.They must havea background,and the backgroundbecomes part of them,conditioning to Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 95 someqxtent almost everything they do. When this works at a fairly deep level, it canbe quite unconscious.I carft remember(though I maybe wrong) everhaving described a Highland scenefor the scene'ssake. Always the scenehad somethingto do with the mind of the character who found himself there.(Gunn 1959/1987a:74)

If it may be hard for an authorto withdraw from his native environmentlittle stopshim from redefiningthat landscape,which is a main concernin Gurds fiction in the years 1926-32.When the writer publishedThe Grey Coast,a novel setin andabout the Highlands,it was not the first attemptthat had beenmade to turn that regioninto a fictional setting.Prior to that, nineteenth-centurynovels such as Walter Scott's Waverleyand 'sKidnapped had occupieda Highlandsetting, yet Gunnmanaged to constructa picturethat was unprecedented.The geographicalcentre of the narrativewas no longerthe Jacobitecountry of steepmountains and deep lochs, but the somewhatless dramatic scenery of the Caithnesscoast. The communitieswere not the colourful clan societiesof Scott,but the grey crofting and fishing townshipsthat a present-daytourist might actuallyencounter on a journey alongthe coast.Instead of the romanticbattles of the past,the action focusedon the everydaystruggle for survival, which had embitteredthe lives of contemporaryHighlanders. Accordingly, the predominantmode of Gunns work was realism,not romance,for, as his contributionto the Scottishrevival, he aimedto teachhis countrymento seethe Highlandsas they were,not asRomantics had envisionedthem in the pastor desiredthem to be in the present,in orderto emphasisethe needfor action if that distinctively Scottishway of life was to be preserved.As a result,Gunn! s Highlandsconstituted a bleakerreality than the nineteenth-centuryreader had cometo expectfrom a Highland novel-a scene encapsulatedby the colour greywhich embracesthe physical,spiritual andcultural landscapesalike. Gunn!s fictional Scotlandof the early thirties is dominatedby his homecounties of Caithnessand Sutherland.In "Caithnessand Sutherland!', a 1935contribution to the anthologyScottish Counoy, he points out how "Caithnessand Sutherland arein a way not easilymade plain, a matingof the two greatelements of seaand land" (Gunn 1935/1987a:30). He proceedswith a descriptionof Sutherland,"its mountainmasses, its greatglens, its hiddenlochs, its peathags, its woods,its barrenmoors", as against Caithness,"the flat cleanwind-swept lands", composed of steepsea-cliffs, hidden fishing creeksand an omnipresentsea (Gunn 1935/1987a:30 and26). In earlynovels Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 96 suchas TheGrey Coastand Morning Tide,the writer employsa Caithnesssetting for his plot in orderto underlinethe seainfluence upon the lives of thesepeople, whereas the Sutherlandelement is strongerin TheLost Glen,which centreson the confrontation betweencrofters, who struggleto live off the land, andthe incoming gentrywho want to seeit reducedto a gamepreserve. Regardless of whetherthe narrativeis locatedin one or the otherof .Gunn's home counties, the fiction depictsthe humanhabitat as an insignificant,vulnerable space shut in betweensheer precipices of rock, with the vast, emptymoorland at the back of the community,the endless,ever-changing sea at front. One of the mostpowerful evocationsof sucha landscapeoccurs in YheGrey Coast. With his crew, the young fishermanIvor Cormackhas set out for the West Coastfishing from his homevillage of Balriach,and from a detachedsea perspective he now takesin the scene: The seaboardnow sweptfor miles on eitherhand, curving just perceptiblyfrom headlandto headlandin a marginalline of sheerrock- face.A grey strip, backedby far inward moorlandcrest sweeping eastward,and to westwardby broken-backedmountains culminating in a peakthat was the fishermajYsloadstar, the first far glimpseof approachinghomeland. How tiny the croft patches,how insignificant thosemidden scratchings of the earth!To think that men could live on them,squeeze out of them children and gaiety andrancour and Calvinism and a jealousGod! How numerous,too, unexpectedlynumerous on a broad survey,the croft housesand scratchings!To think that so many could exist on so little! Pigmy figures,grey molehills of houses,moving specksof cattlebeast or horse.(Gunn 1926/1976a:178)

The passagehighlights two centralthemes within Gunn's writings. On the onehand, the initial part of Ivor's vision stressesmans vulnerability within a hostile, natural environment,measuring the tiny fishing village againsta giant landscapeof mountains and sea.On the other,the concludingpart presentsFEghland life as a strugglefor survival againstthe very real threatsof poverty and deprivation.Both elements influencethe outlook of the inhabitants,which meansthat a closeconnection is establishedbetween the humancommunity and the natural spaceit occupies. "Pilpny figures,grey molehills of houses,moving specksof cattlebeast or horse"- the words that concludethe aboveaccount of Ivor's impressionsemphasise the insignificanceof humancivilisation in nature(Gunn 1926/1976a:178). For the crofter, the cultivator of thoseinsignificant patches of land, life is a constantfight againsta stony ground,changing weather and cattle disease,which leaveshim only little security Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 97 against accident or misfortune. For the fisherman, life is synonymouswith long nights at sea,no guaranteeof any catch and the ever-presentthreat of a sudden storm, which is equally strenuous.Nature is never gentle in this part of the world. On the contrary, it has left man unprotected against t he elements as the author explores in the short story "Symbolical", which was first collected in Hidden Doors (1929). In this narrative, the protagonist Hendry Macfle, who dwells at his brothers croft, is sent to check upon an ageing crofter couple after the community has been surprised by a sudden snowfall. Hendry arrives at the croft, only to discover that the crofter, Geordie, has disappeared. Hendry follows his footprints in the snow and eventually finds Geordie, an old man who has spent his days struggling to make a living from his stony croft, naked in the snow with a spadein his hand (Gunn 1929: 91). Geordie's nakednessreminds the reader of human vulnerability within a hostile environment. Human beings may cultivate the soil and turn weeds into potatoes.They may build houses to shelter themselves from the wind, but once they are exposedto the full forces of nature, defeat is inevitable. Most Gunn critics recall the scenein Morning Tide where HugIfs father comes riding triumphantly on top of the storm. Yet it is worth remembering that the same seahad deprived him of his eldest son on a previous occasion. The combinedeffects of a hostilenature and the uncertaingains of crofting and fishing havebleakened the outlook of Gunn!s Highland societies,which in spiteof the author'senthusiasm for the positive aspectsof suchan existence,is a world in decline. In the fiction the writer may hide a harshreality behind a strongsense of communityand the comic mood of a ceilidh, but his essaysfrom the 1930sreveal the true stateof the region.In the 1937essay "The Ferry of the DeaV, he writes on the decayof crofting: Wherea townshipis inhabitedby the old, by bachelorsor spinsters;and the young,who, in the ordinarycourse of nature,should have inherited the crofts andreared ' families have departed for the cities or emigrated; then,in the absenceof claimantsfor the land from outsidecrofting areas, what is going to happenis quite clear; for the very sameprocesses have alreadybeen at work in othertownships, where the land has goneout of cultivation andbecome part of a sheepfarm or of a sportingestate (Gunn 1937/1991c:50)

The fishing boatsare left rotting on the beach,while the crofts areabandoned. The communityyouth arewaiting by the bus stop for a bus that will take them southwardsto Glasgow,whilst the old men andwomen arequietly watching a distinctively Highland way of life disappear.Such images of the contemporaryHighlands dominate Gunn! s Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 98 writings of the earlythirties, which suggeststhat, althoughhe was eagerto halt the declinethrough the encouragementof new developmentsin the area,he remained uncertainas to whetherthat was in fact a realistic option. In both Ae Grey Coastand Morning Tidethe fishermenreturn empty-handedfrom their seavoyages to facethe lurldng ghostof destitution,whilst the croftersof TheLost Glen arelosing their fight for the land, without which theywill be reducedto mereservants for the incominggentry. The youngmen of initiative suchas Ivor Cormackin YheGrey Coastand Hugj* brotherAlan in Morning Tidesee little futurebeyond emigration, and as they depart, they leavebehind them only the old men andwomen who personifya dying culture.As RichardPrice recognises in TheFabulous Matter offact, the colour grey encapsulates this landscape,which Gunnunderlines in YheGrey Coastwhere he turns "riach", the Scotsword for greyor drab,into Balriach,the nameof the fictional village in which the narrativeis set(Price 1991:7). The physicalsetting gains an addedmeaning on the spiritual level becauseof the way it reflectsthe inner life of the characters.The grey coastof stonycrofts anddrab rock- facesis mirroredin the bitternessof Jeems,the uncle of Grey Coastheroine Maggie, who has seenhis yearswasted in a struggleagainst the earth,and who now hopesthat his schemeto marry off Maggieto the prosperousfarmer Tullach may yet leavehim peaceof mind. The uncertaintiesof the seaare personified by Ivor in ne Grey Coast, who enjoysthe freedomof a vast space,but is troubledby a senseof insecurity,as well asMorning Tide charactersMagnus Sinclair andMorag Fraser,who havegrown weary andbitter becausethe seahas failed to provide.Yet the bestexarnple of the interaction betweenman andhis naturalenvironment is probablythe scenein TheLost Glenwhere protagonistEwan Macleod passes through a crofting township,whilst reflectingon the agedappearance of the landscape.Suddenly Ewan seesthe cottagesadopt the worn, twisted looks of their owners: This land was too old. Scarredand silent, it was settlingdown into decay. The burdenof its storyhad becometoo greatto carry... Ew&s eyesfell on the housesthat now seemedto be huddling for warmth, and all at once he sawthem mean and wretched, and understood that they were dying, thin-bloodedand miserable; they would nevermore be warm in all time, andthe spirit shunnedthem as it alwaysshunned death. (Gunn 1932/1985a:58-59)

In a referenceto this paragraph,Margery McCulloch describesland andpeople as "exhausted"in TheNovels ofNeil M. Gunn(McCulloch 1987d:23). As if to confirm Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 99 suchan impression,the predominantcharacters in Gum's early fiction includethe gloom-hauntedwomen who havegained nothing from life but deathand disease;the bitter men whosespirits havebeen killed by their constantstruggle to survive;the young men who seehope, but not in their homecommunity, and the youngwomen who fear they will becomespinsters once the menhave left. TheLost Glen, The Grey Coastand other Gunnnovels from the early 1930sare greynarratives, set in a greycommunity amonggrey people, and that apparentdrabness is only brokenwhen in 1931the writer makesa boy the protagonistof Morning Tide and consequentlyadopts a different perspective. If the spiritual landscapeis characterisedby gloom andbitterness, there are elements in the Highlandsthat representa morepositive vision. Nationalism,egalitarianism and co-operationare the comer-stonesof the author'sphilosophy, and they arederived from his insight into life in the crofting and fishing townshipshe encounteredas a child. Within the fiction, nationalismoften comesacross in the form of a rootednessin Scotlandand traditional Scottishqualities which aretested against the new manners broughtto the Highlandsby incomingstrangers such as the Lowland fanner Tullach in The Grey Coastand the Englishcolonel Hicks in TheLost Glen. Obviously,the wealth of the strangersplaces them in a more advantageousposition than the natives,but even where large-scalesheep-farming and sporting-estateshave almostdestroyed the crofting and the fishing, the locals aregranted an occasionalvictory. Hencethe crofter Jeems goespoaching on Tullach land at night-time and quietly mocksthe farmerbehind his back in The Grey Coast.The Ardbegcrofters refuse colonel Hicks accessto their meetingin Die Lost Glen,while Hugh andAlan defy the authorityof gamekeeperand laird when they go salmon-poachingin Morning Tide. As regardsthe principlesof egalitarianismand co-operation,the authorsees them combinedin traditionalHighland society.The croftersand fishermenpride themselveson their individuality, a capacityto standon their own feet,which is why the poorhousepresents such an awesomeprospect to Maggie'suncle Jeems.Yet, whenpoverty strikesand a family faceseconomic hardship,the communitylooks after its own. Suchinterference is neversymptomatic of the loss of personalintegrity which Gunnportrays in 77ieGreen Isle of the GreatDeep, whereman has surrenderedhis freedomto an impersonal,collectivist state.On the contrary,the individual is ableto receivethe assistanceof his neighbourswithout a loss of statusbecause he is awarethat he may be the next who is calledupon to provide. Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 100

Gunn'smodel for the way a nation might overcomea hostilenatural environment throughthe communalvalues of nationalism,egalitarianism and co-operationis influencedby the principlesof the Danishco-operative movement, which he discusses in the 1937essay "A Visitor from Denmarle': Derimarkis little more thanhalf the size of Scotlandand carriesa populationof somethree and a half millions. A fifth of the countryis peatmoor or sand.It is flat andwithout metallic ores,coal, or water power.Yet theseDanes, inspired by love of their own land andcarrying the ideal of brotherhoodin labour into the severelypractical business of co-operation,have made of their countryone of the most fi-uitful in the world. The nationalismout of which this magic hasbeen wrought cared nothing for armiesand navies and Empire. It concerneditself with the creativework of men!s hands;it satisfiedthe aspirationsof individualism while directingthese aspirations towards the commongood; andwhen personalneeds were thus ordered,it continuedorganising these adult schoolsthrough which the mind may attemptto realiseits spiritual potentialities.(Gunn 1937/ 1987a:171)

Indirectly, the writer's praisefor the Danishnational project indicatesthat it may yet be possibleto transformthe positive aspectsof Highland societyinto a firm basisfor a regeneratedScotland. Gunn is awarethat it requiresa changeof mind amongthe Highlandersthemselves, however, who havehitherto lackedthe confidencenecessary to build a nation.The presentpessimism must give way to optimism,but as the author makesclear in "rhe Ferry of the Dead!', that will not happenas long as the youngopt for emigrationas an easyway out. The initial stageof Highland regeneration,in other words, is to bring the on-goingdepopulation to a halt as the future of region, andnation, dependsupon the spirit of its youth (Gunn 1937/1991 c: 50). A third elementin Gunn!s Highland landscapeis culture,which may be divided into the questionof language,Gaelic tradition andcontinuity. With referenceto language, ChristopherWhyte claimsin Genderingthe Nation that the authoesreconstruction of Gaelicis unsatisfactoryto anyonewith the slightestknowledge of that tongue(Whyte 1995:5 1). In the light of the linguistic experimentationcharacteristic of the Renaissance literatureas such,one wonders how much of a caseWhyte actuallyhas. It is probably true that the mannerin which Gunntried to write Gaelic into his English is hardly Gaelic at all, yet the fictional representationof one languagein anothercan neverbe true to a native speaker.Lewis GrassicGibbon! s useof the Doric was nothing, if not anglicised,whereas Hugh MacDiarmid!s Scotsbrought togetherdialects from all over Scotlandinto one,synthetic diction. On a similar note, onemay speculatehow a native Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 101 Gaelic-speakerreceived the poetryof SorleyMaclean when it first appearedin the 1930sand 1940s,for, inspiredby the experimentationof MacDiarmid,Maclean put Gaelicto a modemusage and consequently broke with tradition. As a Highlandnovelist, Gunnfaced an obviouslanguage barrier in his attemptto createa realisticportrait of his homeregion in fiction. He recognisedthat the medium of his novelsought to havebeen Gaelicbecause that was the ancestraltongue of the'Highlands,but he had no Gaelic himself, which confinedhim to English.In order to compensatefor that, andto highlight the linguistic divide betweenthe Highlandsand the rest of Scotland,he employedGaelicised structures in his fiction, which provesthat he was at leastaware of his difficulties. The languageissue points to the authorsproblematisation of Gaelicculture asa whole sincehis personalloss of Gaelicis symptomaticof a more generaldecline. There were imagesof Highlandlife availableto Gunn,of course.In the nineteenthcentury, Walter Scotthad transformedthe region into a spaceof dramaticlandscapes and melodramaticaction, whereas the Celtic Twilight literatureof Fiona Macleodhad stressedthe needto recognisesuch beauty on the edgeof its disappearance,but neither had much to offer the twentieth-centurynovelist, who wanteda picture of the contemporaryHighlands, not a myth of the past.In spite of the writer's desireto break with pastsentimentalism, the early fiction is characterisedby Gunn's encounterwith his literary forebears.In the words of his biographers,the short-story"Half-Light" from the mid-1920s,portray a herowho "haswaged a losing battle against'Fiona (Macleod]"' (Hart/Pick 1981:72). "Half-Lighf 'tells the story of a schoolmasterwho returnsto his native Highlandsto fight back the Celtic Twilight. He brings schoollogic and objectivity with him to the north but in the end only Twilight poetry offers any comfort in his confrontationwith an extremenature: Sucha lovely vaguenessis poetry,if one could but admit it! Perhapsthe making of all greatpoetry has involved this fight - and this admission. Perhapsthe menwho havewritten greatlyof the half-light haveknown the starkrealities of the light. Let me sayas much, evenif I doet believe it yet, for, after all, what do I know of the Ultimates that I shouldtalk of a refugefrom them?(Gunn 1929:73)

The schoolmastereventually goes missing on the sea,which suggestsa fmal surrender to the absolute.The Celtic Twilight hasclaimed its first victim, which in a symbolic senseimplies that Gunnfound the Macleodmantle harder to shedthan he had thoughtit Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 ' 102 to be. With The Grey Coast,he appearsdetermined to part with the Twilight vision. The novel featuresanother schoolmaster obsessed with Macleod,but wherein "Half-Light! suchnotions had led to a tragic conclusion,they aremerely dismissed in the 1926novel. When Dominie Moffat readsto Ivor a Twilight poemin orderto hearthe responseof a present-dayGael, the youngfisherman fails to react as it hasno bearingon reality ashe knows it (Gunn 1926/1976a:45). The only culture that appealsto him is what he finds on the WesternIsles because that is genuinelyGaelic (Gunn 1926/1976a:301). A similar oppositionof artificial Highlandculture, Scotfs tartanryand Macleod! s Celtic Twilight, andauthentic Gaelic tradition occursin the "Interlude" sectionof TheLost Glen,which hasbeen discussed in somedetail by MargeryMcCulloch in TheNovels of Neil M. Gunn(McCulloch 1987d:28-29). In that scenethe novelist placestraditional Highland airs againstquick Dixie tunes,the art of Mackinnon,master of the pibroch, againstparty piper Macdonald,and present-day Highlanders, who shouldhave been the carriersof their culture,against an incomingexpert on Highland tradition (Gunn 1932/1985a:209-22). The author'sintentions are clearly satirical,but the implications areprofound. In his "Interlude", Gunndepicts a peoplethat have lost their language, music andtradition, andwho areconsequently reduced to spectatorsin the American laird's tartanpageantry. The imageof the modemHighlander, passively swallowing whatever the incomers teachhim of his tradition,brings me to the final problem of continuity. Oneof G,unn's strengths,Kurt Wittig arguesin TheScottish Tradition in Literature, is his ability to makethe pastrelevant to the present,which leavesthe readerwondering how such effectsmay be achievedin a situationwhere modem man has lost the connectionto his roots (Wittig 1958:337-38). As a result of the continuouswithdrawal of Gaelic languageand tradition, the inhabitants'of"the grey coast"populate a deculturalised space.On top of that, they suffer from the physicaland spiritual disintegrationwhich hasbeen spreading throughout the Highlandssince the Clearances,and which only makesGunn's call for actionthe more urgent.Hence he writes in the essay"Highland Games"on the conditionof his homeregion: If it were possibleto renewthe belief in ourselves,in our Scottishpast and culture,I shouldlike to envisagesomething far greaterthan has ever yet beenattempted, something of pageantryand colour that would quickenthe spirit andgive to its pride and gaiety an expressiveand memorableform. But asthe Highland Gameshave declinedin aim and repute,so it is being allegedwe as a peoplehave fallen from our ancient Neil A Gunn 1926-41 103 high estate,and in that caseI am afi-aidit would requiremore than a tinkeringwith the waysof professionalsport to put us wherewe rightly belong.(Gunn 1931/1991c:47)

In this manner,the plight of the Highlandsbecomes symptomatic of the stateof Scotlandas a whole. The drabvillage of Balriachrepresents the greyworld of the IndustrialBelt too, whereasthe bitternessof the croftersis reminiscentof the disillusionmentof an unemployedGlasgow worker. From the north, spiritual and cultural disintegrationwidens out to embraceall of Scotland,which enablesGunn to arguehis casefor nationalregeneration from a narrow,regional space.

Two Scottish histories 193341 When Scottishintellectuals set out to redefinetheir nationalidentity in the 1920stit was quite naturalthat they shouldlook for inspirationto Ireland,where such a projecthad beenunder way for sometime. Oneexample of suchcross-cultural links is the way the theoriesof IrishmanDaniel Corkerywas adaptedto the Scottishsituation. In 1924 Corkerypublished The Hidden Ireland, a discussionof eighteenth-centuryIrish culture, which arguedhow decadesof Englishrule had taughtthe nativesto perceivethemselves inferior: as culturally - The first article in an Ascendancy'screed is, andhas always been, that the nativesare a lesserbreed, and that anythingthat is theirs (excepttheir land andtheir gold!) is thereforeof little value. If they havehad a languageand a literature,it cannothave been a civilised language,cannot havebeen anything but apatois usedby the hillmen amongthemselves; and as for their literature,the lesssaid about it the better.In the courseof time the nativesbecome tainted with thesedoctrines; and cry approval when the untruthsof the Ascendancyare echoed from somedistant place, as if at last a fair judgementhas been pronounced, not recollectingthat the Ascendancyhave had for hundredsof yearspossession of the earof the world andhave not failed to fill it with suchopinions as were opportune.(Corkery 1924/1986: 9-10)

Onerecogaises the argumentof Hugh MacDiarmid in "English Ascendancyin British Literature",but Corkerywent further thanthat. Despitethe suppression,Irish culture had thrived in the eighteenthcentury, which leavesa picture of seemingdestitution at the surfacelevel, but with cultural strengthshidden underneath. Neil Gunnidentified a similari oppositionof apparentdegeneration and actualcontinuity within Scottish experience.In Kisky and Scotland,which is Gunn's contributionto Gibbon and Neil A Gunn 1926-41 104 MacDiarmid's VoiceofScotland series, references to Corkeryindicate how important the Irish thesiswas to a novelistwho was trying to cometo termswith his regiods tragic history (Gunn 1935: 65). In an attemptto bring the Highland story to a brighter conclusion,Gunn developed not one,but two Scottishhistories. One employedthe standardinterpretation of Gaelichistory as a long-termprocess of defeat,a continuous withdrawal towardsthe oceanedge in the mannerof Fiona Macleod.In contrast,the writer's alternativehistory arguedagainst this vision in the sensethat it readthe pastin termsof endurancewhere the individual Gael might suffer,but his tradition lives on. Gunn'sdegenerative vision of history beginswith a nation divided. To a Scottish nationalist,it was essentialto view Scotlandas onenation ratherthan a jigsaw landscapecut acrossby geographical,ethnic andreligious divides,but as a result of past disunity, sucha senseof nationhoodcould not easilybe established.In Nisky and Scotland"divide anddestroy" are identified as the governingprinciples behind English interventionwith the Celtic fringe, andindirectly that policy hasundermined the Scottishsense of nationhood(Gunn 1935: 103).In Sun Circle andButcher's Broom, Gunn's fictional historiesfrom the mid-thirties, aswell as the later TheSilver Darlings (1941),the novelist's conceptionof history is appliedto the experienceof the Gaelic- speakingHighlands in orderto underlinehow the areahad beenbrought to its present stateof disruption.Celtic culture,he stressesin Nisky and Scotland,was an ancient civilisation which hadpredated Christ (Gunn 1935: 17).Unfortunately, the goldenage of the Celtic world only too rapidly gaveway to yearsof unceasingdecline: In all sortsof ways,by all sortsof peoples,then, that which is Celtic or Gaelichas been driven back to the mountains,driven into the sea.Until at last, amongmany of the Gaelsthemselves, a shameof their heritage comesover them,and they havebeen known to deny it with a curious and introvertedhate. (Gunn 1935:55)

If Nisky and Scotlandpresents the philosophybehind Gunn!s history-making,Sun Circle andButcher's Broom act out the law of Celtic defeatism.The historical erawhich the writer focuseson in Sun Circle is the early medievalperiod, when Celtic culturewas threatenedspiritually by the arrival of Christendom,physically by the Vikings, whereas he setsButcher's Broom in the early nineteenthcentury, when the SutherlandClearances deprivedthe Gael of their land. Both stagesare centralto the fall of Gaeldom.First a prehistoric,democratic order surrendered to feudalism,then that feudal systemwas Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 105 destroyedby capitalism,which left nothingbut "the grey coast"- the landscapeof physical,spiritual andcultural disintegrationthe readerencountered in the earlyfiction. Sun Circle, which is Gunn'sfirst attemptat historical fiction, is set in a prehistoric societyabout to enterhistory. The main charactersare the young Druid Aniel andthe womanBreeta, who areconnected with the old order,as well as the chiefs daughter Nessaand the Viking leaderHaakon, who representthe new. In orderto highlight the oppositionbetween an ancient,pagan and a more recent,Christianised outlook, the authorintroduces the Druid Master,the bard Taran,the missionaryMolrua andthe chief s Christianwife Silis, who personifythe moral codesin conflict. The plot centres on the arrival of the Northmen,although it is implied from the beginningof the narrative that the culturethey eventuallydestroy, is alreadya civilisation in decline.Accordingly, the chief Drust, who is first amongequals in the original Celtic manner,has married the daughterof a southernking, who is associatedwith a Christian,feudal order. Silis has broughtthe missionaryMolrua with her to the north in the hopehe may convertthe tribe to Christianity,and their joint efforts areslowly removingthe peoplefrom their spiritual roots, embodiedby the Druid Masterand his disciple Aniel. That is a positive developmentin the sensethat Christendomwill bring an end to paganblood sacrifice and superstition.Yet it cutsthe tribe loosefrom its roots,which accordingto the Master are in natureand the past: Our pastwas in the earth,and our roots are in our past.We live for a little on the surface,drawing from our roots and sendingnew shootsto the Sun.The earthbeneath, the sun above,and we the children of their union. That is all we know, andperhaps all we needto know to find the power that has serenityat its heart.(Gunn 1933/1983:388)

The Master'swords underline why the tragedyof this peopleis so complete.Christianity may representa gentlerfaith thanDruidism, but it can only take over at the expenseof a spiritual link to the fathersof the tribe, andthe effect of suchdiscontinuity is worsened when the Northmenkill the chief, his bard and other carriersof tradition during the short battle on the beach.A final blow to the old order is struck at the end of the narrative wherein ordergather the peopleanew, Aniel travelssouth to bring back the sonof Drust. The new chief hasbeen educated in the south,not in the tradition of his fathers, which is to saythat he is associatedwith a different set of values.As a result, ancient Celtic civilisation hasended with the deathof its elders. Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 106 The next stagein Gunn'sfictional history is the HighlandClearances which areat the centreof Butcher'sBroom from 1934.The settingof the narrativeis the Riasgan,a traditionalHighland community located in a fictional Sutherlandat the time of the NapoleonicWars. The plot follows a people'sgradual awakening to the looming disaster.Initially, the Riasganis evokedas a happycommunity, which existsin completeisolation from the rest of Britam,'and which hastherefore been able to retain its ancientway of life in an ageof transition.Soon it becomesevident that the external reality is closingin on the Riasgantoo, however.Within the openingpages of the novel, the youngmen leavefor imperialwar, while the womenlater departin orderto seek work in the Lowlands,and both eventsunderline that it is becomingharder for the communityto maintainits self-sufficiency.The growing communicationbetween the Highlandvillage andthe outsideworld eventuallydraws the attentionof externalforces to the existenceof the Riasgan,which preparesthe groundfor the land clearances.The agentsof Improvementappear in the form of factor Heller andhis helpers,who aim to clear the land of its peoplein orderto makeit more cost-efficient.Their burningof the housesdestroys the old Gaelicorder in the literal sense,whilst driving its surviving representativesto the coastwhere they must struggleto build up a new life for themselves.Yet Butcher'sBroom is asmuch aboutthe societythat was ruinedas the actualtragedy of the Clearances.The clan systemthat is depictedin the earlypart of the narrativeis foundedon the feudalcodes that were arriving in the Highlandstowards the endof Sun Circle. This conceptionof societyrecognised the distinction betweenmaster and servant,the chief andhis/her clansmen, but it was equallydependent upon an awarenessof the interdependencyof the two. When Heller thus emergesto enforcethe evictions,the Riasganpeople fail to reactbecause they cannotunderstand why their superior,the Duchessof Sutherland,should want to hurt them in sucha brutal manner. Accordingto the author,the Highlanders'subsequent shame and disbelief arethe worst legacyof the Clearances.Hence he allows Tomasthe Drover to deliverjudgement on the Duchessin the following passage: For I am cursingher now not for dispossessingthe peopleof their own land, not for havingmade the law that gaveher the power to dispossess her own people,not for havingburned them out of their ancienthomes, not for having madethem wanderers and beggars and eatersof filth, not for the angelsof insanityand disease and deathshe sent amongst them, not evenfor havingtried to justify herselfin the eyesof the world by employingan army,by using Christ'sChurch, by weighting the balances ofjustice: not for any of thesethings in themselves,not for any bodily Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 107

hurt thesemay havedone us; but becausein using all thesethings, in doing all thesethings, she has broken the spirit of her people,she has destroyedthe soul of her people;as surely as if shewere Judas,she has crucified the Gael.(Gunn 1934/1991a: 417-18)

Butcher'sBroom marksthe endof a people'stragedy, with the Gael pushedto the edge of the ocean,their community,culture and spirit broken.From suchdestitution there seemsno way forward,yet, in the mannerof Corkery,Gunn manages to seelight. Such optimism requiresa movebeyond Butcher's Broom, however,which I considerthe author'sdarkest narrative. "Tragedymay kill an individual, but it doesnot kill a people",Gunn's Druid Master reflects in Sun Circle and continues:"When a peoplehas been broken, then the broken hasto be gatheredagain" (Gunn 1933/1983:317). The Master's statementis representativeof the writer's readingof Gaelicexperience in a wider sense,for although he destroyshis communitiesat the end of Sun Circle andButcher's Broom, Gunn continueshis accountof Highland life with TheSilver Darlings, which is characterised by a more positivemood. On the basisof that, DouglasGifford has arguedfor Sun Circle, Butcher'sBroom and TheSilver Darlings as a trilogy, wherethe tragediesof the past areredeemed through the last novel's "song of life" (Gifford Gunnand Gibbon 1983: 116).In the 1991essay "Neil Gunn and the Mythic Regenerationof Scotland", Gifford writes on TheSilver Darlings: The triumph of the herring fisheriesaround the coastof Scotlandin the nineteenthcentury stands as Gunn's ultimate exampleof a model of regenerationof mythic stature.I-fis recurrentdescription of the silver darlingsas "fabulous", however,doesn't mean that"magic" hasbrought aboutsalvation - far from it, sinceit is essentialto his purposethat this Scottishmyth alsostands as realistic model for the nation which he had told MacDiarmidin 1933was failing becauseof "internal warring elements".Scott had soughtto reconcilethese "internal waning elements",as had othersafter him; but neither in Scott's main efforts, or anywhereelse in Scottishliterature - not evenin MacDiarmid's Drunk Man - doessupreme art marry so fiuitfully with social and historical authenticityand sensitiveand persuasive psychological delineation. 71e Silver Darlings hasa claim as the greatestof all Scottishnovels; and the trilogy it the for ( ) "explain completes, quest a new myth which will ... the origins and endsof a raceto itself', has a claim to mark the highest level of achievementof Scottishand Westernliterature. (Gifford 1991: 99) Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 108 Gifford's thesisof mythic regenerationinvites two objections.First of all, I do not think that Butcher'sBroom canbe fitted into his argumentin a convincingway when one takesinto accountthe physicaland spiritual destructionthat occursin that novel. On the other hand,I considerit problematicto usea temporaryrevival, setwithin the closed historical epochof the nineteenthcentury in the caseof TheSilver Darlings, as the foundationfor a vision of Scotland'spast, present and future. As I suggestedin my introductionto the presentsection, I prefer the Corkeryreading which placesa surface history of declineagainst hidden continuity, because that would justify a shift from a pessimistic.tO an optimistic mood,whilst underlininghow a peoplecan surviveagainst all odds.That leavesthe readerwith an imageof the Gael as a peopleof endurers;even when they aretaught of their inferiority by foreigners,alien to their tradition, or the foundationof their societyis underminedby Lowland improvers,their valuesprevail. In his fiction andnon-fiction alike, Neil Gunnportrays the Gael as civiliser ratherthan conqueror.Ancient Gaelictradition was derivedfrom the very roots of being,which makesit superiorto the artificiality that hasreplaced it, he emphasises;in Risky and Scotlandwith specificreference to literature: The old Gaelicpoetry was sun-bred,exuberant and yet vigorous,charged with life or the wild singingof death,positive and challenging.There was a flame at its core.Slowly the flame died down; the red fadedto grey-,the mind becamehaunted by dreams;and the inheritorsof the ancientrigorous tradition entered,like wraiths, the Celtic Twilight. (Gunn 1935:67-68)

Over the years,Celtic culturehas slowly beenundermined by externalforces, but it may be recoveredin the mannerthe Irish reclaimedtheir hiddenIreland. Underneath the surfacetwilight, the ancientvalues survive, which will enablethe Scotsto redeemtheir nation. Although I remainunconvinced by his attemptto make of Sun Circle, Butcher's Broom and TheSilver Darlings a greatepic cycle, I agreewith DouglasGifford's view that it is in TheSilver Darlings the author'saffirmative vision comesacross most clearly. The novel was publishedin 1941,seven years after Butcher's Broom, which could explain the shift of emphasis.That is, in the works of the late 1930s,Gunn had becomeincreasingly preoccupied with the position of man in society,whereas the outbreakof the SecondWorld War in 1939may havebeen a factor, too. With TheSilver Darlings the writer beginsa new phasein his re-writing of Scottishhistory in the sense Neil A Gunn 1926-41 109 that he settlesfor a successstory, the rise of the Moray Firth fisheriesin the nineteenth century,which hadbeen the foundationof his hometown of Dunbeath.In termsof chronology,the narrativebegins at the point whereButcher's Broom ended,in a coastal townshipmade up by Clearancevictims who haveyet to team to extracta living from the sea.It startsin tragedywhen Tormad, the husbandof the heroineCatrine, and three venturesomefriends are surprised at seaby the press-gang.From its initial anti-climax, it is soontransformed into a successstory, however. On a communallevel, the reader follows the growthof the fishing communityof Dunsteron the Moray Firth, while on a personallevel, the plot centreson Tormad!s sonFinn's triumphantconquest of the sea. Potentialtragedy becomes actual comedy, which underlinesthe redemptivequalities of Gunn's vision in this work. In relationto Corkery,a centralpoint of the novel is questionof cultural continuity.Though they originatein the sameculture as Catrine, most inhabitantsof Dunsternow dependon the seafor their living, which suggeststhat they havecut their link to the land-basedvalues of their ancestors.In the light of The Lost Glen and TheGrey Coast,that is a causefor concernfor thesenovels demonstrate how the processof deculturalisationhad left the lives of contemporaryHighlanders empty.Yet the presenceof croft-dwellerssuch as Catrineand her patronKirsty amongst the fishermenreminds the Dunstercommunity of its roots,which againensures that the all-importantconnection to Gaelictradition is not lost. The significanceof the ancestral pastis furtherunderlined by the final chaptersof TheSilver Darlings. Finn, who is the mythic protagonistof the narrativeas well as a very real personin a very real landscape, journeysto the WesternIsles in orderto reclaim his heritage.On North Uist, in a poor andprimitive crofting township,he finds the old culture alive and realiseshow its ancientsongs bring him to an unconsciousunderstanding, not only of his mother,but of his people: The effect uponFinn was deepand self-revealing.Love for his mother cried out in him, the love that now understoodthe withdrawn fatality of the mother.He hadbeen blind, blind. The awful inexorablesimplicity of the singingbecame too much to bear.He tried to put it from him, not to listen; he movedhis headand pressed his right heel into the clay floor, so that his body be kept within control. He wantedto cry out, for the relief of the cry. (Gunn 1941/1969:544)

That a long-forgottensong makes such an impact on Firm only emphasisesthe continuity of Gaelictradition despiteits upheavals.Christian missionaries may have destroyedDruidic wisdom,while Lowland improversburned down the Highland Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 110 villages.Yet thereis somethingunderneath it all that will endure.According to Gunn, thereis a hiddenScotland, which equalsCorkerys Ireland as a sourceof national regeneration.

"The Macdonald at the end of the day": Gunn's vision of the late 1930s

A sceneappears towards the endof TheGreen Isle ofthe GreatDeep, Neil Gunn!s 1944 fable of modemcivilisation, which sumsup his vision towardsthe end of the 1930s.In a final attemptto escapethe interrogationsan impersonal,bureaucratic administration has imposedupon him, oneprotagonist, the old HighlanderHector, has demanded to confront the ultimate,God, andis now being led towardsthat trial. He is nervousfor his Calvinist upbringinghas made a meetingwith God seemlike an impossibletask, hesitates,then looks to the sky wheresuddenly he finds hope: [Hector'seyes] never reached that azureof purepeace, for sitting astride a gargoyleto starboardof the GreatGate, with barelegs dangling and the left handgripping the stonehair of the gargoyle'shead, was the figure of 'aboy. The right handsaluted and waved, and the mouth in the vivid face opened,and from it camethe battle-cryof Old Hectoesclan, for Old Hectorwas a Macdonald,and his clan had many a time found itself sore beset,but never,as its rallying cry showed,had it lost faith, had it lost hope.(Gunn 1944/1991b: 237)

The boy is Art, Gunn!s personificationof a creative,individualist oppositionto collectivism,the battle-cryis "the Macdonaldat the end of the day', which remindsthe old man that he may yet recoverstrength from his native tradition, and togetherthey representthe twin elementsof individualismand nationalism that makeup the authoes is humanbeing vision. It crucial that the single startswith what little he knows- himself, his regionallandscape and national origins - for only on the basisof a firm groundingin spaceand time can he take in the broaderpicture. With HighlandRiver(1937), Wild GeeseOverhead (1939), as well as the autobiographicalOff in a Boat (1938),the novelist seemsto be changinghis priorities. The focus of his narrativeshas shifted from the communityto the individual that is shapedby its principlesof co-operationand egalitarianism.The concernis lesswith the recoveryof Scottishspace and history thanwith the ideologicalprinciples behind his nationalism,whereas the questionsthat arebeing askedare no longerpeculiar to the Scottishsituation, but a responseto what is happeningall over Europeat the time. A Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 ill gap of threeyears separates Butcher's Broom, a novel of Highland history, from Highland River, which is concernedwith modemmans questfor spirituality. Within that spanseveral events occur that may have alteredthe author'soutlook. On the political front, time had shownthat the establishmentof the moderateScottish National Party did not bring aboutthe electoralbreakthrough the party leadershiphad hopedfor, whereasthe cultural revival had suffereda setbackwith the 1936break between Edwin Muir andHugh MacDiarmidover Scottand Scotland.On the internationalscene, the outbreakof the SpanishCivil War in 1936strengthened the political polarisationthat had beenon-going throughout the decade,whilst renewinga senseof catastrophe,total war, as the only possibleend to a chaoticdecade (Bergonzi Reading the Thirties 1978: 55). This senseof imminentdisaster pushed British intellectualstowards ideological commitmentsthat hadbeen unimaginable in the 1920swhen the modernistprinciple of "art for art's sake"still ruled supreme.As RichardJohnstone discusses in The Fill to Believe,English writers suchas W. H. Auden, StephenSpender and Evelyn Waugh playfully adoptedone of the two rival creedsof communismand fascism,only to test them againstthe reality of Spainin 1936(Johnstone 1982: 1-16).Similar arguments were voiced in the writings of Scottishauthors such as Edwin Muir, Hugh MacDiarmid and Lewis GrassicGibbon, among others, who supporteda socialistmodel for Scotland in the thirties. In contrast,Gunn remained dismissive of collectivism,whether of the left- or right-wing variant,because he sawit as an unnecessaryrestraint on individual freedom.As early as 1931, he usedthe essay"Nationalism andInternationalism" to point to an alternative,"third way": The small nationhas alwaysbeen ardWslast bulwark for the individual againstthat machine,for personalexpression against impersonaltyranny, for the quick freedomof the spirit againstthe flatteningsteam-roller of mass.It is concernedfor the intangiblethings called its heritage,its beliefs and arts,its distinctive institutions,for everything,in fact, that expressesit. And expressionfinally implies spirit in an act of creation,which is to say,culture. (Gunn 1931/1987a:179)

Towardsthe endof the late thirties, the writer developedhis argunientfor a balance betweennationalism and internationalism, individual and society,in a numberof works which raisedthe questionof socialresponsibility versus personal escape, whilst posing small-statenationalism as the answer. Is itjustifiable for the individual to go in searchof delight in the midst of an internationalcrisis? That dilemmaappears to havehaunted Gunn when in 1937he Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 112 ý bought a boat.and set sail with wife andbrother on a voyageof rediscoveryaround the WesternIsles. In Off in a Boat, he continuouslytries to legitimise his move with referenceto the needfor essentials,for personalintegrity as a counterbalanceto the growing focuson m&s socialduty. Evenmodem manmust facethe absolute,"the lonelinessof one'sown self, which no masshysteria, or political creed,or religious faith, can savefrom the last lonely departurethat is*death", in orderto find the truth behindhis existence,Gunn observes in his 1938 work (Gunn 1938: 59-60). This leaves the readerwondering whether indeed social responsibility can be as easily shedas that. Political and socialissues were to the fore of thirties writings for goodreasons. The Depression,and the physicaland spiritual starvationof the worldng-classesthat followed in its aftermath,had forcedintellectuals to recognisethe urgentneed for state intervention,if not indeedrevolution, if the crisis was to be solved.In the light of that, one could with somejustification dismissGunns argumentas a failure to faceup to the problemsof his age.Instead he opts for individualism,the right of all manldndto personalfulfilment, which in practicemeans the abandonmentof all social questions. On the surface,the 1939work Wild GeeseOverhead reads as the exceptionto that rule as the Highlandwriter appearsto be struggling,for once,with the problem of urban destitution.The narrativeis primarily setin the cityscapeof inter-war Glasgow,a dark world of tenements,disillusioned unemployed and socialistreformers. It brings into focus the conflict betweena socialistphilosophy, which puts stateabove individual, and an individualist vision, which may provide an inadequateanswer to the social crisis, but which at leastrespects the individual. That the novelist'sbeliefs steeredhim in a different direction from traditional socialrealism is underlinedby a comparisonbetween Wild GeeseOverhead and Rex Warner'sThe 9,711dGoose Chase, a marxist novel that had beenpublished two yearsbefore. In 71e 9711to Believe,Richard Johnstone summarisesWarner's work as follows: The hero, George,possesses the qualitiesof masculinity,modesty, and courage.In modemsociety these are no longerrecognized as virtues, and he is regardedby his fellow-townsfolk as inferior to his bombasticand effeminatebrothers; the societyhe inhabits is without any sharedbelief by which Georgemay be judged for his true worth. In the questwhich he undertakesfor the wild goose,George seeks to re-establish,through socialrevolution, the connectionbetween the peopleand the essential valuesof society-,only a truly revolutionarysociety can convincingly definevirtue. (Johnstone1982: 23) Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 113

Warner'sprotagonist George and Gunn!s hero Will discoverin the wild geesea symbol of virtues that takethem beyond their crisis of disbelief,but they arebrought to contrastingconclusions. George finds hopein the prospectsof a socialrevolution that will secureall mankinda decentliving in the physicalsense of the word. Will, on the other hand,travels through the Glasgowunderworld, only to reject suchrevolutionary creeds.As part of his awakening,he listensto his socialistfriend Joe'sarguments, acceptsthe needfor change,but he eventuallyrealises that Joe's beliefs arenot his own. Spiritually, andphysically, his questtakes him to the countrysidewhere he recovershis personalintegrity. Before he can fully enjoy his newly discoveredhaven of tranquillity, Will must shedhis Glasgowexperience, however. "Their reactionsare not our reactions. Your gardenhere would bore them stiff', he confessesto his lady Primavera,adding that the lives of the proletariat"are not dramatic.They aregrey. But they doretfeel that greynessas we would. To themthe streetnoises and the grinding tramsare their singing-birds"(Gunn 1939/1991d:325-26). While it mayjustify his personalchoice of freedomover socialcommitment, Will's commentdeprives the underpriviliged membersof societyof the humanqualities that sethimself andJenny apart. In Wild GeeseOverhead escape is thus an option for the few, not the many,which seems paradoxicalin the light of the novelist's concernwith the integrity of the singlehuman being againstthe threatsof standardisationand dehumanisation. Gunn clearly felt a needto protecthis individualism againstallegations of selfishness and social irresponsibility,for in the 1941essay "Memories of the Months" he observes: So drawntogether are we in fatality that when the individual breaksfree from the concernsof the mass,even for a moment,he is affectedby somethinglike a senseof guilt. To turn to Nature is to turn awayfrom the dreadrealities that encompassus, is to escape,and in the act we suspecta weakness,a selfishtrifling, which is highly reprehensibleand of which we are openlyor secretlyashamed. (Gunn 1941/1991c:85)

More often than not, the author'sdefence takes the form of an attackon the alternative model of collectivism,however - symbolisedby the notion of a beehive-statewhere nobodysuffers because the governmentwill provide. The clearestrejection of state interventionismoccurs in the 1944novel 77ieGreen Isle of the GreatDeep where the Celtic paradiseof Tir-nan-ogis reimaginedas a bureaucraticworld-state, deprived of all pleasureand pain. Thirteenyears prior to that, the writer speaksout againstmass culture,overrationalisation and mechanisation in "'Nationalismand Internationalism": Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 114

Internationalismcarried to its logical conclusionof a single centralisation in of all power- arms,finance, law-making - could result the greatest tyrannythe mind of man is capableof conceiving.While the nation is still the unit (andhistory has shownthe small unit to be singularly individual important- considerGreece and Palestine) the factor comes into play, andin a myriadpersonal contacts the finer elementsof humanismare retained and tyrannysuffered briefly, if at all. But when the governingmachine becomes single in control, remotein place,and absolutein power,then hope of reform or progress- which generally meansthe breakingof an e-xisting mould - would not have the heartto becomearticulate. Standardisation would be the keywordnot only in the materialthings of life, but alsoin the spiritual. And wheneverconditions got too desperateit would meanrevolution, or world war on a basisof classhatred. (Gunn 1931/1987a:179)

Gunn's chargesagainst internationalism are that a centralised,impersonal government increasesthe risk of tyranny,that physicalstandardisation inevitably resultsin spiritual uniformity, andthat internationalism,not nationalism,is the causeof war andclass hatred.With specificreference to socialism,he challengesthe theoriesof reformerssuch as Joe in Fild GeeseOverhead because they deprivethe proletariatof its humanity, reducingits membersto mereobjects (Gunn 1939/1991d:154). Personal experience is of no relevancein the beehive-state;it must be incorporatedinto a socialexperience which is largerthan the sumof its constituents,and which consequentlyleaves them dehumanised."Kind! Surelyyou needto be kind onlYwhere things arenot perfect," cottagerRobert reminds Hector in The GreenIsle of the GreatDeep: "Whereall is perfect,kindness is no moreneeded! ' (Gunn 1944/199lb: 74). Against the uniformity of a collectivist state,the novelist placesthe virtues of small- statenationalism, which, like traditionalIfighland society,represent principles that are only too often neglectedin a modemworld. At the heartof his philosophyis the individual as any suppressionof personalfreedom is uncreative.To that, he addsthe communalvalues of egalitarianism,democracy and co-operation,which underlinethe interdependencyof the individual andhis/her community. Together, the imaginationof the singlehuman being andthe strengthsof an integral societysecure a basisfor the nation that is at onceprogressive and conscious of its tradition, of the origins of the presentin the past.In the fiction, theseconsiderations come to the fore in Highland River. In at leastthree respects, the 1937novel representsa departurefrom Gunn's publicationsof the mid-1930s,which were predominantlyhistorical in content.First of all, the narrativeis setin a contemporarysetting. Secondly, it is lesspreoccupied with Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 115 the communityand more with the questof a singlehuman being. Thirdly, it makes referencesto recentevents such as the First World War in order to raisemore universal questions..Highland River may havebeen written in responseto the internationalcrisis as well as the threatof 'Collectivism,which madeit urgentto the novelist to underline the positive aspectsof Scottishtradition. While his previouswork had thus contributed to the Renaissancerecovery of Scottishgeography and history, the writer now recognisedthat he could no longerrestrict himself to Scotland,that therewere problems in the world of suchan omnipresentnature that they had to be faced.Once again he returnedto a familiar scene-a remoteHighland glen in the north of Scotland- but this time it was in orderto emphasise,not whereHighland culturehad gonewrong, but whereit had beenright. As hejourneys up the river, modemman Kenn, who has witnessedworld war andurban destitution, sheds his twentieth-centurysuperstitions until he hasregained the connectionto his people,a tribe of solitarieswith the strength to confront the absolute:"That was his destiny.He saw its meaningin his people,even in their religion, for what was the Calvinist but onewho would haveno mediating figuresbetween himself andthe ultimate,no one to take responsibilityfrom him, to suffer for him!' (Gunn 1937/1994: 240). In his combinationof individualism,the communalvalues of his Highlandchildhood, and his ancestralpast, Kenn finds a meaningfulalternative. He returnswith an awarenessof the essentialsin fife that will him fight back enable to materialism,which againsuggests that Gunns nationalism-a personalcompound of individualism,co-operation and tradition - becomesa sourceof spiritual strengthto balanceagainst the presentcrisis of faith. In "Neil Gunnand the Criticism of T. S. Eliot", RichardPrice connectsthe novelist's searchfor integrity to the vision of Eliot, who in, 4fter StrangeGods argued: "It is only a law of nature,that local patriotism,when it representsa distinct tradition and culture,takes precedence over a more abstractnational patriotis&' (as quotedin Price 1991/92:46). At a momentwhen their contemporariesadopted collectivism as an answerto the crisis, the traditionalists Gunn and Eliot were becomingincreasingly wary of potential standardisationand posed region and nation,Eliot's Southand Gunn!s Scotland,as "spiritual alternativesto centralistdecadence" (Price 1991/2:46). If the nation constitutesthe last barricadeagainst disruptive modernism, it is perhaps not surprisingthat it alsostands as guarantorfor artistic merit sincecreativity can only thrive wherethe individual is grantedfull freedom.The poemsof Bums andthe music Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 116 of Sibelius,Gum would claim, could only havebeen produced within national communitiesthat remainedconfident of their heritage,which madeit only the more urgent to ensurethe survival of the nation.In responseto a 1935enquiry concerning the future of the Scotslanguage, he arguedin TheScots Magazine how only a restorationof Scottishnationhood might preservethe vernacular(Gunn 1935/199 1 c: 77-8). If Scotlanddied, it matteredlittle at to whetheror not its native languagewould survive: Unlike Communismor other social creedor manifestation,the Scots Vernacularis an affair exclusivelyScottish, and to keepit alive, Scotland must be kept alive. For if Scotlanddies, then not only the Vernacularbut everythingthat givesher separatemeaning and identity dies with her. In looking thereforefor somethingto keepthe Vernacularalive, I should look for whateverbody existedwith the object of keepingScotland the nation alive. If no suchbody existed,then I shouldknow that any concernof mine to financethe Vernacularwould be purely antiquarian and of no living valuewhatsoever. (Gunn 1935/1991 c: 77)

As he demonstratedin the 1938essay "rradition andMagic in the Work of Lewis GrassicGibboif ', Gibbonwas Gunns favouriteexample of the interdependencyof culture andnation, for, to the Highlandwriter, A ScotsQuair had provedhow valuablea nationalbasis was for the artist. As well as actingas a stimulusfor the arts,Gunn recognised a securegrounding in nationalculture and tradition as a necessaryfoundation for a harmoniousworld order. Post-1945readers have dismissed nationalism as a creedwhich inspireshate among neighbouringpeoples, but to Gunnthat was neverthe case.True nationalism,he observedin "A Visitor from Denmarle',was free from imperialism,conquest and war, becauseit was basedon a belief in oneselfand one'scountry (Gunn 1937/1987a: 17 1). Suchconfidence enabled the nationalsto engagewith the physical and spiritual building of their homelandin the mannerof the Danishnational awakening in the nineteenth century.Once the nation had comeinto its own, it would be able to interactwith other nation-states,but becausethey were equallyfree and secure,there was no causefor rivalry or war. Peoplecould meetacross national boundaries to exchangeculture and rejoice in the new variety of life as the writer stressesin "Nationalism and Internationalism!': Culturethus emergesin the nation, is the nation!s flower. Eachnation cultivatesits own naturalflower. The more varieties,the more surprise andpleasure for all. For nationalismin the only sensethat mattersis not jealous,any more thanmusic is jealous.On the contrary,if we are gardenersor musicianswe are anxiousto meet gardenersor musiciansof Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 117 otherlands and rejoice when their blooms areexquisitely different from our own. In this way life becomesenriched, and contrastis set up as a delight andan inspiration.(Gunn 1931/ 1987a:179-80)

This passageencapsulates the author'sposition. Only the fertile soil of a nation allows the individual's creativityto flourish,but oncea nationaltradition has emerged,it requiresthe diversityof an internationalaudience to appreciateit. In consequence, "[nationalism] createsthat which internationalismenjoys" (Gunn 1931/1987a:177). In conclusion,I shall returnto the scenefrom The GreenIsle of the GreatDeep, which introducedthe presentsection. Protagonists Art andHector havebeen caught up by a dehumanised,overrationalised administration, which is trying to reducehuman complexity to materialism,emotions to psychology-,that administrationis now threateningto bring down Hector,who haslost the childish spontaneitythat allowedArt to escape.Hector retains an instinctualawareness of his homecommunity and its tradition, however,which is the key to his salvation.When Art shoutsto his friend the ancientbattle-cry of the Macdonalds,he remindsHector of an alternativeto the beehive- state,the valuesof the Highlandsand small nationsalike, which may yet seehim through,and that epitomisesthe writers nationalism.Crisis andwar loom largeat the end of the 1930s;the modemphilosophies of collectivism andmaterialism are reducing life to a questionof bread-and-butterpolitics, while artistic integrity is underminedby the rise of massculture. Yet Gunndefies it all throughhis conceptof nationalismas a sourceof spiritual andcreative renewal.

Neil Gunn in the Scottish Renaissance

In a sense,Neil Gunn's 1946novel TheDrinking Well representshis final attemptto fictionalise the Renaissanceideal of nationalregeneration. The narrativefollows Iain Cattanach,the sonof a Grampiansheep farmer, as he leaveshis homecommunity for a city career,only to recognisethat the land offers the only desirableway of life. The protagonist'sinitial migration from the land to the city brings to mind novelssuch as The Grey Coastand Morning Tidewhere the imageof the youngmen waiting for the Glasgowbus was usedto highlight the problemof rural depopulation.As Margery McCulloch discussesin TheNovels offeil M. Gunn,the primary concernof The Drinking Well is the hero's return to the Highlands,not his departure,however, and in a thematicsense that is reminiscentof TheLost Glen wherethe protagonisthad returned Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 118 in disgracefrom EdinburghUniversity (McCulloch 1987d:120-2 1). As for Ewanin The Lost Glen,Edinburgh turns out to be an unhappychoice for Iain. Following a confrontationwith a superiorin his office, he travelsback north wherehe strugglesto make goodwith his father,girlfdend andvillage. While in Edinburgh,he hasbeen drawn to the idea of Scottishnationalism, on the basisof which he now developsa strategyfor the Highlandsthat will stimulateeconomic growth, whilst retainingthe area9scultural values.Iain imaginesthat the declineof his homeregion may be halted by the introductionof a systemthat combinescattle and sheepin the mannerof the pre- ClearanceHighlands. This schemerequires investment, however, which puts it beyond the capacityof the averagefarmer. For a while, it looks as if Iain's grandvision of Highland regenerationis boundto shipwreckagainst the rocks of conservatism,apathy and poverty.Yet Gunnis unwilling to let go of his ideal, and in orderto effect the desiredchange, he introducesthe benevolentlaird Henderson,whose assistance enables lain to recoverboth land andprincess in a fairy-tale like conclusion.According to his biographers,the novelistwas unhappywith a fantasticending to what he intendedas a realistic work (Hart/Pick 1981:204). More than any other Gunnnovel, TheDrinking Well thus showshow difficult it was for the authorto take his nationalistvision beyond the closedhistorical epoch of TheSilver Darlings or the fabulousrealm of The Green Isle of the GreatDeep into a contemporarysetting, which may explainwhy the direction of his fiction changesafter 1946.As RichardPrice concludesin 7he FabulousMatter of Fact, TheDrinking Well is "the last time Gunn deliversa myth for specificallyHighland

and Scottishrejuvenation! ' (Price 1991:149). Strictly speaking,Gunn's later novelsare irrelevantto a discussionof the novelistin relation to the ScottishRenaissance. The authorremained loyal to his Highlandroots in the sensethat he continuedto employHighland settingsand characters,but wherethe communityhad beento the fore of his inter-warwritings, it was now reducedto a background,against which the protagonist'ssearch for fulfilment was playedout. Philosophicalquestions replaced the writer's nationalistagenda in a movereminiscent of Hugh MacDiarmid's searchfor absolutismin late writings suchas In Memoriam JamesJoyce. In the essay"Comedy and Transcendence in Neil Gunn's Later Fiction!", FrancisRussell Hart sumsup Gunn'spost-war development in the following words: During the SecondWorld War, with the mythic dystopia77ie Green Isle of the GreatDeep (1944), there occurred in the fiction of Neil Gunn an expansionor a displacementof themeinto urgenciesof the mid- Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 119

twentieth-centuryworld. They are anticipatedmost clearly in WIld Geese Overhead(1939), a first novel of violence,physical and intellectual,in a modemurban setting. Two later variantsof the same"fiction of violence" are TheShadow (1948) andBlood Hunt (1952).It appears,as well, in two novelsthat usepopular and contemporary"suspense" or intrigue motifs, TheKey ofthe Chest(1945) and YheLost Chart (1949). But Gunn'sultimate form was the one Edwin Muir recognisedand admiredin TheSilver Bough(1948), and we seeit likewise in The Well at the World'sEnd (1951) and in The OtherLandscape (1954). It is the ageingmodem intellectual's quest into primordial place and atavistic time for his own renewal,his searchfor the displacementthat enigmacan bring, bewilderinghim onto "The Way" or giving him divinely comic nudgesonto the "other landscape".(Hart 1973:239)

I considerHart's celebrationof the late Gunnunfortunate in the sensethat it has encouragedcritics suchas John Bums andRichard Price to focus on the post-warnovels insteadof the inter-warperiod when, in my opinion, the novelist madehis main contributionto Scottishliterature. The Drinking Well proveshow hard it was for the authorto hold on to his nationalistbeliefs after World War Two, which may explain why his late novelsbecome less concerned with the Renaissancevision. WhereasThe Grey Coast,for instance,had engagedwith the social, economicand cultural problems of contemporaryScotland, the narrativesof the late 1940sand early 1950sshift the emphasisto the individual's searchfor fulfilment. According to FrancisHart andJ. B. Pick, the post-1945 works representa "more intellectual,more difficult, more complex" dimensionto Gunn,but I am not convinced(Hart/Pick 1981: 199). On the contrary,I seethese "mature" novelsas a retort to the Celtic Twilight which the artist had defied in The Grey Coastthrough the characterof Ivor. In The Other Landscape(1954), the mad composerMenzies is thus defeatedby the seain a mannernot unlike the schoolmaster of the early short story "Half-Light". It could be arguedthat Fiona Macleodtriumphs at the end of Gunn's career,when the nationalistauthor who had successfullymoved his homeregion to the centrein the 1920sand 1930s,appears to be withdrawing to the marginsonce again. The differencesbetween the early and the late Gum raise concernswith regardto his statuswithin the ScottishLiterary Renaissance,for whereascertain of his novelsare easily accommodatedwithin a programmefor national regeneration,others are more peripheral.As I suggestedabove, the dividing line is aroundthe end of the Second World War. Up till the publicationof TheDrinking Well in 1946,the writer had been seriouslyengaged with Scottishpolitics and culture.From 1922,he hadbeen a loyal Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 120 supporterof 4Ugh MacDiarmid'scampaign for a revival, while he in the 1930s orchestratedthe meetingsthat eventuallybrought the National Party of Scotlandand the ScottishParty to a merger.Such priorities were reflectedin his work, which meansthat majority of Gunn'swritings between1926 and 1946were colouredby a Renaissance ethos.Although strongScottish novels such as TheSilver Darlings and YheDrinking Wellhad yet to emerge,the first symptomsof a changingoutlook manifestedthemselves towardsthe endof the thirties,when in Wild GeeseOverhead the writer optedfor a more individualist answerto the dilemmasof life. That coincidedwith a periodwhen he was becomingless involved with nationalistpolitics, whereashe would have found it difficult to maintaina presencein a cultural groupingthat was speedilydissolving in the aftermathof the Scottand Scotlandcontroversy. In consequence,he was lesstied by his previouscommitments in the late 1930s,which left him free to pursuehis personal goals.Gunn's growingindividualism was at the expenseof his programmefor national regeneration.Late novelssuch as TheSilver Bough (1948), TheLost Chart (1949) and The Well at the World'sEnd (1951)were Scottishin content,but the emphasison nationalrenewal that had characterisedinter-war writings suchas 77ieLost Glen and Morning Tide,was in thesenovels exchanged for a focus on personalredemption. The Renaissanceelement had disappeared,in otherwords, in a mannerthat makesthe late Gunn seemsomewhat marginal to the presentdiscussion. A secondproblem with Neil Gunn as a protagonistof the ScottishRenaissance is his geographicalperipherality. In my introductionI comparedKurt Wittig's perceptionof the novelist as the key figure in the modemrevival with Eric Linklater's more sceptical view, and althoughmy discussionhas tried to underlinehow Gunn aimedto transcend his marginality,the issuemust be confrontedby the reader.Even if he occasionally venturedinto urbanGlasgow or rural Lanarkshire,the primary sourceof Gunn's fiction remainedthe Highlands,which raisesthe questionof whetheror not sucha physicaland spiritual foundationis too narrow for him to be speakingfor the nation. Caithnessand Sutherland,which werehis preferredlocations, are rural countiesdependent on a unique combinationof crofting and fishing, aswell as an awarenessof their Gaelicheritage. Sucha vision may representthe Highlands,of course,but it hasvery little in common with that other Scotlandwhich is urban,industrial and anglicised.How canHighland life everbecome symptomatic of a modemreality that hasmoved beyond such traditional valuescenturies ago, the Lowland Scotmight ask Gunn,who would answer- Neil M. Gunn 1926-41 121

BecauseHighlands and Lowlands constitute the samenation andthus reflect different sidesof a sharednational experience. The most fundamentaldifficulty I haveencountered in my attemptto accommodate the vision of Neil Gunnwithin a generalisedRenaissance programme, is neitherhis changeof outlook in the late 1930snor his scope,however, but his inability to turn his nationalisminto a contemporarymyth of revival. In TheSilver Darlings he presentsa vision of regionalregeneration, which is basedon individual integrity andco-operative organisation,but within the wider picture of Scottishexperience his optimismcannot prevail. The narrativeevolves within a closedhistorical epoch,which he cannotmove beyond.At the endof the novel, the readerthus learnshow the economicbasis of the Moray Firth fishing is beingeroded. The "song of life", which DouglasGifford identified in TheSilver Darlings, is fading,only to be substitutedby the destitutionthat characterisedGunn's portraits of his contemporaryHighlands in The Grey Coastand TheLost Glen (Gifford Gunnand Gibbon 1983: 116).The author'sother attemptsto fictionalise his vision for Scotlandfare no better.In The GreenIsle of the GreatDeep, he demonstrateshow traditionalHighland values may transformthe beehive-stateinto an improvedsociety where the positive aspectsof individualism and collectivismare broughttogether, but the plot unfoldswithin a fantasyworld, which makesits conclusionshard to applyto Scottishreality. In TheDrinking Well,on the otherhand, Gunn seemsdetermined to provethat his ideasmight function within a contemporary setting,only to realisethe difficulty of sucha task.In order to bring his narrativeto a satisfactoryend, he introducesan externalforce in the shapeof laird Henderson,and sucha move is morereminiscent of romancethan realism. Although he had developed his nationalistpliilosophy in his non-fiction throughoutthe 1930s,he is unableto create a realistic vision of Highlandregeneration in the fiction. In the end,he resortsto romanceand fable in a mannerthat seemsto weakenhis casefor Scotland. 122 From Scotshire into the Mearns: Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35

In 1934,the yearNeil Gunnpublished Butcher's Broom, Hugh MacDiarmid andLewis GrassicGibbon sentout ScottishScene as a joint effort. MacDiarmid's campaignfor a ScottishRenaissance, which had by thenbeen under way for more than ten years,had establishedhis namein Scottishculture andpolitics. Gibbon,on the contrary,had only madehis nameas a Scottishwriter asrecently as 1932,when SunsetSong appeared, yet his contributionsto ScottishScene were asuncompromising in their approachto Scotlandand the Scotsas anyby MacDiarmid.Ia the essay"Literary Lights", Gibbon thus declaredfellow-novelist Gunn un-Scottish on the groundsof language: Mr. Gunnis a brilliant novelist from Scotshirewho chooseshis home countyas the sceneof his tales.His techniqueis almostunique among the writers of Scotshirein its effortlessefficiency: he mouldsbeauty in unforgettablephrases - thereare things in TheLost Glen andSun Circle comparableto the bestin the imaginativeliterature of any schoolor country.He hasprobably scarcely yet set out on his scalingof the heights.... But they arenot the heightsof Scotsliterature; they arenot eventhe pedestrianlevels. More in Gunn than in any other contemporary Anglo-Scot( ) to the hauntingforeignness in ... the readerseems sense an orthodoxEnglish; he is the greatestloss to itself Scottishliterature has sufferedin this century.Had his languagebeen Gaelic or Scotsthere is no doubt of the spaceor placehe would haveoccupied in evensuch short studyas this. Writing in orthodoxEnglish, he. is merely a brilliantly unorthodoxEnglishman. (Gibbon/MacDiarmid 1934: 200)

As a critique of Gunn,Gibbon's argumentis problematic:on the onehand, he doesnot take into accountthe fact that the Highlandswere traditionally Gaelic-speaking,which makesLowland Scotsno more appropriateas a medium for Gunn as the Standard English he employed.At the sametime, Gibbon ignoresthe difficulties confrontedby a novelist who had lost the speechof his ancestors,and who thereforehad to find other ways of communicatinga senseof difference.As an insight into Gibbon's own approach,"Literary Lights" is no more satisfying.The Mearnswriter might suggestthat only literaturecomposed in Gaelicor Scotsqualifies as Scottish,but his practicefailed to live up to suchgeneralisations. Throughout his career,he publishedworks in StandardEnglish aswell as Scots,and his last novel, Gay Hunter (1934),was written entirely in the imperial tongue.Despite the radicalismof ScottishScene, Gibbon was Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 123 anythingbut consistent,which placeshim in a somewhatdubious position vis-&-visthe ScottishRenaissance. Before I examinehis placein Scottishinter-war literaturein more detail, I want to stressthat Lewis GrassicGibbon was in a sensethe odd-manout. Thereare several reasonsfor this. First of all, he wasby far the youngestin my companyof four. Edwin Muir, Hugh MacDiarmidand Neil Gunnwere born towardsthe end of the nineteenth century,which madethem the contemporariesof JamesJoyce, Virginia Woolf, D. H Lawrenceand T. S. Eliot. This generationcame into its own during the first decadesof the twentiethcentury, which meantthat it experiencedthe 1914-18war from an adult perspective.In contrast,Gibbon was born in 1901,which placeshim in the samegroup as Evelyn Waugh,George Orwell and ChristopherIsherwood. They were too youngto participatein the First World War-,they startedto maketheir impact on British culture in the 1930s,and their art sprangfrom the physicaland spiritual depressionthat followed from the war ratherthan the war itself. In addition to the generationalgap, Gibbon standsout in Scottishinter-war writing becauseof his prematuredeath. While Muir, MacDiarmid and Gunnwere active for more than thirty years,most of Gibbon's writings were producedbetween 1928 and 1935,which makesit hard to traceany developmentin his ideas.Accordingly, his work offers no vision comparableto thoseof his fellow-writers.He is inconsistentat best, self-contradictoryat worst, which indicates that he had yet to cometo termswith himself, Scotlandand the world at large.Related to this is his relatively late arrival on and early departurefrom the Scottishscene. By the time SunsetSong was published in 1932,the pioneerstage of the ScottishRenaissance was coming to a close.Muir and Gunnhad both contributedto MacDiannid's campaign for a cultural revival in the mid-1920s,but after 1925MacDiarmid's editorial activities ceased,which somewhatrestricted the outletsfor Renaissancepropaganda. In the early 1930sThe Modern Scottried to fill the vacuumleft by TheScottish Chapbook and The ScottishNation, but this periodicalwas lessradical in orientation,which alienated Gibbon.Hence the novelist characterisedThe Modern Scot's approachto cultureas "castrated,disernbowelled, and genteellyvulgarized! ' in the essay"Glasgow", asif to suggestthat it cateredfor a middle-classreadership with no real understandingof such matters(Gibbon/MacDiarmid 1934: 138). Gibbon's early death,on the otherhand, preventedhim from participatingin the disputethat developedafter Muir's publication of Scottand Scotlandin 1936.In hindsight,that is ironical, for, as the original editor of Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35 124 the VoiceofScotland books, Gibbon had himself invited Muir to contributehis studyof Scott. Yet it reconfirmsmy impressionof the novelist as a peripheralfigure within the inter-war revival. In spite of suchdifferences, Lewis GrassicGibbon's influenceon Scottishliterature in the 1930sis beyonddoubt. With the exceptionof A Dmnk Man Looks at the Thistle, A ScotsQuair is probablythe most influential work to havecome out of the Scottish Renaissance,for, in a mannerreminiscent of MacDiarmid's bestpoetry, Gibbon's trilogy combineda strongsense of Scottishnesswith a more universalquest for meaning.As in the caseof MacDiarmid,the key to the novelist's art was language.In 1935,Eric Linklater reflectedin "The Novel in ScotlanX': Whateverone may think of his politics, it may safelybe said that Gibbon was the only Scotswriter of his generationto daresuppose that playing football with the cosmoswas his chosenmission. But he was an audaciousperson. To invent a new proserhythm andwrite threefull- lengthnovels in it wasplumed and high-horsedaudacity-, and to comeso nearsuccess as he did was to demonstratethe geniusthat justified it. (Linklater 1935b:623-24)

A ScotsQuair was composedin the author'spersonal blend of StandardEnglish andthe Doric of his nativeNorth East.Prior to 1932,the Doric had beenused in the vernacular verseof CharlesMurray, Violet Jacoband , but sincethe publicationof William Alexander'sJohnny Gibb of Gusheutneukin 1871,no novelist had employed Scotsas his/herprimary vehicle,which madeGibbon the first to try out in prosewhat MacDiarmid had achievedin poetry.With SunsetSong, it would seem,Scotland had found a novelist who was readyto meetthe poet's challengeand, indirectly, hastenthe transformationof the Scottishnovel from nineteenth-centuryromance to twentieth- centurymodernism. The initial part of Gibbon's trilogy was met with enthusiasmby associatesof the ScottishRenaissance. "You havewritten what may well be the most important Scottishnovel sinceThe House with the GreenShutters. This is the real Scotlandat last", GeorgeMalcolm Thomsonwrote to the authorin August, 1932 (Munro 1966:74-75). Glasgow novelist JamesBarke called SunsetSong "the greatest Scottishbook in the Englishlanguage" in a letter that marksthe beginningof a friendshipthat lasteduntil Gibbon's death(Munro 1966:92). It is unlikely that Lewis GrassicGibbon would havehad suchinfluence on Scottish lettershad A ScotsQuair beeninteresting as a linguistic experimentonly. In additionto its stylistic concerns,the trilogy engagedwith issuesthat were centralto Scottishculture Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 125 in the 1920sand 1930s,including the generalrevaluation of Scottishgeography, history, literature andreligion that I consideredin my initial chapter(pp. 33-48).In termsof space,the authorlocated his narrativein a landscapethat was at oncefictional and ScotsQuair dramatised plausibleto a Scottishaudience in the thirties. As history,A the processof modernisationwhich over the pastdecades had transferredmost of the JohnGuthrie populationfrom a rural societyinto the city. Throughcharacters such as legacy, and RobertColquohoun, the novelist examinedScotland's Presbyterian whereas his conclusionto the preludeof SunsetSong underlined his ambition to departfrom the literary conventionsof Kailyard andanti-Kailyard alike: So that was Kinraddiethat bleakwinter of nineteeneleven and the new minister,him they choseearly next year,he was to sayit was the Scots countrysideitself, fatheredbetween a kailyard and a bonny brier bush in the lee of a housewith greenshutters. And what he meantby that you could guessat yourselfif you'd a mind for puzzlesand dirt, therewasn't a housewith greenshutters in the whole of Kinraddie.(Gibbon 1932/1995a:24)

Besidesthe trilogy, Gibbon's engagementwith Scottishmatters shows in partsof his

early fiction, the short storiesand essays of ScottishScene, as well as variouspolemics, is however, reviews andpublic letters.Such material supplementaryto A ScotsQuair, on which the author'sreputation as spokesmanfor the ScottishRenaissance rests. Even if A ScotsQuair assertedhis Scottishnessthrough such elements as language, history and geography,the writer had little patiencewith the political philosophybehind the inter-warrevival. "What a curseto the earthare small nations!" he declaredin the essay"Glasgow" in the beginningof an argumentthat broughthim to condemnrecent stateformations such as Finland, the Irish FreeState and Latvia (Gibbon/MacDiarmid 1934: 144-45).In spiteof suchanti-nationalist polemics, Renaissance colleagues Gunn ideas and MacDiarmidboth tried to accommodatehis within a nationalistframework. Gunn's 1938celebration of the Meamswriter, "Tradition andMagic in the Work of Lewis GrassicGibbon! ', claimedthat the author'screative practice, which Gunn interpretsas an exampleof cultural nationalism,underlined the inadequacyof Gibbon's ideologicalcosmopolitanism (Gunn 1938/1987a:102). MacDiarmid went a stepftulher in The CompanyI've Kept: not only had Gibbon eventuallycome around to ideas

reminiscentof MacDiarmid's ScottishRenaissance but "[in] politics too he gravitatedto Communismand became an out-and-outRepublican (MacDiarmid 1966:224). The Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 126 novelist had convertedtothe poet's Red Scotlandmanifesto, in otherwords, which is surprising,given that it was only launchedin the yearsfollowing Gibbon's death. Although I think that Gunnand MacDiarmid's efforts to readinto Gibbontheir personalphilosophies of nationalismand Scottishrepublicanism misrepresent the Mearnswriter's politics, thereis evidenceto suggestthat he was lesssecure in his ideologicalcommitment than the polemicalparts of "Glasgow" imply. In an early letter to MacDiarmid, datedon the twenty-firstof January,1933, he askedwhether or not the poet thoughtcommunism and nationalism were compatible(Gibbon 1933d).On a similar note,he confessedto Gunnin November,1934, that "I'm not really anti- Nationalist. But I loatheFascism and all the other dirty things that hide underthe name. I doubt if you can everhave Nationalism without Communism"(Gibbon 1934c). Gibbon's ambivalentfeelings about Scottish nationalism are demonstrated at the endof "Glasgow", which up to this point had beencritical of suchideas: I am a nationalistonly in the sensethat the saneHeptarchian was a Wessexmanor a Mercianor what not: temporarily,opportunistically. I think the Braid Scotsmay yet give lovely lights and shadowsnot only to English but to the perfectedspeech of CosmopolitanMan: so I cultivate it, for lack of that perfectspeech that is yet to be. I think there'sthe chancethat Scotland,especially in its Glasgow,in its bitter straiteningof the economicstruggle, may win to a freedompreparatory to, andin alignmentwith, that cosmopolitanfreedom, long beforeEngland: so, a cosmopolitanopportunist, I am somekind of Nationalist. (Gibbon/MacDiarmid1934: 146-47)

To someextent, the writer's ideologicalconfusion may be excusedon groundsof his youth or the incompletenature of his vision. Yet Lewis GrassicGibbon is not the only associateof the ScottishRenaissance who was unableto makeup his mind on the national question,as I shall return to in my discussionof Edwin Muir. I have structuredmy examinationof Gibbon aroundthe threeparts of A ScotsQuair becausethey arecentral to his reputationas a Renaissanceauthor. My initial section, Gibbon's focuses deconstruction, "Grassic art of community", on the construction,and of rural Scotlandin SunsetSong. The following part, which I havetitled "Betweenthe old Scotlandand a new", centreson CloudHowe, which I considerthe narrativemost clearly relatedto the Renaissancerevaluation of Scotland,and which as a result offers a bleakerportrait of Scottishlife than its companionvolumes. "Where tradition and modernitymeets"' examines Grey Granite,which takesthe story into an urban environmentthat may representthe writer's own present.In the courseof my argument, Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 127 I will refer to works publishedunder Gibbon's real nameof Leslie Mitchell, aswell as various short-stories,essays and polemics. Most of theseare peripheral to the Scottish Renaissance,however', which is why I havedecided to leavethem out of the main discussion

Grassic Gibbon's art of community: 1930-32 Among the first to recognisethe significanceof SunsetSong was GeorgeMalcolm Thomson,author of Caledoniaand otherbooks on Scottishaffairs. "If you havenot alreadydone so, gethold of a novel SunsetSong by L. G. Gibbon,whoever he or she may be", he advisedHelen B. Cruickshankin a 1932letter, then continued:"It seemsto me the pioneerof somethingnew andvery interestingin Scottishletters. Perhaps the first really Scottishnover' (asquoted in Munro Leslie Mitchell 1966:74). Thomson's words arerepresentative of the enthusiasmand curiosity,with which the emergenceof a new novelist was met in Scotland.I don't know who you are,though I haveseveral involving Donald Carswell in letter suspicions,all your sex"', wrote a personal to the novelist, which indicateshow puzzledGibbon's contemporarieswere by the identity of an authorthat seemedto havecome from nowhereto producea narrativemore consciouslyScottish than anythinghitherto attemptedby the novelistsof the Renaissance(Munro 1966:74). Yet the truth of the matterwas that Gibbonhad arrived at SunsetSong after a long developmentas ComptonMackenzie recognised in his Daily Mail review: I haveno hesitationin sayingthat SunsetSong, by Lewis GrassicGibbon, is the richestnovel aboutScottish life written for manyyears. Mr Gibbon is the fxst of our contemporaryScottish writers to usethe dialectwith Thereis internal he had hard sucheffect .... evidencethat alreadystruggled to requirea masteryof Englishprose before he venturedto approachhis presenttask. It is experiencewhich has given him the right to experiment.(as quoted in Munro 1966:75)

As Mackenzienotes, Gibbon's growth is most obviousin termsof language.As early as 1924,he had demonstratedhis stylistic awarenesswhen he openedthe short-story"Siva Playsthe Game"with ajuxtapositionof the rival vocabulariesof romanceand realism (Gibbon 1924/1967:190). The plot of the short-storycentres on the clashbetween life in an Arab village andthe way it hastraditionally beenconveyed to a Westernaudience by adventurewriters suchas Rider Haggard,and suchthematic concerns anticipate SunsetSong which insistson a morerealistic accountof rural Scotland.The narrative Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 128 concludeswith a letter in which the Orientalheroine gives away the ploy. In a linguistic sense,this letter is interestingbecause of the style which highlights De's lack of proficiency in English and,by so doing,underlines the communicationgap between the Arab and the Westernworld (Gibbon 1924/1967:196). At the sametime, it represents an early attemptby Gibbonto presentin writing a kind of speechthat is supposedly alien, colloquial andlower class.Six yearslater, he developedsuch techniques in his first novel StainedRadiance. The protagonistof the narrativeis TheaMayven, a peasant-bornScot who hasmoved to London.In the capital,she enters into a relationshipwith would-benovelist John Garland, and the combinedinfluence of Garlandand her un-Scottishsurroundings distance Thea from her Scottishorigins. The conflicting views of Thea,a modemwoman, and the Leekanpeasants, amongst whom shegrew up, arebrought home in chapterfive whereThea and Garlandvisit the north. At the stationthey arepicked up by Tbea'sfather, whose colloquialisms contrast with the StandardEnglish of the main narrative: Speakingto his daughter,his tonewas admonitoryand full of a shamed pride andamazement, for he was still, spite the passageof the years, uncertainas to whetherher conductin refusingto becomea bit servan lassiean milk kye an keepa man's house- na, na, shewad haenone o that, but maunlearn shorthan and siclike stuff andgae stravaigin awa to London- was decentand profitable, or not. (Gibbon 1930/1993:84-5)

Even when his intentionsare ironic asin the paragraphabove, Gibbon's occasionaluse of Scotsin the early fiction suggestsan awarenessof the potentialsof the vernacularas a prosevehicle. Hence he had alreadybeen experimenting with the Doric when he chose it as the medium for SunsetSong. On a similar note,there are parallels between the geographicaland historical landscapeof A ScotsQuair andthe Scottishsettings for Gibbon's early works. Temporarily,Stained Radiance brings Thea and Garlandback to the Meamsvillage of Leekan,a small farming communitythat in a geographicalsense occupies the same spaceas Kinraddie.Leekan is further exploredin the author'ssecond novel, The ThirteenthDisciple from 1931, which is partly autobiographical.The narrativefollows peasant-bomMalcom Maudslay'sgrowth into a modem-dayreformer. Before he can fully embracethe radicalideas of his age,Malcom must escapethe limitations of his Scottishbackground, and it is in this rendition of an isolated,backward community in the North Eastthat Gibbonapproaches the landscapeof SunsetSong. Like Kinraddie, Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35 129 Leekanis composedof small crofts,the Manseand the school,as well asprehistoric siteswhich play a symbolicrole reminiscentof the StandingStones of Blawearie.The village is placedbetween the North Seaand the Grampians,which, as the novelist argues,has left it in a marginalposition in relation to the rest of Scotland: LeekanValley is in Aberdeenshire,a cleft in the Gr=pians mountain- block, lying roughlyparallel with the North-Sea. The winter howling of that three-milesdistant sea must havebeen among the first soundsheard by Malcom. Thougha valley, Leekanis at a high elevation,except at the point wherea glacierhas torn down its easternwall in anxietyto provide a site for a fishing village. Neither Lowland nor Highland, it is a place without history,though the nationalhero of Scotland,Sir William Wallace( ), is havehidden in ... supposedto a yew-treenear the present manseduring the early daysof the rebellion againstthe southernaliens. (Gibbon 1931/1995c:3)

The geographicaldetails of this space,as well asthe tone in which it is evoked,bring to mind "The UnfurrowedField" of SunsetSong. The fictional landscapeof Kinraddiewas not new to the authorwhen he sat down to write SunsetSong, in otherwords, but was a settinghe had beendeveloping over a period. Even if StainedRadiance and The ThirteenthDisciple prove the novelist's previous awarenessof language,geography and history, Lewis GrassicGibbon changedhis approachto suchmaterial in SunsetSong. Where in the early narrativesLeekan Valley had primarily functionedas the backgroundagainst which the growth of Theaand Malcom was playedout, the communityof Kinraddie was at the centreof the 1932 novel. At the sametime, SunsetSong dramatised the recenthistory of Scotland,which had seena rural ordergive way to a modem,industrialised society, where the previous works had beenconcerned with the intellectualdevelopment of a few key figures.With SunsetSong, Gibbon shifted his attentionaway from abstracttheories of societyto his personalexperience of the rural North East,and nowhere is that as apparentas in his treatmentof history. Sincethe publication-of DouglasYoung's pioneerwork Beyondthe Sunsetin 1973,Gibbon has famously been associated with the anthropologicalschool of Diffusionism, which reacheda height during the inter-war years.The main spokesmen for this thesiswere GraftonElliot Smith, W. J. Perry andH. J. Massingham,who were connectedwith Ijbiversity College,London. In Beyondthe Sunset,Douglas Young sums up their ideason humanevolution as follows: The Diffusionists;believed that pruinitiveman lived in a kind of golden age.He was a hunterand food-gathererrather than a food-producer,a Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 130 nomadroaming the world in innocentcontentment. He had no laws to curb andconfine him andthere was no needfor them; in his pristine state manwas Idnd andgenerous and sociable. There was no governmental authorityfor no suchthing as a stateexisted prior to the emergenceof civilization. Therewas no religion andno externallyimposed moral code,no taboo,no senseof sin. And therewas peacein the world for war did not yet exist. (Young 1973:10)

Although non-fictionalworks suchas TheConquest ofthe Maya andNine Againstthe Unknown,as well asthe novelsThe ThirteenthDisciple, TheLost Trumpetand Image and Superscription,put Gibbon'ssympathy for Diffasionism beyonddoubt, I cannot acceptthe matter-of-factway in which Young placesall the author's writings within this ideological fi-ame.In SunsetSong, for example,a Diffasionist readingmay be questionedon a personal,a communaland a philosophicallevel. With reference'tothe protagonist,Douglas Young claimsthat the developmentof Chris Guthrie representsthe history of mankindmore generally."Her early stateof innocenceand happiness is destroyedby the encroachmentof civilizatioif', the critic points out, but he discardsthe fact that the narrativeeffectively starts with the removal of the Guthriesfrom Echt to Kinraddie,which is to saythat Chris missesout on the initial stateof harmony(Young 1973:95). On a communallevel, Kinraddie fits uncomfortablywithin a Diflasionist frame.Diffasionist theoryascribes the corruptionof humanityto the spreadof agriculturein the prehistoricera, and, indirectly, sucha theoreticalstance would make Gibbon's rural Scotlandsymptomatic of decline.Douglas Young baseshis argumenton the characterof JohnGuthrie, whose wretched mind is associatedwith the physicaland spiritual deteriorationthat in the Diffusionist view followed upon the dawn of history (Young 19.73:97). Kinraddieis alsohome to positive characterssuch as ChaeStrachan and Long Rob, however,and arguably Sunset Song is asmuch a celebrationof their strengthsas a condemnationof Guthrie'sweaknesses. As a vision of history, Sunset Songtranscends Diffasionism altogether.In the 1992essay "Letting the side down", Keith Dixon points out how to Elliot Smith andPerry, the Diffilsionist notion of a GoldenAge was appliedto the pastexclusively, where to Gibbon it representsthe future (Dixon 1992:280). Henceit is the erathat will come,not the epochthat haspassed, which RobertColquohoun celebrates in his closing sermon: Nothing, it has beensaid, is true but change,nothing abides,and here in Kinraddie wherewe watch the building ofthose little prides and those littlefOrtuneson the ruins of the littlefar7ns we mustgive heedthat these Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 131 also d*onot abide,that a newspirit shall cometo the land with the greater herd and thegreat machines.(Gibbon 1932/1995a:256)

SunsetSong's conclusion looks to a new Scotlandthat cannotbe accommodatedwithin the conservatismof the Diffusionist school.Where previous works suchas The ThirteenthDisciple rp and ThreeGo Back might havebeen intended as testinggrounds for Diffusionism, SunsetSong fictionalises the processof modernisation,which the author had himself witnessedas a child in the Mearns,and on which he realisedthe future would depend.As a result,Sunset Song is dynamicin a way that Diffusionist anthropologywas not. Intriguing as theyhave seemed to critics suchas Young, it was not Gibbon's ideason history asmuch asthe strengthof his imaginedcommunity that appealedto his Scottish contemporaries.One of the original ambitionsof the ScottishRenaissance was to producean imageof Scotlandthat would challengethe sentimentalismof nineteenth- centuryculture. Neil Gunnhad attemptedthat in The Grey Coastwhen he deriveda landscapefrom his native Caithness,which on the onehand countered the flawed imageryof Walter Scottand Fiona Macleo d, whilst, on the other,providing a symbolic setting for his narratives.With Kinraddie of SunsetSong, Gibbon went one stepfiuther: thoughclearly rootedin reality, Gunn'scommunities were entirely fictional, which is to saythey had little bearingupon real peopleand spaces.Gibbon's landscape,in contrast, drew upon factualelements to an extentthat is perhapsonly rivalled by Yoknapatawpha Countywhich William Faullmerhad inventedfor his novelsof the 1930s."The UnfurrowedField7, which opensSunset Song, places Kinraddie firmly on the map of Scotland.The locationof Kinraddie,Ian Campbellestablishes in his 1988essay "Lewis GrassicGibbon andthe Mearns",is identicalwith the spacethat in the real landscape was occupiedby the novelist's homevillage of Arbuthnott (Campbell 1988: 15). On a similar note,Thomas Crawford's notes to the Canongateedition of SunsetSong indicate to what extentthe eventsand figuresreferred to in the prelude,also featuredin the history of the Mearns.One example is DunnottarCastle, which brings Chris to reflect upon the tragic fate of the Covenanters;another is William Wallace,who had also appearedin The ThirteenthDLsciple (Gibbon 1932/1995a:125 and 2-3). In spite of such geographicaland historical verisimilitude, Gibbonhimself drew attentionto the fictionality of his landscape.In the essay"The Land7,he describedthe imaginative Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35 132 processthat enabledhim to reducehis native countryto the elementshe requiredas a settingfor art: Beyondthe contoursof Drumtochty,through the piping of that stillness, snipewere sounding.I got off my bicycle to listen to that and look round. So doing I was awareof a soberfact: that indeedall this was a little disappointing.I would neverapprehend its full darkly colourful beauty until I had goneback to England,far from it, down in the smooth pasturesof Hertfordshiresome night I would rememberit and itch to write of it, I would seeit without the unessentials- sweatand flies and that hideousgimcrack castle, nestling - (Good God, it evennestledo amongthe trees.I would seeit in simplicity then, evenas I would seethe peopleof the land. (Gibbon/MacDiarmid1934: 300)

Although restrainedin comparisonwith otherparts of ScottishScene, this paragraph offers one of the most illuminating commentson the author'screative practice. For, evenif Kinraddieis rootedin Arbuthnott,it is first and foremostan aspectof Gibbon's imagination,which is to saythat it makeslittle senseto comparethe fiction to the demographyof the real-life Mearns.In the 1978discussion "Lewis GrassicGibbon, A ScotsQuair andthe Peasantry",Ian Carterattempts that, only to be broughtto the conclusionthat Gibbonplays aroundwith the facts (Carter 1978: 173).Hence Kinraddie is shapedby a fusion of real places,authentic history and the novelist's personal recollections,but it is becauseof the mannerin which Gibbonputs his piecestogether that it comesacross as oneof the strongestinter-war imagesof Scotland. To the author'sachievement in termsof geographicaland historical verisimilitude shouldbe addedthe stylistic devicesthat allowedhis communityto speak.The most famousaspect of GrassicGibbon's art is his choiceof a literary languagederived from the Doric as that seemedto relateSunset Song to the linguistic politics of Hugh MacDiarmid. MacDiarmidhad publishedhis first Scotslyrics ten yearsprior to the appearanceof Gibbon'snovel, which could suggestthat it was his experimentationthat had inspiredthe novelist"suse of Scots.There is nothing amongthe Leslie Mitchell papersto supportsuch a claim, however,which is to say that Gibbon's choiceof a vernacularmedium for his fifth novel may havebeen motivated by other factors.With referenceto that it is interestingthat JamesJoyce's Wysseshad beenpublished in 1922, for the Irish novelist's developmentof aliterary vehicle from spokenrather than written idioms offers an alternativesource for the GrassicGibbon style.On the Scottishside, Gibbon may havebeen familiar with Nan Shepherd'sThe Quar7yWood which had appearedin 1928.Though less radical in approachthan MacDiarmid and Joyce, Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 133 Shepherdemployed the North Eastdialect in her narrative,and it is possiblethat her exampleinspired Gibbon to write in Scots.Whatever the reason,Gibbon was awarethat he was doing somethingunprecedented when in 1932he optedfor the Doric. In the note that introducesSunset Song, he justified his decisionin the following terms: If the greatDutch languagedisappeared from literary usageand a Dutchmanwrote in Germana story of the Leksidepeasants, one may hazardhe would ask andreceive a certainlatitude and forbearancein his usageof German.He might import into his pagessome score or so untranslatablewords andidioms - untranslatableexcept in their context and setting;he might mould in somefashion his Germanto the rhythms andcadence of the kindred speechthat his peasantsspeak. Beyond that, in fairnessto his hosts,he hardly could go: to seekeffect by a sprayof apostropheswould be both impertinenceand mis-translation. (Gibbon 1932/1995a:xiii)

The authorconcludes: "The courtesythat the hypotheticalDutchman might receivefrom Germana Scotmay invoke from the greatEnglish tongue" (Gibbon 1932/1995a:xiii). The final wordsunderline the statusof his literary Scotsas a mongrel,not a true representationof the Doric. It is a syntheticScots, which, in the words of Ian Campbell, enablesEnglish readers to "comprehendthe majority of the language,since intrusion is minimal", yet allows a Scottishaudience to benefit from "familiar sentence-patterns,or ambiguouswords suchas "brave' and 'childe' which meanone thing to a Scot,another to an Englishreader coming new to the prose" (CampbellLewis GrassicGibbon 1985a: 53). On top of that, thejoint effectsof a vernacularvehicle and the streamof consciousnesstechnique create the impressionof a communalnarrator. Certain sections of SunsetSong are clearly told from the point of view of protagonistChris Guthrie, othersby an anonymousvoice of Kinraddie,but ever so often, the two perspectives blend into one.The implicationsare two-fold. On the personallevel, it identifies Chris as a memberof her community,not the outsidershe becomes in Cloud Howe and Grey Granite,where the barriersbetween individual and societyare lesseasily overcome. In social terms,the mannerin which the different voices of the communitycome together, createsthe imageof a homogeneousworld whereco-operative forces prevail. As a narrativestrategy, the GrassicGibbon style thus reflects the innatecharacter of the societythat is depictedin the novel, whilst communicatingthrough language a Scottish senseof difference. In conclusion,it is necessaryto return to Lewis GrassicGibbon's history, for, althoughhis evocationof Kinraddieis probablythe principal strengthof the narrative, Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 134 SunsetSong portrays a world in transition.That the systemof small-holding,which constitutesthe economicfoundation of rural Scotland,is coming to its closeis emphasisedfrom the start.In "Ibe UnfurrowedField7, Gibbon describeshow the last of the Cospatriclairds hadtried to improvehis estatethrough land clearances:"on the clearedland he had biggersteadings built andhe let them at bigger rentsand longer leases"(Gibbon 1932/1995a:5). The laird's manoduvresare significanton two levels. On the onehand, they underlinethe transienceof Kinraddie.One of the characteristics of the nineteenth-centuryKailyard, Edwin Muir noticedin ScottishJourney, was the escapeto "Scotland'spast, to a countrywhich had existedbefore Industrialisni"(Muir 1935/1985:67-8). The Kailyard was set in a Scottishlandscape, in otherwords, which appearedto havestepped out of time, andwhich might consequentlyoffer a myth of endurance.By stressingthe dynamicaspects of Kinraddie,Gibbon defiesthat myth of timelessness.Although Chris seeksa vision of permanenceto place againstthe rapid flow of history, the only reality that is left at the endis change,which leavesno room for Kailyard nostalgia.Within the socio-historicalframe of SunsetSong, on the other hand,the laird's clearancesmark the beginningof a transformationfrom the old system of small-holdingto the rising orderof capitalist-fanning."As the son of a tenantfarmer in Kincardineshire",David Craig observesin "Novels of PeasantCrisis", "(Gibbon] was placedto write the final account- in British literature- of a peoplewhose place of work and working-teamwas. one andthe sameas their own homesand families" (D. Craig 1974:5 1). The first characterto realisethe impact of sucha processis John Guthrie.In lorilling7, Guthrie's encounterwith the maliciousgossip of Kinraddie leadshim to the following reflections: Now also it grewplain to him hereas never in Echt that the day of the crofter was fell nearfinished, put by, the day of folk like himself and Chaeand Cuddiestoun,Pooty andLong Rob of the Mill, the last of the farming folk that wrung their living from the land with their own bare hands.Sign of the timeshe saw JeanGuthrie's killing of herselfto shame him andmake of his namea by-word in the mouthsof his neighbours, sign of a time whenwomen would take their own lives or flaunt their harlotriesas theypleased, with the country-folk climbing on silver, the few, back in the pit, the many-,and a darknessdown on the land he loved better thanhis soul or God. (Gibbon 1932/1995a:75-6)

Though Guthrie'sbigotry undermineshis reliability as a witness,his predictionsreveal the author's ambivalentfeelings about modernisation. The rise of large-scalefarming at the expenseof crofterssuch as Guthrieis a negativedevelopment. Sunset Song's Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35 135 positive figuressuch as ChaeStrachan, Long Rob and Chris's first husbandEwan are associatedwith crofting, but they areremoved by the 1914-18war, which, in additionto killing off the peasantry,provides conditions favourable to a capitalisttake-over. As a result, big-scaleproducers such as Ellison andthe Sinclairsthrive, while the rest of Kinraddie is wasted.On the positive side,the transitionmay put an endto the narrow- mindednessthat had causedGuthrie's suppression of his family. Similarly, it might reform the behaviourof certainmembers of the community,whose malicious gossip and beastlyways hardly live up to the standardsof a Kailyard idyll. In spite of the co- operativeand egalitarian tendencies of rural Scotland,which arebrought home by the sectionin SunsetSong where all Kinraddiemeets in an effort to savePeesie's Knapp from fire, thereare other aspects of that societywhich areless than ideal. Whetherfor goodor bad,the agriculturallandscape of Kinraddie occupiesa temporarystage within GrassicGibbon's Scottish history. "(When] I reador hearour new leadersand their plansfor maldngof Scotlanda greatpeasant-nation, a land of little farms and little fanning communities," the authordeclares in 'The Lanx', "I am moved to a bored disgustwith thosepseudo-literary romantics playing with politics" (Gibbon/MacDiarmid1934: 295). Gibboncontinues: They arepromising the New Scotlanda purgatorythat would decimateit. They arepromising it narrownessand bitterness and heart-breaking toil in one of the mostunkindly agriculturallands in the world. They are promisingto makeof a young,ricketic man,with the phthisis of Glasgow in his throat, a bewilderedlabourer in pelting ramsand the flaresof head- achingsuns, they arepromising him yearsof a murderousmonotony, poverty and struggleand loss of happyhuman relationships. They promisethat of which they know nothing,except through sipping of the scumof Kailyard romance.(Gibbon/MacDiannid 1934: 29S)

Even if suchdenunciation of rural life readssomewhat unconvincingly within an essay that celebratesthe countryside,it servesas a warning to the readerof SunsetSong. In spite of the elegiactone of the sermonthat concludesGibbon's narrative, Colquohoun's commemorationof the peasantryshould not be misreadfor nostalgia-SunsetSong is set within a closedhistorical epoch,which meansthere can be no going back to the orderit portrays.Kinraddie's War Memorial carriesthe namesof Chae,Long Rob and Ewan; the crofts of Peesie'sKnapp, the Mill andBlawearie are abandoned,whilst the oldest inhabitantof the community,Pooty, has been taken to an asylum.A final survivor remainsin Chris, but not for long..The new minister, RobertColquohoun, will takeher Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 136 out of Kinraddie andinto the burgh of Segget,which, on a figurative level, reflectsthe ongoingmodernisation. The old Scotlandis deadat the end of SunsetSong, whereas a new vision hasyet to emerge.

Between the old Scotland and a new: Cloud Howe With his 1933sequel to SunsetSong, Lewis GrassicGibbon moved closerto the situation of his contemporaryScotland. Geographically, Cloud Howe is set in the burgh of Segget,which representsa transitoryphase between country and city and therefore brings togetherthe rival systemsof agricuitýreand industrialism.In termsof chronology,the narrativefollows the developmentof Scotlandfrom the end of World War One to the late 1920s.During thoseyears, it becameincreasingly clear that economicconditions were deteriorating,whereas the political priorities shifted from nationalreconstruction to classwar. The crucial eventof the 1920swas the 1926 GeneralStrike, which occupiesa centralposition in Cloud Howe as well as in other Renaissanceworks suchas Hugh MacDiarmid'sA Drunk Man Looks at the 71istle.On the role of the strike to writers of Gibbons' generation,Samuel Hynes observes in A WarImagined. (The] comparison is to a war-,but this one is apolitical war. The political Thirties may be said to have begun here, for this generation at least. And with the intrusion of politics, and especially of left-wing politics, into the intellectual lives of the young, Modernism changed direction, and became something else -a literature of engagementthat faced forward, towards the next world war. (Hynes 1992: 422)

Within the contextof the Scottishrevival, CloudHowe is centralon two accounts:on the one hand,it is the part of Gibbon'strilogy that is most easily accommodatedwithin the generalRenaissance re-cxamination of the Scottishscene. On the other, it reflectsa growing concernwith politics, which will eventuallyplace the authorin an ambiguous position in relation to the Scottishmovement. With regardto the former, the reader shouldnote the dedicationof CloudHowe to GeorgeMalcolm Thomson.As the quotationwhich introducedmy analysisof SunsetSong reveals (p. 127),the j ournalist had beenamong the early respondentsto the first part of A ScotsQuair, and from such enthusiasm,a friendshipevolved between the novelist andThomson, which could explain Gibbon's gesture.Yet theremight be more to it thanthat. Even if his efforts were overshadowedby the achievementof creativewriters suchas MacDiarmid, Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 137 Thomsonwas a key figure on the Scottishscene in the 1930s.Politically, he was one of the foundingmembers of the ScottishParty, which challengedthe supremacyof the National Party in the early 1930s.As Alistair McCleerydiscusses in"The Porpoise Press 1922-26",Thomson was alsoinvolved with the establishmentof a Scottish independentpress, which would print the early work of Neil Gunn,among others (McCleery 1985a).Thomson's main contributionto the Renaissancewas his publication of such"studies" of Scotlandas Caledoniaor TheFuture of the Scots(1927) and ScotlandThat Distressed Area (1935), however.These books claimedto provide a neutral surveyof the political, economicand social stateof the nation at a time of crisis, althoughThomson's figures only too easilyled him towardsa nationalistconclusion. Gibbon's awarenessof suchwork is beyonddoubt for he refersto the authorof Caledoniain a 1929letter to AlexariderGray (Gibbon 1929:4). In the light of that, I will arguefor a connectionbetween Cloud Howe, which examinesthe stateof small- town Scotlandin the 1920s,and the "Condition of Scotland!' genre,which suggeststhat Gibbon's dedicationwas intendedto draw attentionto the narrativeas part of the Renaissanceprogramme of revaluation. If in a thematicsense Cloud Howe reflectsone of the predominantRenaissance structures, Gibb on's ideological beliefs differ from those of his fellow-Scots. In , Scotland That Distressed Area, Thomson's analysis brought him to a vision that, not surprisingly, expressedthe nationalism of the . In contrast, Gibbon wanted his fiction to prepare the ground for communism as he admitted in a 1933 letter to James Barke: by Cloud by Day hadbeen used anotherof my publisher'sauthors - damnedimpudence, wasn't it? So I cloudedthe Howe instead.Don't think the Englishshould have much difficulty in pronouncingit. It's a muchbetter book than SunstrokeSong -a fact confirmedby the preliminaryrumbles of disapprobationI hear all aroundme from Burnsiansand Scots ministers who lappedup vol. 1... Seriously,I think it suffersa bit from the necessityto demolishso many superstitionsin order to clearthe way for the blatantcommunism of Grey Granite. (Gibbon 1933c)

Although the Barke letter indicatesthat Gibbonwas confidentenough in his communismto plan his entiretrilogy as a gradualprogress towards that ideal, the fiction suggestshe was lesssecure in practice.Image and Superscription,which cameout prior to Cloud Howe, measuredreligious fundamentalismagainst an odd blend of Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 138 Diffusionist, anarchistand communist theory, but it failed to convince.Meanwhile, Cloud Howe,which wasmeant to revealthe inadequacyof Labourism,conservatism and Christianityas solutionsto Scotland'scrisis, pointedto no alternative.As a result, the authorleft his readersin an ideologicalvacuum that could be ascribedto the clash betweenidealism and realism, commitment and doubt,which characterisesso muchof his writing. Like SunsetSong, Cloud Howe attemptsto channelthe Scottishexperience through a single community.In termsof socialhistory, Seggetrepresents a more modemtype of societythan Kinraddie, which is to sayit has fully embracedthe principlesof capitalism and industrialismthat were only beginningto makean impact on rural Scotlandin the previousnarrative. The openingchapter implies that the writer wantedSegget to equal Kinraddie as an imaginedworld. In the mannerof "The UnfurrowedFielV, the prologueof CloudHowe tries to definea placefor the burgh in the history and geographyof Gibbon'sfictional Meams.An initial descriptionof the landscapeis followed by an accountof the past,which explainsthe growth of Seggetfrom the Middle Agesto the narrativepresent. Cloud Howe's "Proem" is shorterthan the prelude of SunsetSong, which is dueto the absenceof the map of Kinraddie that concluded "The UnfurrowedField". Wherein SunsetSong, Gibbon would thus placeevery one of his characterswithin the community,the populationof Seggetis not examinedin any greatdetail, which is perhapsinevitable, given the size of the burgh. On a symbolic level, the lack of detailsreflects the natureof the small-town.Whereas Kinraddie was presentedas a relativelyhomogeneous society, Segget is portrayedas a divided world, which would makethe townsfolk lessfamiliar with their neighbours.The only knowledgethe Seggetvoice seemsto accessis the lessthan ideal behaviourof certain representativesof the burgh, and althoughthat may provide a basisfor the comic interludesthat occasionallyinterrupt the main flow of the narrative,it cannotcreate an imageof Seggetthat matchesKinraddie. Gibbon's history of Seggetis dominatedby internal disunity. The beginningof such fragmentationis datedto the arrival of industrialismin the burgh,which, in additionto a new economicsystem, introduced new machinery,new inhabitantsand the first symptomsof classwar: (The]jute tradeboomed, the railway came,the two jute mills came, standingout from the stationa bit, southof the toun, with the bum for power.The Seggetfolk wouldn't look at the things,the Mowats had to Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 139 go to Bervie for spinners,and a tink-like lot of the creaturescame and crowdedthe place,and danced and fought, raisedhell's delight, and Seggetlooked on as a manwould look on a swarmof lice; and folk of the oldenbreed moved out, andbuilded them housesup and down the EastWynd, andcalled it New Toun and spokeof the dirt that swarmedin Old Toun, round aboutthe West Wynd. (Gibbon 1933/1995a:6)

By the 1920s,the processof disintegrationhas been completed. Politically, the spinners are socialists,whereas the Seggetestablishment remains conservative in orientation. Economically,the working-classis the first group to be touchedby the Depression, which causesthe closureof the mills andthus unemployment,where it is only at a relatively late stagethat falling tradefigures convince the middle-classthat all is not right. In termsof socialcircumstances, the Old Toun dwellerssuffer from poverty, malnutrition and disease,from all of which the New Toun is exempt.To that, Gibbon's narrativetechnique adds a senseof spiritual dissociation.The languageof the narrative, for instance,points to a failure of communication.Where all Kinraddie spokein the samevernacular idiom, the dialoguenow shifts betweendense Scots, Anglo-Scots, StandardEnglish andlaird Mowat's parodicpublic schoolaccent, which increasesthe reader'simpression of disunity.As regardsnarrative perspective, the Seggetvoices are individualisedand competitivewhere in SunsetSong Chris and Kinraddie had blended into one another.Within the openingpages of "Stratus", the readerencounters the points of view of Chris, her sonEwan as well as variousSegget burghers, and while thesemay complementeach other, they neverbecome one (Gibbon 1933/1995a:109M). Into a disunitedSegget arrives at the beginningof the narrativeChris Guthrie andher secondhusband Robert Colquohoun. The importanceof Colquohounto the trilogy was alreadyimplied in SunsetSong where, as the new minister of Kinraddie,he preachedthe sermonthat, on a figurative level, closedthe ageof the peasantry.Mere the 1932novel told the storiesof Chris andKinraddie, however, Cloud Howe is concernedwith her husbandand his struggleto reform Segget.As a character,William Malcolm observes in A Blasphemerand Reformer,Colquohoun is "both 'the comradeof God... and "a go- aheadbilly" (Malcolm 1984:145). Malcolm continues: (His] sincerehumanitarianism transmutes on a political level into a fairly radical form of ChristianSocialism, as his Armistice Day sermonin "Cumulus" prophesyingmanldnd's heroic recoveryfrom the carnageof the war demonstrates.Cloud Howe follows Robert's questto put his political idealsinto practicaloperation, and as the spinnersemerge as the most sociallyrepressed body within Segget,and alsothe most politically Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35 140

active andaware, at the end of "Cumulus" his political hopes,to the dismay, of the local bourgeoisie,inevitably cometo rest on them. (Malcohn 1984:145)

As a representativeof the Kirký Colquohounreflects the positive aspectsof Calvinism, which is interestingin the light of the generalRenaissance denunciation of Presbyterianism.In "The Antique Scene",Gibbon had praisedthe heroic efforts of churchradicals such as John Knox andthe Covenanters,however, who in their time had daredchallenge the statusquo, andhe would probablyplace the Seggetminister within the samecategory (Gibbon/MacDiarmid 1934: 30-33). In termsof class,the minister belongsto the establishment,but his sympathylies with the spinners,which is to say that he tries to spanthe communaldivide. Yet his hopesfor a reformedsociety, which are derivedfrom his combinedvalues of Christianityand socialism,founder on his failure to communicate.In the midst of a Scots-speakingworld, Colquohounstands aloof as a speakerof StandardEnglish, which underlineshis inability to enterinto a dialoguewith the factionsof Segget.Accordingly, the middle-classcomplains about the socialismthey hearin his sermonsbecause it compromisestheir socialposition, while the spinnersname the minister"Creeping Jesus", as if to imply that he substitutes religion for socialjustice (Gibbon 1933/1995a:174). The developmentsof minister andtown cometogether in "Stratus", in which the 1926General Strike hits Segget.In preparationfor confrontation,the burgh splits into two parties.The spinnerssupport the action of the minersbecause they hopeit might force the politicians to recognisetheir difficult position. Their radicalismis justified on the groundsof their dismalsituation, but insteadof a campaignfor necessarychange, it inspirestheir frustratedploy to blow up the railway bridge. Encouragedby the laird, the Seggetestablishment, on the otherhand, is determinedto suppressthe workers.The aim of their militancy is to maintainthe statusquo, which in the long run is no more constructive.A small groupof outsidersconsists of Chris, Colquohoun,Ake Ogilvie and the tradeunionist Jock Cronin. They want to push throughnegotiations, but are punishedfor their effort. When the Strike collapses,it is thus Colquohounand Cronin, not the bourgeoisie,that the spinnersturn against: The spinnersand station folk wouldn't believe it when the newscame throughthat the Strike was ended,they said the newswas just a damned lie Synethey heardhow the leadershad beenfeared thejail, .... of and the whole thing just fell to smithereensin Segget. Some spinners that night went down the WestWynd andbashed in the windows of the Cronin Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 141 house,and set out in a birn to cometo the Manse,they saidthe minister had eggedthem on, him safeand soundin his own damnedjob, and they'd do to the Manseas they'd doneto the Cronins.(Gibbon 1933/1995a:155)

Onceagain, the misunderstandingis due to a communicationerror betweenthe minister, the spinnersand Segget as a whole. Colquohounmay hold the right ideasfor Segget, and Scotland,in otherwords, but againand againhe provesincapable of turninghis words into action. As an exampleof ScottishRenaissance writing, CloudHowe offers Gibbon'smost accuratecommentary on the stateof the nation andits leaders.I previouslyattempted to placethe work in relationto the "'Conditionof Scotland!' genre, and in conclusionI want to return to that theme.As an imageof Scotland,Segget works betterthan the alternativesof countryand city, for, althoughit representsa transitorystage in the processthat is moving the Scotsfrom rural Kinraddie to urbanDuncairn, it accommodatesmore aspectsof Scottishlife than any other spacein the trilogy. The farm of Meiklebogscoexists with the railway and the mill; the old aristocracyconfronts a rising proletariat;the ideasdiscussed range from the old-fashionedoutlook of the Seggetconservatives to relativelyrecent beliefs suchas Colquohoun'ssocialism and Mowat's fascism.In consequence,Segget contains the old Scotlandas well asthe symptomsof a new, which makesit possibleto readit as a Scotlandin microcosm.If on a symboliclevel, Seggetspeaks for the nation,it is a Scotlandthat is in a very bad way. Politically, the town suffersfrom the polarisation,which in the 1930swould drive the proletariattowards communism, the middle-classto the extremeright. Economically, the mill closureis symptomaticof the generaldepression that sincethe early 1920shad causeda declinein production,a rise in unemploymentand a loss of faith in the capacity of Scottishindustry. As regardsthe social situation,a comparisonbetween Gibbon's narrativeand Edwin Muir's ScottishJourney, which in a senseprovides the factual companionto CloudHowe's fiction, underlinesthat poverty,malnutrition andill health were the reality of inter-warScotland. In places,Gibbon seemsalmost hysterical in his emphasison the plights of the workers,but Muir's accountof Glasgowis equallybleak. Hencethere might havebeen a factualbasis for Gibbon's fiction, which would justify his condemnationof Seggetas the town shouldhave actedupon the economicand social deterioration.Because of the community'sfailure to respond,conditions degenerate to sucha degreethat only a revolutionmight resolvethe situationat the end.In his last Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 . 142 sermon,the ministercalls for "a stark; sure creedthat will cut like a knife,a surgeon"s knife throughthe doubtand disease",which points to the communismof Grey Granite (Gibbon 1933/1995a:210). Even if Colquohoun'sfinal words anticipatethe ideologicalconcerns of Grey Granite, CloudHowe is aboutthe failure of Gibbon's contemporariesto find a solution for Scotland,not the author'svision of a new. Parallelto the declineof Segget,the narrativedramatises the fall of the minister,who, as a would-bereformer, represents one of Scotland'sflawed leaders.Immediately upon his arrival in Segget,Colquohoun recognisesthe needfor reform if the town is to survive.He appealsto spinnersand burghersalike in an attemptto makethem co-operate,but he cannotovercome the communicationbarriers within his parish,which suggeststhat his ideasare inadequate. Though essentiallya sympatheticcharacter, he becomesincreasingly frustrated by the way his idealismis discardedby an insensitivecongregation. Slowly, his physicaland mental healthdeclines until he is defeatedby the failure of the GeneralStrike. At that climatic moment,Colquohoun learns about the plights of the aptly-namedKindness family in what readsas the most sentimentalepisode in the trilogy. The Kindnesseshave beenevicted from their homeas a direct result of the economiccrisis. As they haveno- one to turn to, they spendthe night in an abandonedpig-sty wheretheir babyis attacked by rats. Whenhe hearsabout their fate, the minister invites the family to stayat the Manseuntil they havefound a homeelsewhere. Ironically, the legacyof that visit is the angerthat provokesColquohoun's final judgementon Segget, as well asthe diseasethat brings him down:

The Kindnesseshad goneto friendsin Dundon,and left no relic but a snow-happedgrave, and this coughthat Roberthad got in his throat,and that memorythat woke you, sick in the night, of the rats,that fed on a baby's flesh.And menhad believedin a God and a Christ, men had believedin the kindnessof men,men had believedthat this order enduredbecause of its truth andits justice to men. (Gibbon 1933/1995a: 204)

In addition to Colquohoun,whose Christian socialism is the most carefullyimagined vision for Scotland,the othercandidates for leadershipare the mill-owning laird Mowat and Jock Cronin of the Labourmovement. Throughout the novel, Mowat is presentedas an unsympatheticcharacter, whose fascist views offer no hopefor the nation. ,I)iscipline, order,hierarchy", he declaresafter his homecoming,but it is his mismanagementof the mill that brings the communityto its ruin (Gibbon 1933/1995a: Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 143 107). The portrait of Cronin is more ambivalent:as a trade-unionist,he is associated with left-wing policiesthat arepreferable to Mowat's ideas.Yet he speaksfor Labour, which accordingto the novelist,had compromisedtheir radicalismin exchangefor political gain in the 1926General Strike. "Ibe LabourMovement may win againto shadowytriumphs", Gibbon writes in his ScottishScene portrait of RamsayMacDonald: "but the spirit, the faith andthe hopehave gone from if' (Gibbon/MacDiarmid1934: 107-8). The conclusionto CloudHowe offers little hope for the divided world of Segget.The deathof the ministerhas deprived the communityof its spiritual leader,whereas the closureof the mill underminesthe economicbasis of the community.Meanwhile, an alternativevision for Scotlandhas not emerged,which is to saythat the readeris left in an ideologicalvacuum. In the concludingparagraph, Chris looks down upon the town of Segget: Then that had finished;she went slow down the brae,only oncelooked back at the frown of the hills, andcaught her breathat that sight they held, seeingthem bare of their cloudsfor once,the pillars of mist that aye crownedtheir heights,all but a faint wisp vanishingsouth, and the bare, still rocks upturnedto the sky. (Gibbon 1933/1995a:212)

In comparisonwith the epiludeof SunsetSong, the tone is strangelypassive. On a personallevel, that maybe explainedwith referenceto Chris's defianceof all ideologicalcommitments. Within the contextof the presentdiscussion, however, such passivity underlinesthe inadequacyof Seggetto provide the basisfor a new vision. In consequence,Gibbon has to abandonold Scotlandaltogether in order to approacha myth of nationalregeneration.

Grey Granite: Where tradition and modernity meet After the publicationof CloudHowe in 1933, Lewis GrassicGibbon's views on Scottish culture andpolitics becameincreasingly pronounced. His frequentreviews of Scottish fiction in the left-wing periodical 77zeFree Man enabledhim to express his opinionson fellow-writers suchas Gunn andJames Barke, whereas his role as editor of the Voiceof Scotlandbooks gavehim a sayover who andwhat was includedin that seminalseries. The clearestindication of his beliefs emergesfrom ScottishScene, however, which in addition to a numberof short-storiescontained essays by Gibbon on history, the land, Glasgow,Aberdeen, religion, literatureand the "Wrecker", JamesRamsay MacDonald. Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35 144

Notorious amongthese is the following extractfrom "Glasgow", wherethe author stressesthe insignificanceof art in comparisonwith urbandestitution: Thereis nothingin cultureor art that is worth the life and elementary happinessof oneof thosethousands who rot in the Glasgowslums. There is nothing in scienceor religion. If it came(as it may come)to some fantasticchoice between a free andindependent Scotland, a centreof culture,a bright flameof artistic and scientific achievement,and providing elementarydecencies of food and shelterto the submerged proletariatof Glasgowand Scotland,I at leastwould haveno doubt as to which sideof the battleI would rangemyself. For the cleansingof that horror, if cleanseit they could, I would welcomethe English in suzeraintyover Scotlandtill the end of time (Gibbon/MacDiarmid1934: 140-41)

In a 1946article on Gibbon,Hugh MacDiarmid characterisedthis declarationas a "purple passageof emotionalhumanism - the very antithesisof the way in which these evils can everbe overcome"(MacDiarmid 1946/1968b: 161). MacDiarmid's dismissal is probablyto be expected.Not only did Gibbon challengethe relevanceof the arts to a depression-riddennation, which to the poet was neverin doubt,but "Glasgow" questionedthe worth of Scotlanditself andthus the nationalistphilosophy of MacDiarmid. It wasNeil Gunn,who raisedthe most seriousobjection to the Mearns writer's thinking, however.Gibbon had insufficient faith in Scotland,Gunn observedin the 1938piece "Tradition andMagic in the Work of Lewis GrassicGibbon", then continued:"If a Scotis going to help the world towardsSocialism, then the place for him is Glasgowor Dundee;if towardsCosmopolism, then still Glasgowor Dundee;if towardssome still finer conception,yet againhis native heath" (Gunn 1938/1987a: 102).In short,the problemwith Gibbon'spolitics was his insistenceon an internationalistsolution where most of his Renaissanceassociates thought it necessary to begin closerto home. If in an ideologicalsense, his communismmade him unableto seebeyond internationalism,Gibbon was equallyuncompromising in his argumentfor linguistic nationalism.In "Literary Lights" he wrote: To be oneselfa provincialor analien and to write a bookin whichthe charactersinfect one's literary medium with a tinctureof dialectis not to in assist thecreation or continuationof a separatenational literature - elseEden Philpotts; proves the great, un-English soul of Dartmoorand Tennysonin TheNorthern Farmer was advocating Home Rule for Yorkshire.The chief Literary Lights which modem Scotland claims to light up thescene of hernight are in realityno morethan the Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 145 commendablewriters of the interestingEnglish county of Scotshire. (Gibbon/MacDiarmid1934: 199)

This controversialdefinition of Scottishliterature invites severalobjections. First of all, the authorignores the linguistic pluralismthat had characterisedthe Scottishtradition throughoutits history.Scots had alwaysemployed the alternativemedia of Scots, English and Gaelic,yet, like the contemporarycriticism of Muir andMacDiannid", "Literary Lights" suggeststhat was to changein the 1930s.At the sametime, Gibbon's practicecompromises his theory.In SunsetSong he had describedhis narrativestyle as a blend of Doric andEnglish, whereas Gay Hunter, which appearedafter ScottishScene, was composedentirely in English.A final issuerefers back to the generalproblem of nationalism.In "Glasgow"the writer had claimedthat the preservationof Scottish literature andlanguage was not worth the sufferingof a single Glasgowworker, and in the light of that, it is strangethat Scotshas become all-important in "Literary Lights". There is a growing divide betweenpolitical internationalismand creativenationalism within the novelist'svision, in otherwords, which implies an elementof ideological confusion. In spite of the contrarysignals sent out by ScottishScene, there is little doubt as to wherethe novelist was heading with A ScotsQuair. I previouslyquoted the 1933letter to Barke,in whichGibbon claims that the first volumeswere to preparethe ground for communism(p. 13 7), andthis is substantiatedby Spartacus,which came out between CloudHowe and Grey Granite. As ananticipation of GreyGranite, the historical fiction of Spartacusis importantfor its portrayalof the slaveleader as well asfor its emphasis on a lack of compromise.With referenceto thefirst, thereare significant differences betweenthe character of CloudHowe's flawed leader Robert Colquohoun and Spartacus.The minister's ideas for Seggetwere just, but he failedto enterinto a constructivedialogue with thefactions within his community,which is to saythat he did not providea foundationthat was solid enough to supporta neworder. Spartacus, in contrast,is a manof thepeople. "Here the cry of horrormerges with the agonyof love, asSpartacus becomes the slave-horde", Douglas Gifford observesin Gunnand Gibbon in orderto concludethat the slave general belongs in the samecategory as fellow-martyr christ (Gifford 1983:68-9). One cannot affect change from the detached position of the pulpit, Gibbonseems to suggest,and Colquohoun therefore has to makeway for a more popularleader. In termsof strategy,Spartacus establishes the need for revolutionrather Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 146 than reform. In CloudHowe the disastrousbreak-down of the GeneralStrike had shown the consequenceswhen the Labourmovement traded off its radicalismfor political gain. On a similar note,Spartacus hesitates when confrontedwith the splendourof Rome, which, indirectly, leadsto the withdrawal,defeat and crucifixion of the slaves. Accordingly, thereare two lessonsto be learnedfor the leaderof Gibbon's new Scotland.He would haveto be popularbecause that is the only way to overcomethe communicationgap that broughtdown RobertColquohoun. In addition,he mustbe ruthlessfor his oppositionwould be merciless.To borrow MacDiarmid's expression, there was no room for "emotionalhumanitarianism! ' as Gibbonturned to Grey Granite in an attemptto producea vision that was at oncecontemporary, regenerative and communist. As the conclusionto the author'sfictional ,Grey Graniteworks on severallevels. In termsof space,the city of Duncaim,marks the end of the processof urbanisationthat had broughtthe majority of Scotsinto an industrial environment. Chronologically,the narrativepicks up at the point in the late 1920s,where Cloud Howe ended,and follows the story of modemScotland through to the novelist's own present. As regardsstyle, Gibbonrecognised that Grey Granite representedhis greatest challengeso far. In "Literary Lights" he writes: (Gibbon's] sceneso far hasbeen a comparativelyuncrowded and simple one- the countrysideand village of modem Scotland.Whether his techniqueis adequateto compassand expressthe life of an industrialized Scotstown in all its complexityis yet to be demonstrated;whether his peculiarstyle may not becomeeither intolerably mannered or degenerate, in the fashionof Joyce,into the unfortimateunintelligibilities of a literary secondchildhood, is alsoin question.(Gibbon/MacDiannid 1934: 205)

The referenceto Joyceis interesting,for, accordingto EmerNolan's JamesJoyce and Nationalism,the Irish modernisthad allowedhis Dublin to "define" itself through gossip,slang and story-telling(Nolan 1995:87). Gibbon hadused similar devicesin the initial parts of his Scotstrilogy wherethe communalvoice of SunsetSong and the comic interludesof Cloud Howe evokedthe natureof Kinraddie and Segget.As I discussed above(p. 139),the narrativevoices became increasingly competitive and individualised in Cloud Howe,however, which implies that the homogeneityof the old Scotlandwas breakingdown. That trendcontinues in Grey Granite wherethe story dissolvesinto paragraphstold from the contrastingperspectives of the press,police, provost,workers, Ma Cleghornand Ewan, among others. Such fragmentation has two implicationsfor our Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35 147 reading of Duncairn.On onelevel, the disintegrationof narrativestructure reflects a societywhere communication across political, social and economicboundaries is no longer possible,and that themepicks up from Cloud Howe where Gibbonhad used similar meansto conveythe disunity of Segget.A secondand more wide-ranging interpretationreads the dissolutionof narrativeas a representationof the impact of modernisation.With modernitycomes a growing individualism, which againmeans an emphasis'onthe singlehuman being rather than a collectivevision of society.As in the initial partsof A ScotsQuair, Lewis GrassicGibbon enlistsnarrative devices in orderto communicatethe natureof Duncairn,which makesthe stylistic achievementin Grey Granite rival that of his earlierwork. With regardto the "Condition of Scotland"theme, the concludingpart of Gibbon's trilogy readsless convincingly. A key elementof the Renaissanceliterature, Edmund Stegmaiernoted in the passagefrom "'Facts' and 'Vision' in ScottishWriting of the 1920sand 193Os" which I quotedin part one (p. 36), was the visionary aspectthat enabledGeorge Malcolm Thomsonto turn his depressingaccount of contemporary Scotlandin ScotlandThat Distressed Area into an emphaticstatement of faith in the Scottishnation. A similar conclusionmight be expectedfrom a writer, who in Cloud Howe had provideda surveyof the political, economicand social situationin Scotland. If thereis hopeat the endof A ScotsQuair, however,it is an optimism unconnected with Scotland.Such absence of a nationalidea of regenerationmay be interpretedin the light of the conflict betweenpolitical internationalismand creativenationalism which had inspiredthe inconsistenciesof Gibbon's essaysin ScottishScene. In Lewis Grassic Gibbon,Ian Campbellobserves with specialreference to the languageissue: Lewis GrassicGibbon is herewriting on the edgesof a large and importantcontroversy. On the onehand, he seesthe past of his country as a long-continueddilution anddiminution of distinctive andworthy characteristics,and the importanceof struggleby the surviving Scotsto define a Scottishnessworthy of the new era. On the other hand,Gibbon firmly rejectsthe nationalismof his day and views SyntheticScots with only cautiousapproval. (Campbell 1985: 5 1)

If appliedto A ScotsQuair, Campbell's contraposition of thenovelist's culture and politicsallows the reader to marginalisethe ideological dimension that makes Gibbon sohard to accommodatewithin a Renaissanceethos. After all, it is thelast survivor of the old Scotland,Chris, not hercommunist son Ewan, who brings the narrative to its close,which could suggest that the author's Scottishness finally triumphsover his Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35 148 ideology. Sucha readingis difficult to sustainwith referenceto the main development in Grey Granite,however, for, in contrastto SunsetSong and Cloud Howe, which celebratedScottish manners, Scotland disappears in the modemworld of Duncaim.The identity of the individual city-dwelleris no longerbased on the locationthey havecome from, but on their placewithin the economichierarchy. Their speechis determinedby social factorswhere in Kinraddieit hadbeen regional. Their culture dependson mass consumption,which is to saythat Woolworth's,movies andmusic-hall entertainment have takenover from the ceilidhsof the old Scotland.Ewan thrives within suchan environment,which is not surprising,given that Gibbon had alreadyunderlined his distancefrom the Scottishworld of Seggetthrough the useof StandardEnglish for Ewan in CloudHowe (Gibbon 1933/1995a:196-7). Chris, on the contrary,cannot relate to a societyuprooted from its Scottishbackground. 'When in "Sphene"Ma Cleghom treatsher to an Americanmovie, shetherefore finds Chris somewhatunconvinced: Chris felt sleepyalmost as soonas shesat, and yawned,pictures wearied her nearlyto death,the flickering shadowsand the awful voices,the daft talesthey told andthe dafternews. She fell asleepthrough the cantripsa creaturewas playing,a mousedressed up in breekslike a man, and only woke up asMa shookher: Hey, the meiklefilm's starting now, lassie,God damn't, d ýou want to wastea whole ninepeenyticket? (Gibbon 1934/1995a:85)

WhetherChris appreciatesit or not, the world of Mickey Mouse,mass culture and industrialismrepresents the future of Scotlandwithin the trilogy as Grey Granite is primarily concernedwith the ideologicalmaturation of Ewan,not her struggleto maintain a senseof Scottishnessin a world that is becomingincreasingly denationalised. Accordingly, Scotlandis being confinedto the past societiesof Echt, Kinraddie and Seggetas A ScotsQuair movestowards its climax. The ideologicalimplication of that is interesting.Whereas the idealsof contemporariesGeorge Malcolm Thomson,Eric Linklater andNeil Gunnwere based on a returnto Scottishvalues, Gibbon discards Scotlandas an ideavaluable to a contemporaryaudience, which againproves that he foundedhis regenerativevision on communismwhere his fellow-writers relied on nationalism. The suppressionof the Scottishelement in Grey Granite meansthat the successof the fiction as a myth of revival dependson the strengthsof Ewan as protagonistand carrier of the novel's political message.As a character,he appearsto get it right where former reformershad failed. Unlike RobertColquohoun, who had tried to change Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35 149 Seggetfrom the detachedposition of the pulpit, Ewan choosesto becomea worker himself in orderto overcomehis rural backgroundand enterthe mind of the proletariat. He is one of the masses,not abovethem, it would seem,in the mannerof Spartacus.Yet Ewan is intendedas a strongerfigure thanthe slavegeneral, who had hesitatedwhen confrontedwith the might of Rome.In "Zircon''Gibbon hints at Ewan's involvement with vandalismagainst Gowan and Gloag's, whichwould prove his willingnessto exploit any meansin orderto achievehis goals(Gibbon 1934/1995a:187). That impressionis confirmedby his behaviourtowards his girlfriend Ellen, when sheis pressurisedby her employersinto abandoningher radicalpolitics. "Go to themthen in your comfortablecar - YourLabour Party andyour comfortableflat", Ewan tells the woman who had first broughthis attentionto the needfor change,and continues:"But what are you doing out herewith me?I canget a prostitute anywhere"(Gibbon 1934/1995a:195). Ewan's unsympathetic response when Ellen askshim to makean emotionalrather than an intellectualcommitment, is not necessarilyincompatible with the novelist's politics, althoughit underminesthe effectivenessof his vision. In consequence,Grey Granite,which shouldhave brought to life a Scotlandthat was urban, industrial andradical, as opposed to an orderthat hadbeen rural, agriculturaland conservative,fails to convincebecause the readercannot identify with the protagonist. Gibbon's ideologicalmessage is finther weakenedby a conclusionthat returnsChris to the old Scotlandof Echt ratherthan dramatising the emergenceof a new. In A Blasphemerand Reformer,William Malcolm readsthe end as follows: Chris's experienceis thus of paramountimportance in A ScotsQuairg for throughhis heroine(Gibbon] presents the "third way to Life", redefining the religious experiencein a universedevoid of spiritual meaning,and providing an empiricallyvalid conceptionof God. WhereEwan ends trying to conquerthe future, Chris finally triumphs over all the forcesof time. (Malcolm 1984:184)

I remain unconvincedby Malcolm's argument,which puts forward the nihilism of Chris as an alternativeto communism.Admittedly, the final pagesof the trilogy aredifficult to accommodatewithin a communistframework, but I would ascribethat to the weaknessesof Ewan'scharacter rather than the strongpresence of Chris. As a result, Grey Granite completesthe deathof Scotlandas it had beenimagined in SunsetSong and Cloud Howe,where it shouldhave marked the beginningof a new era. Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35 ISO

In different ways,Gibbon's last threenovels all point to a flawed idealism.Spartacus is concernedwith a historicalevent, which is to saythat its developmentwas predeterminedby facts.Inevitably, the fiction would end in the suppressionof the slave revolt, which provedthat eventhe joint efforts of the world's underdogs,represented by a Spartacistarmy that includedrepresentatives from all the oppressedpeoples of the ancientworld, were inadequateagainst the power of Rome.In comparisonwith the novels that followed,Spartacus contains a visionarydimension, which suggeststhat the descendantsof the slavesmight succeedwhere their fathershad failed. In the final revelation of Kleon, the Greekeunuch who had actedas advisorto the slavegeneral, the figures of Spartacusand Christ mergeinto one (Gibbon 1933/1990:210). Accordingto William Malcolm's A Blasphemerand Reformer,that identifies the slaveas the first in a successionof working-classheroes that in Scottishhistory will count William Wallace, the Covenantersand Ewan (Malcolm 1984:16-7). After the defeatof the slavesin Spartacus,Gibbon seems to havewanted to use Grey Granite to put history right, but, as it turned out, the third part of A ScotsQuair did not accomplishthat feat. I previously discussedthe weaknessesof Ewanas a characterwhich, indirectly, undercutthe author's ideological message.Equally importantis the questionof realism,which might have preventedthe artist from an overtly idealist conclusionin the mannerof Neil Gunn's TheDrinking Well.Hitherto Gibbon'sScottish fiction had presentedan accountof the past that was plausibleto a contemporaryaudience because it had beenbased on facts. With Grey Granite,the writer reachedthe hungermarches of the early 1930s,beyond which he could not go without abandoninghis realistic approach.Whether or not he would havewished to endwith suchan event,a communistrevolution had not occurred in Scotlandat his time of writing, andany attemptto fictionalise suchan incidentwould removehis narrativefrom the modeof realisminto that of romance.Rather than risking , that, which would call into questionthe validity of the whole trilogy as fictional history, he finisheswith the departureof Ewanfor London,which, in a figurative sense, weakenshis ideologicalmessage. Whereashistory andrealism forced Gibbon to compromisehis idealismin Spartacus and Grey Granite,the science-fictionof GayHunter appearsto offer more scopefor the authorto pursuehis personalideals, The narrativefocuses on the American anthropologistGay, who travelsto a distantfuture in the companyof the fascistvillains Major Houghtonand Lady Jane.Gayjoins a bandof hunters,whom sheassists in the Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 151 battle againstthe fascists'ploys. After the final destructionof evil, sheprepares to settle in an egalitarianand co-operative society that sherecognises as superiorto her twentieth-centurycivilisation, only to awakenin her own time: Wherewere the huntersnow? Now? This was the now! The folk - Rem - Wolf - the ChilternDam - the Forestof DreadfulNight, the Londonof the Hierarchs- theywere fading like a dreamthough she dropped her cigaretteand dropped on her kneesin a passionof desolationand reached after them,sobbing.... and all around,impossible as them, a twentieth- centurymorning was breaking. (Gibbon 1934/1989:183)

Gibbon's grandvision of a future GoldenAge endswith a nice cup of coffee and a cigarette,which is strangelyappropriate after the flawed idealismof Spartacus and Grey Granite. In contrastto Hugh MacDiarmidand Neil Gunn,Lewis GrassicGibbon seems to have found no ideastrong enough to sustainhim, andhe consequentlyleft the he had questions askedunresolved. .

Lewis Grassic Gibbon in the Scottish Renaissance

In a manneruncharacteristic of the mid-1930s,when the first divisions had already emergedwithin the cultural andpolitical wings of the Scottishmovement, Lewis GrassicGibbon's deathin February,1935, united the factionstemporarily. In his biography,Ian Munro mentionsamong those who offeredRay Mitchell their assistance JamesBarke, HelenB. Cruickshank,Compton Mackenzie, Eric Linklater andHugh MacDiarmid, which is to saythat the eventbrought together Renaissance writers from acrossthe political spectrum(Munro 1966:209). "Of all our writers he is just the man we could least afford to lose",Neil Gunnwrote in a condolenceletter to Ray Mitchell, and similar concernswere expressedby MacDiarmid and Mackenzie(as quotedin Munro 1966:208). In his commemorationof Gibbon from TheScottish Standard, March 1935,Edwin Muir summedup the views of his fellow-writers in the following words: Leslie Nfitchell was only thirty-threewhen he died. For a man of that age his achievementwas truly remarkable;but nobodywho knew him doubtedthat it would havebeen far surpassedby what he had it in him still to do. His mind was so adventurousand so unpredictablethat it would havebeen bound to surpriseeven those who thoughtthat they were familiar with it; andhis energywas suchthat one could not imagine evenold ageexhausting its infinite variety. He had fought with hardship it most of his life; and seemedto everybodythat he had almostreached a position wherehe could at last sit down andproduce the work that was in Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1928-35 152

him when.death came. What his lossis to Scottishliterature is past computation.(Muir 1935a:23-24)

Whether or not he hadreached his artisticheights, Gibbon's untimely deathleaves the readerwith a numberof unresolvedissues. In relationto Scotland,it neverbecomes clear whetherhe managedto resolvethe conflict betweennationalism and internationalismthat is evidentin ScottishScene, for example.In The CompanyI've Kept MacDiarmid arguedfor a last-minuteconversion to the Scottishcause, but thereis no evidenceto supporthis claim (MacDiarmid 1966:224). Similarly, little suggestsin what direction Gibbonwas heading in an ideologicalsense. His last novelshad endedin flawed idealismrather than an emergingnew order,which might have encouragedhim either to withdraw from politics altogetheror seekan alternativeideal that was easierto sustain.As it comesacross in his writings, the vision of Gibbon appearsincomplete in a way that the thinldng of Muir, MacDiarmidand Gunnis not. In spite of suchparadoxes, Lewis GrassicGibbon undoubtedly made a major contribution to the inter-warrevaluation of Scotland.The geographyof SunsetSong representsa departurefrom the nineteenth-centuryimage in the sensethat it replacedthe myth of Kailyard timelessnesswith a contemporaryScotland that was both realistic and dynamic.The effectsof suchverisimilitude were intensifiedby linguistic means.Where Walter Scott andRobert Louis Stevensonhad confinedScots to the speechof comical and lower-classfigures, Gibbon reclaimed the vernacularas a medium.for fiction. Like MacDiarmid in his lyrics, the Mearnswriter would use a diction that at onceexpressed his Scottishnessand a modernistconcern with language,and, arguably, his accomplishmentrivalled the poet's.As fictional history,A ScotsQuair dramatisesthe relatively recentprocess of modernisationwhere nineteenth-century historians had traditionally preferredromantic icons such as Robertthe Bruce,Mary Queenof Scots and Bonnie PrinceCharlie. Gibbon's essay "The Antique Scene"focused on thosethat had sufferedfrom a successiveseries of disasterssuch as the invasion of Edward1, the Reformationcontroversies and the Covenantingwars, and the fiction confumedthat thesecommoners were the only Scotsthat mattered.In a mannercharacteristic of Scottishwriting in the 1930s,the authorused his work to showhow Scotlandhad been misrepresentedby the falseimages of the past,whilst creatingthrough fiction a Scotland that was more to his liking. Againstsuch thematic concerns should be placedhis attacks Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 153 on the nationalismassociated with the Renaissance.In "Glasgow" he reflectson the sacrificesthe nationmight facein orderto satisfythe nationalists: Note what the Scotis biddento give up: the ,that lovely and flexible instrument,so akin to the darkerBraid Scotswhich hasbeen the Scotsman'stoot of thoughtfor a thousandyears. English methodsof education:which arederived from Germano-French-Italianmodels. English fashionsin dress:invented in Paris-London-Edinburgh- Timbuktu-Calcutta-Chichen-Itza-NewYork. English modelsin the arts: nudemodels as well, no doubt- Scotsmodels in future must sproutthree pairs of armsand a navelin the likelinessof a Honrampant. English ideals:decency, freedom, justice, idealsinnate in the mind of man, as commonto the Bantuas to the Kentishman- thosealso he must relinquish.... (Gibbon/MacDiarn-iid1934: 145-46)

Though the ironic toneof the passagecalls into questionthe seriousnessof his argument,Gibbon's complaintunderlines his inability to acceptthe compatibility of ScottishJourney, he nationalism andinternationalism. Like the Muir of seesthe two ideologiesas mutually exclusivein a way they neverwere to Gunn and MacDiarmid. Hence it may havebeen the fearthat he might compromisehis radicalismthat inspired the novelist to speakout againstthe nationalismof the ScottishRenaissance, when in his fiction he expressedsimilar ideas. in general,ideological matters present the most obviousobstacle to a readingof Lewis GrassicGibbon within the contextof the Scottishrevival. "I am a revolutionary distancehimself writer", he declaredin TheLeft Reviewin 1935,only to from fellow. in writers who assumedthat the Depressionwould result a collapseof capitalist literature (Gibbon 1935:179). Gibbon concluded: "I hatecapitalism; all my booksare explicit or implicit propaganda.But becauseI'm a revolutionistI seeno reasonfor is gainsayingmy own critical judgement"(Gibbon 1935: 180).This importantfor two beyond reasons.On the onehand, it putshis communism doubt,which is significantin the light of late novelssuch as Spartacus and Grey Granite,which are clearlymotivated by his politics. That underminesMacDiarmid's argumentfor Gibbon as a last-minute convertto nationalism,or indeedany reading of the novelist within a nationalist framework.The author'sinsistence on "not gainsayingmy own critical judgeznene',on the other hand,might accountfor someof his inconsistencies.Grey Granite's flawed idealism,for instance,is hardto relateto "Glasgow"which culminatesin a vision of a Cosmopolitanideal. Wherethe essayis propaganda,however, which allows for a declamatorytone, the fiction concludesa trilogy that had insistedon realismthroughout. Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 154 For the samereasons that he hadrefused to proclaim the collapseof capitalistliterature becausehe knew it to be untrue,he could not fmish with a revolution that had yet to occur. In the end,his realismtriumphed over romancein a mannerthat calls into questionhis thinIdngas a whole. The novelist's scoperaises other problems, for, like Neil Gunn,whose Scottish landscapewas composedof Caithnessand Sutherlandprimarily, Gibbon's Scotland derives from a limited geographicalbase. To his credit, the writer's "Howe of the World7' containsrural Kinraddie,small-town Segget and industrial Duncairn,which is to say that he appearsmore comfortable with an urbansetting than Gunn,who in novels such as Wild GeeseOverhead had marginalised Glasgow. Yet Gibbon's Scottish experienceis essentiallyLowland, rural andpeasant as he demonstratesin 'The Land": I like to rememberI am of peasantrearing and peasant stock. Good mannersprevail on me not to insist on the fact over-much,not to boastin the companyof thosewho comefrom mansesand slumsand castlesand villas, the folk of the proletariat,the bigger andlesser bourgeoisies. But I am againand again, as I hearthem talk of their origins and begnimmigs and begetters,conscious of an overweeningpride that mine was thus and so, that the land was so closelyand intimately mine (...) that I feel of a in strangeand antiqueage the companyand converse of my adult peers- like an adult himself listeningto the bright sayingsand laughtersof callow boys,parvenus on the humanscene, while La goodVenriconian Pict, harkenfrom the shadeof my suncircle and look away,bored, in pride of possessionat my terracedcrops, at the on-ding of rain and snow acrossmy leavenedfields.... (Gibbon/MacDiarmid1934: 293-94)

While his emphasison his Pictishroots provides an antidoteto the Celticism that characterisesmuch Renaissancewriting, Gibbon's senseof peasantsuperiority reads uncomfortablybecause it excludesfrom his Scotlandthe alternativestories of the Mghlands, the CentralBelt andthe middle class. While his geographicaland ideological limitations might be explainedwith reference to writers such as Gum and Muir, who show similar traits, Lewis Grassic Gibbon's attitude to Scotland is less easily ignored. For, in spite of the power the Mearns undoubtedly held over his imagination, he never envisioned Scotland as anything but a world that had passed.In SunsetSong, Scottishnesswas presented as an aspectof the order that had endedwhen Robert Colquohoun proclaimed the death of the peasantry.In Cloud Howe, the author stressedhow contemporary Scotland had failed to enact the reconstruction necessaryto solve a dismal situation, which underlines his lack of belief in the ability of the nation to affect the necessarychange. In Grey Granite, the Scottish Lewis GrassicGibbon 1928-35 155 dimension disappearedaltogether, which is to saythat it was associatedwith the societiesof the past,not the modemworld of Duncaim.The "death of Scotland"theme recurs in ScottishScene: towards the end of my sectionon SunsetSong, I quotedfrom "The Land" an extractwhich dismissesthe notion of a return to the land (p. 135).That life is not for modemScots, Gibbon emphasises, which suggeststhat Scottish regenerationmust be urbanbased. Prior to that, he implied in the openingof 'The Land" that the only truly Scottishexperience was that of the North Eastpeasantry, which seemsto confinehis notion of Scotlandand Scottishnessto a particular historical era with no bearingon twentieth-centuryreality. As a result,the Scottishnation comes acrossas history in the work of Lewis GrassicGibbon, where to other writers of the Scottish Renaissanceit would carrythe hopesfor a future. 156 Where things miscarry: Edwin Muir 1918-43 in his scepticismwith regardto Scottishnationalism, the writer closestto Lewis Grassic Gibbon is the Orcadianpoet andcritic Edwin Muir. Becauseof his insistenceon Scots as the only acceptablemedium for ScottishRenaissance literature, Gibbon tendsto be comparedto Hugh MacDiarmid,who sharedhis enthusiasmfor the vernacular,rather than Muir, who did not. Yet Muir andGibbon met in their attitudeto Scotlandand the Scots,which inspiredthem to speakout againstthe separatismof their peers. Nationalism was inadequate,Gibbon and Muir stressedin suchpolemics as Scottish Sceneand Scottish Journey, for it could not resolvethe crisis of Scotlandin the 1930s. As an alternative,they put forwardthe internationalistmodels of communismand socialism,for they perceivedeconomic and social reconstructionto be a moreurgent concernthan constitutionalissues. The basisof their agreementmay havebeen similar readingsof history, for, asEdwin Muir observesin "Lewis GrassicGibbon", Gibbon's Diffusionist stanceappealed strongly to him in the early 1930s: [Gibbon] believed,with ProfessorElliot Smith, that the legendof a goldenage preceding the recordedhistory of mankindwas foundedon truth; that manwas inherently good; and that his vices were causedby faults implicit in the successionof civilisations which rosefrom the cradleof them all, that is, ancientEgypt. This was a theorywhich appealedvery stronglyto me, ashelping to explain the dreamof an Eden which mankindhas nursed so stubbornlythrough the darkestages, and to justify the hopeof a betterfuture agewhich hasinspired so many movements,both religiousand secular, up to modem Socialism.(Muir 1935a:23)

Although the novelist might sympathisewith the idea of Edenas a foundationfor an improved society,this accountof Diffusionism,is closerconnected with Muir's personal philosophythan with the vision of Gibbon,who in SunsetSong had optedfor a realistic approach.Unlike Gibbon,who acceptedevolution as a gradualprocess of change,Muir envisionedthe pastin termsof absolutediscontinuity in the 1930s.Against the primordial stateof innocence,he would placethe chaosemerging from the loss of such order, and althoughhis conceptsof Edenand Fall resemblethe Diffusionist notion of a golden agedestroyed by civilisation, they arereligious in their connotations.Hence Muir usesGibbon's theoryto substantiatehis own beliefs in a mannerthat Allie Hixson's Edwin Muir seesas characteristicof his methodin general:"Edwin Muir worked his way doggedlyand integrally to a conclusion,which meanta parting of the Edwin Muir 1918-43 157 ways with closeassociates - whetherSocialists, Nietzscheans, Guildsmen, or 'Lallans' poets - if they impededhis uniquedevelopment! ' (Hixson 1977: 103). At the heartof Muir's vision lies the questionof continuity. In "Lewis Grassic Gibbon!', he underlinedthe absolutedivide betweenthe GoldenAge and civilisation, and suchrecognition of the impossibilityof a return to Edenfrom the presentstate of disruption pervadesmost of his inter-warwritings. The basisfor his thesisappears to have beenpersonal experience. In TheStory and the Fable, he reflectson his problematic transitionbetween rural Orkneyand industrial Glasgow: I was born beforethe IndustrialRevolution, and am now abouttwo hundredyears old. But I haveskipped a hundredand fifty of them.I was really born in 1737,and till I was fourteenno time-accidentshappened to me. Then in 17511set out from Orkneyfor Glasgow.When I arrived I found that it was not 1751, but 1901, and that a hundredand fifty years had beenburned up in my two daysjourney. But I myself was still in 1751, andremained there for a long time. All my life sinceI havebeen u*g to overhaulthat invisible leeway.(Muir 1940:263)

TWs passageis importantfor an understandingof Muir within the ScottishRenaissance for sucha dramaticchange of environmentmay haveprevented him from developinga natural relationshipwith Scotland.Where in the works of Gunn and Gibbon,for example,the sameScottish landscape reveals both its positive and negativequalities, Muir's inter-war vision of Scotlandappears to split into the extremesof Orkneyand Glasgow,a rural Edenversus the industrialHell. In the openingchapter of An Autobiographythe authorrecalls how he had sufferedhis first loss of innocencein Orkney, which showsthat his experienceof Scotlandwas not as black andwhite as it comesacross in his creativewritings of the 1920sand 1930s(Muir 1954/1993:24-25). In suchworks as TheThree Brothers (1931) and Poor Tom (1932),however, he relied on Orkney symbolismto conjureup a positivevision, whereashe usedGlasgow to evoke the fall of mankind.To his personalexperience of Orkneyand Glasgow,Muir addedan internationaldimension when in 1921he left London for Prague.In relation to MacDiarmid's Renaissanceprogramme, this is significant as it constitutedan attemptto reconnectScottish tradition with the Europeanmainstream. With regardto Muir's own development,the writer's first-handknowledge of the languagesand culturesof Middle Europeoffered him a benchmark,against which he could measurethe achievementof himself and the ScottishRenaissance. The Europeanconnection probably increased in Muir's detachmentfrom Scotland a geographicsense. Whilst residingin Europeand Edwin Muir 1918-43 158 England,he was thusphysically removed from Scottishreality, and once he returnedin the mid-193 Os to confronta depressednation, he seemsto havebeen overwhelmed by what he saw.As a result,his early enthusiasmfor the Scottishrevival wasturned into the disenchantmentof ScottishJourney (1935) and Scott and Scotland(1936). In spiteof suchambiguities, Edwin Muir appearsto haveconsidered himself a Scottishpoet when in 1923he published"Ballad of the Monk", "Ballad of the Flood" and"Ballad of the Black Douglas"in TheScottish Chapbook. These early poems were composedin the vernacular,but Muir's accomplishmentdid not comparewith MacDiarmid'sScots lyrics, which is perhapsinevitable, given that the Orkneypoet camefrom a part of Scotlandthat was not traditionallyScots-speaking. In An AutobiographyMuir characterisedhis native idiom as"a mixture of Norse,Scots, and Irish" background him linguistic , andalthough such a provided with an awarenessof the differencesbetween English and Scots, it madehim lesscompetent in the vernacular thanMacDiarmid and Gibbon,who grewup in Scots-speakingcommunities (Muir 1954/1993:53). Muir had encounteredthe Scottishballads at an early age,which is significantas he would draw on that knowledgethroughout his career(Muir 1954/1993: 19-20).In 1923,he thus discussedthe value of the balladsas a startingpoint for a revived Scottishpoetry in the essay"A Note on the ScottishBallads". Oneof the strengthsof this tradition,he noted,was its vernacularmedium, which had enabled Scottishpoets to addressissues that were at oncenational and universal in orientation. "Since Englishbecame the literary languageof Scotland",he concludedin a passage reminiscentof MacDiarmid:"'there has been no Scotsimaginative writer who has attainedgreatness in the first or eventhe secondrank throughthe mediumof English" (Muir 1923/1982c:155). When he waswriting this, Muir was living in Europe,which must havelimited the amountof informationavailable to him on Scottishmatters. Yet he is remarkablywell informedas he demonstratesin a 1923letter to his sisterand brother-in-lawwhere he setsout with a commenton the Scottishelection results, makes a passingreference to ScottishNation, then declares:"When I seethings stirring up so much I would like to be back to takea handin the work. We will certainly (D.V. ) be back in Scotlandto staynext summer"(Muir 1923/1974:30). The Muirs returnedto Scotlandin 1924when the closureof A. S Neill's schoolat Sonntagbergdeprived them of their Austrian home and income.A combinedlonging for Scotlandand the prospectsof a nationalrevival brought the coupleto Willa's native Edwin Muir 1918-43 159

Montrose,which, asthe homeof HughMacDiarmid, was the geographicalheart of the Scottish Renaissancein the 1920s.MacDiarmid must havebeen excited by the possible inclusion of Muir in a teamthat alreadynumbered Neil Gunn andF. G. Scott.In ContemporaryScottish Studies he paid tribute to Muir's talentby proclaiminghim the only first rate critic to comeout of Scotland,and Muir returnedthe complimentin his 1925 essay"The ScottishRenaissance" (MacDia=*d 1926/1995:93; Muir 1925:259). Their friendshipdid not preventa disenchantmenton Muir's behalf,who found his home countryless receptive to art thanMacDiarmid's propaganda might haveled him to believe. With the exceptionof an occasionalreview andthe republicationof "A Note on the ScottishBallads" in Latitudes(1924), little Scottishcriticism cameout of the Montrose spell,which suggeststhat the authorwas not preparedto commit himself fully to the Renaissance.In a 1927letter, he sumsup his views on the revival: Whenwe werein Scotlandlast time we hearda lot aboutScottish Nationalismfrom C. M. Grieve(Hugh MacDiarmid) who wrote A Drunk Man Lookyat the Thistle.It seemsa pity that Scotlandshould always be kept backby England,and I hopethe ScottishRepublic comes about: it would makeScotland worth living im Grieveis a strongnationalist, republican,socialist, and everything that is out and out. He thinks that if Scotlandwere a nationwe would haveScottish literature, art, music, cultureand everything that othernations seem to haveand we haven't. I think that would probablybe likely-,but I feel ratherdetached, as I've often told Grieve,because after all I'm not Scotch,I'm an Orkneyman, a good Scandinavian,and my true country is Norway, or Denmark,or Iceland,or someplace like that. (Muir 1927/1974:64)

Muir's letter is signfflcant on three accounts.First of all, it establishesa connection between the state of a nation and the development of its literature, which resembles MacDiarmid's argument of the 1920s.Secondly, the writer stresseshis personal detachment from the Scottish sceneas an Orcadian, who looks to Iceland or Scandinavia for his identity rather than to Scotland. A third piece of information is contained in the letter heading: Muir is in France, not Scotland, whilst writing so sympathetically about MacDiarmid's Renaissance;Muir is never in Scotland when seemingly enthusiastic from about Scottish matters. His letters Germany, Austria and France show his interest in developments in Scotland, but once he came back for shorter or longer spells, it often proved a disappointment. Scottish Edwin Muir's concern with matters becomesmore obvious towards the end he of the twenties. Through letters maintained contact with MacDiarmid, whereas his Edwin Muir 191843 160 move to Hampsteadin 1932brought him in touch with London Scotssuch as George Malcolm Thompson,the Carswellsand Lewis GrassicGibbon. Muir's reviewsensured a Scottishpresence in the British press,while his Europeanprofile, which in the 1930s was strengthenedby his translationactivities and criticism, madehim the ideal delegate when in the thirties ScottishP. E. N wantedto establishitself as an independentbody at the internationalconferences in Budapestand Dubrovnik. Despitehis interestin Scottish issues,Muir's criticism implies that he had yet to cometo termswith Scotland. Although he repeatedlyreturned to the point that the declineof Scottishculture was related to the lossof nationhood,he wasnot preparedto arguethe casefor Scottish nationalismtoo stronglyand pulled back if that was wherehis argumentwas taking him. yes, he stressedin the 1931essay "The Functionlessnessof Scotland",a nationalist solution seemedthe logical answerto Scotland'sproblems, but as a rule, he preferred the position of an outsidespectator who did not dirty his handsin battle (Muir 1931/1982c:107). He wasequally cautious with regardto the vernacular.The 1923 "ballads" had demonstratedthat Scotsdid not work as a medium for Muir's poetry, which might explainwhy he becameso scepticalof its potentialas a literary language. In "Literature in Scotland!', a 1934article for TheSpectator, he observed: Apart from "Hugh MacDiarmid!, the namesmost commonlyconnected with the ScottishRenaissance are those of Neil M. Gunn,Eric Linklater and Lewis GrassicGibbon. Mr. Gunn's sensitivestyle is more obviously influencedby D. H. Lawrencethan by Neil Munro; Mr. Linklater writes vigorousElizabethan prose; Mr. Gibbonhas struck out a style which doessucceed in giving the rhythm of the Scottishvernacular. But all use English astheir naturalutterance; their literary inspirationis the great English writers, not Dunbaror Burns.On the other hand,they write aboutScottish life for a Scottishaudience, and not for an English one, like Stevenson.They write for this audiencein English, it is true, but therethey havelittle choice;for the Scottishpeople are a peoplewho talk in Scotsbut think in English.These writers are,in any case,more intimately Scottishthan Stevensonwas, and thatjustifies one in calling the literary revival to which theybelong a Scottishone. (Muir 1934/1982c:14849)

"Literaturein Scotland7'anticipates the quarrel with Scotlandthat moved to the foreof Muir's Scottishwritings in themid-1930s. In her autobiographyBelonging, Willa Muir ascribedsuch negativity to thecouple's move to St.Andrews in 1935,which appears to haveconfirmed her husband's bad feelings for his country(w. Muir 1968:194-95). 1 do not think theimpact of theSt. Andrews environment should be overestimated,however, Edwin Muir 1918-43 161 for the pessimisticideas behind Scott and Scotlandwere by no meansnew to Muir. Scott and Scotland,which, asthe author'scontribution to the VoiceofScotland series, should be regardedas a Renaissancetext, developedthe conclusionsof "Literaturein Scotland" into the theorythat an ambitiousScottish writer had no other languagethan English available,whereas the generalthesis that Scottishtradition collapsedas a result (1929) of the Reformationwas anticipatedby John Knox and ScottishJourney (193 5). Whether or not it was intendedas such,Scott and Scotlandbecame a breakwith Scotland.The critic neverresponded to the attacksby MacDiarmid that followed upon his controversialpiece, and to a largedegree, Scottish themes disappeared from his writings. By 1939,when the SecondWorld War broke out, the situationin Scotlandno longer seemeda primaryconcern for Muir, who was now moving towardsthe mature vision that in the 1940sand 1950swould enablehim to resolvethe polarities of his inter-war work. I have divided my analysisof Edwin Muir's inter-warwritings into threeparts. My first section,"In an ageof transition!', discussesthe poet's experienceof English and Europeanculture in the 1920s,and the mannerin which this early criticism anticipates the thematicconcerns of his Scottishworks. My secondpart, "Edwin Muir's Scottish journey", coversthe years1929-1935, when he madehis most importantcontribution to the Scottishrevival. In their respectivegenres, John Knox, The 7hreeBrothers and ScottishJourney engaged with the Renaissanceproject of historical revisionism,yet introduceda vision of Scotlandthat wasunique to Muir. Finally, 11ro'Scottland' and beyond" considershow the author'sphysical move to St. Andrewsin 1935 becamea spiritual move awayfrom Scotland.In my discussion,I will concentrateon the inter-war prosebecause that is whereMuir's strugglewith Scotlandis most evident.I am aware that sucha focusmay leavea slightly unbalancedpicture. Wherein the 1920sand 1930s,Muir's writings thus raisemany of the paradoxesthat are centralto his growth, it is only in his post-1945poetry that he resolvesthese issues, which placeshis positive vision outwith the chronologicalscope of the presentanalysis.

In an age of transition: The growth of a critic 1918-28 In 1935,T. S Eliot wrote in "Religion andLiterature,, on the absenceof a philosophical frame-work for the contemporaryartist: In an agewhich acceptssome precise Christian theology, the common codemay be fairly orthodox:though even in suchperiods the common Edwin Muir 1918-43 162 codemay exalt suchconcepts as "honour", "glory" or "revenge"to a position quite intolerableto Christianity.The dramaticethics of the ElizabethanAge offers an interestingstudy. But when the commoncode is detachedfrom its theologicalbackground, and is consequentlymore andmore merelya matterof habit, it is exposedboth to prejudiceand to change.At suchtimes morals are open to being alteredby literature;so that we find in practicethat what is "objectionable"in literatureis merely what the presentgeneration is not usedto. (Eliot 1935/1975:97)

Edwin Muir sharedwith Eliot the concernover a loss of standardsin the arts aswell as ýWe in society as such.Such decadence, he stressedin his first publication Moderns (1918), was the resultof the promotionof societyover the individual, which had underminedthe singlehuman's control over his being: "It hasbeen observed again and forms again that as societies- of production,of government,and so on - becomemore complex, the masteryof the individual over his destinygrows weaker" (Muir 1918:22). . Muir's words underlinethe impactof the 1914-18war which had intervenedon all levels of society.In his introductionto A WarImagined Samuel Hynes argues that the scaleof destructionwitnessed in the First World War had madeit impossiblefor writers to imagine a returnto the statepreceding the war. As a result, British imaginationsplit into pre-war andpost-war - the dreamof an idyllic, yet remotepast where ancient valuesprevailed, versus the reality of Eliot's wastelandwhere nihilism and disorderrule (Hynes 1992:ix). On the consequencesof that divorce,Muir observesin Latitudes (1924): "(This] meansthat we havelost living faith in ourselvesand in our fate, and that we have lapsedback into what is establishedand finished for all time. We believe in our fathers,or perhapsin our grandfathers,but not in ourselves"(Muir 1924:209). In responseto the contemporarycrisis of faith, Muir and Eliot reachedout for an alternativeorder. As the abovequotation implies, Eliot championedthe idea of an underlying,Christian ft=ework, and althoughMuir is hard to associatewith any particular theologicalposition apartfrom Calvinism,which he denouncedfiercely throughouthis life, an acceptanceof somespiritual dimensionis presentin his work too. In an early essayon RobertHenryson, he thus celebratesan agewhen everythinghad beenpart of a higher,cosmological fi=ework: (Henryson]lived nearthe end of a greatage of settlement,religious, intellectualand social;an agreementhad beenreached regarding the natureand meaning of humanlife, andthe imaginationcould attain harmonyand tranquillity. It was one of thoseages when everything,in spiteof the practicaldisorder of life, seemsto have its place;the ranks and occupationsof men;the hierarchyof animals;good and evil; the Edwin Muir 1918-43 163 earth,heaven and hell; andthe life of man andof the beaststurns naturally into a storybecause it is part of a greaterstory aboutwhich there is generalconsent (Muir 1965: 10)

I want to stressthe Eliot-Muir connectionfor two reasons.First of all, it indicatesthe extent to which both were expressingthe spirit of their age.In her article "Tradition and the individual Scot", SheilaHearn compares Muir's New Age series"Our Generation" 1920-22 to Eliot's "Commentaries"of the late 1920s:"'Our Generation'and the 'Commen aries' showdistinct similaritieson so manylevels - of content,style, form, attitude, publishinghistory - that they amountto an index of the atmospherein which the most influential theoriesof modemliterary tradition were formed" (Heam 1983:22). Hearn.acknowledges an Amoldian influenceon the critics (Heam 1983:22). To that, I would add the possibility that Eliot andMuir adoptedthe approachthat was most fashionableat their time of writing, which accountsfor at leastsome of the parallels. Secondly,and more significantlywith referenceto my argument,is the Orkneywriter's developmentof Eliot's theories.The obviousexample is the correspondencebetween Muir's "dissociationof Scottishsensibility" in Scottand Scotlandand the fragmentation Eliot identifies within British literary tradition in the 1921essay "The Metaphysical Poets" (Eliot 1921/1975:64-65). Other influential ideasare Eliot's concernwith tradition in "Tradition andthe Individual Talenf ' (1919) aswell as the figure of Milton, who in Eliot's criticism plays a role not unlike that of Muir's Knox, and they indicateto what an extentMuir had alreadymade up his mind on a numberof key issueswhen he turned to Scotlandin the late 1920s. Edwin Muir's connectionwith A. R. Orage'sThe NewAge meantthat he startedout as a commentatoron British affairsrather than a Scottishcritic in the mannerof MacDiannid. Between 1916 and 1918, he contributed a number of epigrams under the heading"We Modems" to Orage'sjoumal, andthey were collectedin WeModerns in 1918.In 1919Willa andEdwin Muir decidedto leaveGlasgow for London. Initially, the changeof environmentproved problematic to the author,who found his lack of formal educationprevented him from gettingsuitable employment, while his mental health sufferedas a resultof the unfamiliar surroundings.Eventually Muir's contact with TheNew Age securedhim the position as Orage'sassistant editor, and over the next coupleof yearsthat is wherehe learnthis trade.A symptomof his growth is the "Our Generation"series which consistedof a weekly commenton social, economicand Edwin Muir 1918-43 164 cultural matters.With the exceptionof Ritchie Robertson's"'Our Generation':Edwin Muir as social critic, 1920-22",critics haveleft this part of Muir's writings unnoticed. In Edwin Muir. Man and Poet,Peter Butter comm on the influenceof Orage,who encouragedMuir to undergopsychoanalytic treatment, only to move straight to the departurefor Prague,and his approachhas uncritically beenaccepted by Elizabeth Huberman and ChristopherWiseman. In spite of suchneglect, I have found the "Our Generation"material valuable as an insight into the author'sdevelopment in the early 1920s,while it anticipatesmany of the themesin the Scottishcriticism. The primary targets of "Our Generation!' are social conditions, British institutions and the declinein "Muir found Britain 1920-22 from 'essential the arts. the of ...very remote the idea' of society", Robertsonpoints out in his discussionof "Our Generation!'. Robertson continueswith the following descriptionof a Britain where living conditionswere deteriorating: After the brief post-wareconomic boom, inflation and unemployment had increasedrapidly. By June1921, the numberof unemployedpeople coveredby unemploymentinsurance was 2,171,288;the real total was presumablylarger still. Unemploymentbenefits were paid only for limited periods,and it wasnot until November1921 that family allowancesfor the unemployedwere introduced.Families not coveredby the unemploymentinsurance scheme, or insufficiently aidedby it, had to apply to the PoorLaw Guardiansfor outdoorrelief. (Robertson1982: 53)

One of Muir's primary concernswas the way British societytended to treat its underprivilegedmembers as numbers rather than individuals."[The] evil of all figures dealing with humanbeings is that they makeus forget everythingbut the figures", Muir later stressedin ScottishJourney, which showshow stronglyhe felt about suchmatters (Muir 1935/1985:137). Fifteen years prior to that, he had identified a similar processof dehumanisationin "Our Generation!'. "Ashamedof their failure to obtain work, and resentfulof thosewho do not understandthem and think they aremerely lazy," he wrote on the impact of unemploymenton a class,whose identity had traditionally beendefined by work: "they becomein the endblindly rebelliousor, worse still dumbly subdued. Surely nowherein the world is failure more cruelly punishedthan in this country" (Muir 1920:29).

The writer's sympathyfor the poor inspiredhim to a condemnationof the societythat had failed its weakest.The readeris remindedof Lewis GrassicGibbon's Cloud Howe, impact which is equallypreoccupied with the of the social and economicdepression on Edwin Muir 1918-43 165 a class-riddensociety, but whereGibbon's book was fiction, Muir's accountis basedon facts. As a startingpointý he would adopta quotationfrom one of the national newspapers,then unra vel the truth behindsuch establishment bigotry. This method meant that the pressbecame the institution subjectedto most scrutinyin "Our Generation!', althoughthe seriesalso targeted the Church,politicians and civil Guardians administration.Muir's 1922attack on the Poplar offers an indication of his outrage.In responseto a reportthat had concludedthat the Poor Law administratorshad been too generousin their distributionof relief, he pointedout how the real problem was that the poor hadtemporarily been allowed to forget they were living on charity: the poor mustbe madeto feel that for a few shillings a week they must tell everythingabout themselves; they must sacrificeall the feelingsof personaldelicacy which it is humanto preserveeven in disaster,and in making that sacrificethey areforced involuntarily into a different categoryfrom humanity.(Muir 1922:65)

In addition to their neglectof the poor, "Our Generation7accused the British establishmentof indifferenceto modemart. English culturehad beenallowed to deteriorate,Muir argued,because of the bourgeoisie'sinsensibility to contemporaryart. insteadthey cherishedan insularpast that ignoredall foreign influences,which was wrong becausegreat art had alwaysembraced the forcesof change:"if Heine, Byron, Shelley andBeethoven were alive to-day,they would not, simply becausethey could not, ignore Lenin. For he is a forceof the samescope; and greatforces must recognise one anothee,(Muir 1921b:42). Againstthe apathy,insularity andnostalgia of the upper classes,Muir placedthe action,internationalism and modernity of his own generation, which is interestingas similar ideashad motivated Hugh MacDiarmid's call for a ScottishRenaissance in the early 1920s. In August, 1921, Edwin andWilla Muir left London for the Continent.As Edwin Muir recalls in An Autobiography,they initially went to Pragueon the adviceof their acquaintanceJanko Lavrin, Prague"being in the middle of Europe"(Muir 1954/1993: 170).From Czechoslovakia,they continuedtheir j ourneythrough Germany, Italy and Austria, until in 1924they returnedto Britain. The importanceof this experiencefor Muir's developmentcannot be overestimated.In the courseof their travels,the Muirs intimateknowledge picked up an of the languagesand literaturesof Middle Europe,and over the next twentyyears, that manifesteditself in a numberof ways.In financial terms,they were ableto supplementtheir sometimesmeagre income through translation Edwin Muir 191843 166 activities. They were the first to translatemajor modernistwriters suchas FranzKafka and HermanBroch into English,and althoughWilla was probablythe better linguist, suchwork providedher husbandwith an understandingof philosophicalissues that would influencehis poetryin the yearsto come.With regardto Edwin Muir's growth as a critic, the Europeaninterlude offered him an insight that he had hitherto missed becauseof his lack of formal education.In Prague,'Dresden and Vienna, he enjoyedthe music, dramaand literatureof a vibrantnational culture, which becamehis benchmark in the 1930swhen he turnedhis attentionto Scottishtradition. In relation to MacDiarmid's programmefor the ScottishRenaissance, it is interestingthat the Muirs were the only representativesof the emerginggeneration of Scottishwriters who had lived and travelledin Europe.Many inter-warintellectuals would emphasisethe needto reconnectScotland to the Continent,but with the exceptionof MacDiarmid,who adaptedtranslations from Europeanwriters for his poetry andprose, the majority were mostly Europeansin theory.ýn contrast,Edwin Muir maintaineda Europeanoutlook throughouthis career.More than anyother, it is thus his presenceamong the modems that ensuredthe ScottishRenaissance transcended the parochialismthat is the dangerof all nationalisms,in orderto restorethe connectionbetween Scottish art andthe mainstreamof Europeanculture. The "Our Generation!' epigrams did not stopwith Muir's departurefor Europein 1921, althoughthey becameless frequent until they eventuallydisappeared in 1922.The seriesis significantbecause it featuresMuir as a writer of social commentaryrather than the literary criticism he hasbecome associated with, but it suffersfrom inconsistencies similarIMI to other earlyworks suchas WeModerns (1918) andLatitude s (1924). Latitudes,which is Muir's secondbooký collects the essayshe had written whilst in Europe.The articlesreveal a growingawareness of Scottish,English and European literature,but the writer's style is lesssecure than in the later prose.Latitudes contains importantpieces such as "A Note on the ScottishBallads" and an early Bums essay, althoughgeneralisations such as "North and South!' and "Beyond the Absolute" occasionallyleave the readerwondering whether speed of compositionhad affected Muir, s critical judgement.In contrast,the next collection of essays,Transition from 1926,shows him cominginto his own. "In Transition (1926) [Muir] cameof ageas a in ...Edward critic", PeterButter observes Moore' and Edwin Muir": "a literary critic whoseconcern to understandthrough great writers the deeperforces moving in the age Edwin Muir 1918-43 167 was not divorcedfrom the socialcritic's desirefor the political partiesto find radical answersto the problemsof society"(Butter 1981:36). In the light of his own disregard of Muir's socialcriticism in Edwin Muir., Man and Poet, Butter's commentis strange: he recognisesthe interactionof literatureand society in Muir's criticism, yet fails to place suchworks as"Our Generation!' or indeedScottish Journey within that context. Muir's aim in Transitionwas to evaluatecontemporary literature. In the preface,he stressesthe needfor a critic to relateto his presentbecause that is wherehe might offer the most valuableassistance, then elaborates on the difficulties of sucha task."A true judgement can only be passedby onewho hasa graspof all the aspectsof the case," he writes: "In the caseof contemporaryliterature we canbe witnesses,defendants, or partisans;we canbe nothingmore" (Muir 1926:viii). Suchinitial reservationsshould be borne in mind aswe readon'. James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence,T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf havebecome unquestionable representatives of the modernistcanon, but the selectionof StephenHudson and Edith Sitwell is more controversial.Muir did not have our benefit of hindsightin 1926,however, which is to saythat the more problematic choicesonly confirm his thesisthat a later generationwould haveto passjudgement. The title Transitionrefers back to Eliot's perceptionof the presentas a stateof confusionthat separatesan older order,theological and moral, from the new one about to arise.In the following, Muir defineshis conceptof an ageof transition: To understandone's ageis to understandoneself, to give oneself direction anda sort of self-evidentvalidity. The ageswhich permitted this understanding,such ages as the Elizabethanand the Johnsonian, increasedthe writer's faith in himself, allied themselveswith what was productivein him, andgenerally made his path clear as nothing else could havedone. They were agesin which certainorders of valueswere accepted,ages which had an imageof the cosmos,society, morality, humanity,destiny, of what waswise and desirable,possible and impossible In transition, the hand, .... agesof on other everythingmakes the writer moreuncertain, saps his faith, only nourishedfrom himself, and giveshis work an air eitherof vacillation or of violence.His achievementmay be sometimesremarkable, but alwaysit will be partial. He'will be a writer with one quality or with a few, but he will'not have the completearray of qualities,each depending upon and implying the others,which a unified conceptionof life imposes.(Muir 1926:203-4).

Transition anticipatesthe Scottishcriticism in at leastthree respects. First of all, it demonstratesthat Muir alreadyheld firm views on literatureand societywhen he turned to Scottishmatters in the 1930s.Like Eliot, he sawthe modem ageas a stateof disorder, Edwin Muir 1918-43 168 which suggestsa certainscepticism with regardto the radical elementsof modernism. That did not preventhim from recognisingthe artistic achievementof Hugh MacDiarmid, but it may havemade him moresensitive to the negativeaspects of Scottish life which would supporthis thesisof disruption.Equally significant is the way Muir's readingof modernismin Transitionwidens the gapbetween a harmoniouspast (Orkney) and a chaoticpresent (Glasgow). In the niid-1920s,such a personalsense of discontinuityhad still to be appliedto Scottishmatters, but oncehe turnedto Scotland in the thirties, it becamethe foundationof his argumentin Scottand Scotland.Finally, Transition is importantfor its approachto literature.Throughout his career,Muir stressedthe connectionbetween literature and society,on the basisof which he concludedin ScottishJourney and Scott and Scotlandthat the stateof Scottisharts reflected the conditionof Scotlandas a whole. In short,there are themesin the non- Scottish criticism of the 1920sthat were developedin the Scottishwork of the 1930s, which underlinesthe needto readMuir's writings as a whole.

Edwin Muir's Scottish journey 1929-35 Paradoxically,the book that in 1929launched Edwin Muir's attackodScottish Calvinism was a work commissionedby JonathanCape. Lytton Strachey'sEminent Victorians,which appearedin 1918,had popularised the biographicalgenre, and as a result, Muir now found himself strugglingwith the ghostof JohnKnox. Muir recallsin AnAutobiography: "As I readabout him in the British MuseumI cameto dislike him more and more, andunderstood why everyScottish writer sincethe beginningof the eighteenthcentury had detestedhim" (Muir 1954/1993:226). Sucha realisationmay have influencedthe writer's campaignagainst Scottish Calvinism, which was intensified in the 1930s.Yet the ideawas by no meansnew to him ashe revealsin the essay1923 "A Note on the ScottishBallads": What a culturethere must havebeen once in that narrow tract of land betweenEdinburgh and the Border,and what a tragedyit was that its grandconception of life anddeath, of time and eternity,realized in pure imagination,was turnedby Knox andthe Reformationinto a theology and a set of intellectualprinciples! But Knox's work hasbeen done; it has not beenundone; and time alonewill showwhether it everwill be. (Muir 1923/1982c:164)

The exclamationmark at the endof the first sentenceimplies how strongly Muir felt he about suchmatters. The contrast establishesbetween the Scotlandthat had nourished Edwin Muir 1918-43 169 the Border ballads,and a barren,post-Reformation world, looked back to the discontinuitythesis he had adaptedfrom Eliot, aswell as to the argumentin Transition. Meanwhile it anticipatedScottish Journey and Scott and Scotlandof the mid. 193Os, where similar views were expressed.Muir remainedhostile towardsCalvinism throughouthis career,in otherwords, which is to saythat his Knox biographywas based on pre-existingbiases. John Knox reflectsthree tendencies in the non-fiction of the inter-war period: firstly, a new tradition in biography,which set out to challengeold icons,had beeninitiated by Lytton Stracheyin 1918.As SamuelHynes discusses in A WarImagined, Strachey's Eminent Victorianspresented the storiesof four representativesof Victorian values. Insteadof putting theseforward as exemplarsfor the modems,however, the author mockedthem, for by so doing,he was ableto stressthe remotenessof that past,as well as the fact that it no longercontained a lessonfor the future. 'That past might offer amusingobjects for satire,examples of humanfolly and erroe', Hynes observes,"but it had nothing to do with us, on this side of the war" (Hynes 1992:245). Muir's familiarity with Stracheyis evidentfrom Transitionwhere he devotesan essayto the authorof Eminent Victorians.As H. W. Mellown has suggestedin his Edwin Muir, it is therefore likely that Muir lookedto Stracheywhen in John Knox he attemptedto deconstructwhat had traditionally beenperceived as a Scottishicon. (Mellown 1979:3 1-32).In spite of their sharedagenda, Muir andStrachey departed in tone.The Scot was not able to acceptthe pastmerely as "examples of humanfolly", which brings me to Andrew Lang as the secondinfluence on Muir. Whetherit was due to the growing secularisationin Scottish societyin the late nineteenthcentury or becauseprevious histories had been written by ministers,Andrew Lang's1905 biography John Knox and the Reformation was the first to breakwith a tradition of portrayingKnox as a national hero. That examplewas importantto Muir, who aimedfor a lessthan ideal picture of the reformer. Accordingly, his introductionacknowledges the value of Lang's work as "the one biographyI havefound which attemptsto be critical" (Muir 1929:ix). The third tendencyin John Knox is the historicalrevisionism typical of ScottishRenaissance literature generally.Like Neil Gunnand Lewis GrassicGibbon, Muir wantedto createa history that reflectedhis ideaof Scotland,which calls into questionthe value of his biographyas an objectiveaccount of the past. Edwin Muir 191843 170 In John Knox, the authorapplies his discontinuitythesis to Scottishhistory. "What Knox really did wasto rob Scotlandof all the benefitsof the Renaissance",he concludesin the appendix:"Scotland never enjoyed these as Englanddid, andno doubt the lack of that immenseadvantage has had a permanenteffect. It can be felt, I imagine, even at the presentday" (Muir 1929:309). Suchdenunciation of Knox and the Reformationwas not unprecedentedin ScottishRenaissance literature, but becauseMuir was driven by a personalcrisis of faith aswell as a generalrejection of the past,he expressedhimself in strongerterms than most of his contemporaries.In a reading reminiscentof Eliot's 'The MetaphysicalPoets", he claimedthat Calvinism had divided Scottish life into pre- andpost-Reformation in a mannerthat madeit impossiblefor present-dayScots to embracethe cosmologicalorder he had encounteredin Robert Henrysonand the Scottishballads. The novelsYhe Three Brothers (1931) andPoor Tom (1932) developedthis notion of a dissociatedScottish sensibility in relation to the conceptsof GoldenAge and Fall. Both works are essentially Scottish books: they are set in Scotland,they deal with fundamentalaspects of Scottishcharacter, which explains the occasionaluse of thevernacular in theseworks, although Muir's Scotswas never as successfulas Grassic Gibbon's. The source of theScotland that is envisionedin the fiction is autobiographical.George Marshall devotes his studyIn a DistantIsle to a comparisonbetween Muir's recollectionsof Orkneyand the literary landscapeof his proseand poetry, but althoughthe critic drawsour attentionto the fact that An Autobiographyrepresents a mythologisedrather than an authenticPicture of Orkney,he makeslittle of the personalelement in the novels(Marshall 1987).in an attemptto McCulloch remedythat, Margery emphasisesthe parallelsbetween autobiography and fiction in her studyEdwin Muir.- Poet, Critic and Novelist: To a degree,all goodnovels are autobiographical since their success dependson their authoescapacity to enterimaginatively into the scenarioswhich he or shecreates and to draw upon previousemotional experiencein orderto bring them alive for the reader.Yet, despiteMuies disclaimer,one sensesthat Poor Tomand The 7hreeBrothers may be in autobiographical a more specificway and that they arereworking and reinterpretingemotional crises from his past.(McCulloch 1993a:26) muirts relianceon personalmemories is obvious.The appearanceOf cousin Sutherland ThreeBrothers, is in The which supposedlyset in the sixteenthcentury, strikes me as particularly disturbing,while otherexamples are Mansie's experienceof Eglinton Street Tom in ne Three in Poor and the pig-slaughter Brothers. Of specialrelevance with Edwin Muir 1918-43 171 regard to my argumentis the portrayalof spaceand time, for evenif it is basedon personalmemoirs, the imageof Scotlandthat emergesfrom the narratives,fits comfortably into a more generalidea of dissociation.Accordingly, the writer uses fiction to developthe contrastbetween a rural and an urban Scotlandin orderto substantiatean interpretationof history that provedthe Reformationthe incidentthat had broughtthe nationto its fall. YU YhreeBrothers (193 1) providesthe clearestindication of Muir's agenda.Set in the sixteenthcentury, the narrativefollows the growth of the brothersSandy, Archie and David Blackadderon a farm outsideSt Andrews.Their life at Falsyth is governedby the rituals of an agriculhu-allife, which allow work andleisure to fall into an annually repeatedpattern. Every year the seedis sown,the pig is slaughteredand the harvest brought in, which bringsto mind An Autobiography'schapter on Wyre wheresuch structuresreinforced the poet'ssense of cohesionand continuity. Falsythrepresents the Eden of Orkney,in otherwords, which is symptomaticof tradition, stability and harmony.Unfortimately, the orderis soonundermined by the forcesof chaos.News arrives that CardinalBeaton has been murdered in St Andrewscastle, and in a passage reminiscentof Muir's 1946poem 'The Castle",the father explainsto the sensitive David how a betrayalhad enabledthe assassinsto slip in througha gatein the castle wall (Muir 1931: 10-16).Temporarily Blackadder's words satisfyhis son,but a senseof intrusion follows as a resultof the openingof David's eyesto anotherreality. Gradually, the unstableworld beyondFalsyth closes in on the Blackaddersuntil the two clashin the secondpart of the narrative.As a consequenceof the Cardinal'smurder and the Reformation,war hasbroken out in Scotland.From the detachedposition of Falsyth,the Blackaddershave watched the siegeof St Andrews,but they havehithwo avoidedan engagementwith suchmatters because of the distancebetween them and the fighting. Towardsthe end of part two, however,the forcesof disruptionintrude upon their haven. David andhis fatherare overlooking the battle betweenthe Protestantarmy and the monarch!s Frenchtroops in a neighbouringfield. Onemoment the struggleis real, the next it is not as David imaginesthe warriors as puppetswith no placein Falsyth: Figuresrose and sankin it, like shapesfloundering in a bog, giganticin the morning dusk.The radiancein the eastdeepened; the miry fields struggledup to the surfaceof the light; and now the helmetsand casques of soldierscould be seen,muskets and swordsand spearsrose out of the David line ground,and sawa of Frenchsoldiers advancing, and nearer at Edwin Muir 1918-43 172 hand,less discernible, for their backswere towardshim, anotherlinc, the Scots,gradually giving way. (Muir 1931: 179-80)

With David's moveto the city of Edinburghin the concludingpart of 71e Three Brothers, it becomesimpossible for him to contain the disorder.The transitionbetween rural andurban Scotland is traumaticfor the adolescentDavid, who cannotadjust to the slums,poverty, and bigotry of the city. In spite of its sixteenth-centurysetting, there are passagesin this part of The ThreeBrothers reminiscentof An Autobiography,which underlinesthe extentto which the fiction is basedon personalrecollections. In the light of this, it is interestingthat 7he ThreeBrothers endswith David's departurefor England and Europe:that is, Edwin Muir had himself escapedthe squalorof his Scottish surroundingsthrough a migration to London,and now he seemsto be justifying that move throughthe characterof David. A similarly negativeportrait of the Scottishcity emergesfrom Poor Tom,which comesout of MuiesGlasgow years in thesame way that Falsyth originated in Wyre. Poor Tomis concernedwith thechanging relationship between the brothers Tom and Mansie.Early in thenarrative Tom developsa brainturnour as a resultof anaccident causedby drunkenness.At first, Mansiedistances himself from the brother, whose coarsemanners he considers inferior to his own.As hewitnesses Tom's decline,he becomesobsessed with his brother'spain, and it is his responseto humansuffering whichis thecentral theme in thenovel. From the beginning of thenarrative, Muir relatesTorifs deteriorationto a dirty,urban environment. Cousin Jean charactcriscs his misfortuneas "the portionof thecorruption of Glasgowallotted to them,their private shareof thecorruption that was visible in thetroubled, dirty atmosphere"'(Muir 1932/1982a:93). Prior to that,Mansie reflects on theslums of EgfintonStreet in a passagereminiscent of ScottishJourne)r. A fine kind of streetto be in a Christiantown! Blatchford was quite right, by gum;streets like this hadno right to exist,'people could say what they liked.A warmcloud of stenchfloated into his face,he hurriedpast a fish-and-chipshop, and in a flashEglinton Street rose before him from endto endas something complete, solid andeverlasting; it hadbeen thereall thetime, he realised, and it wouldalways be there,something you hadto walk roundevery morning and evening, that forced you to go out of yourway until at lastyou got usedto yournew road and it seemed thenatural one. (Muir 1932/1982a:85-6) Edwin Muir 1918-43 173 There aretwo conclusionsto be drawn from the useof spacein Muir's novels.Firstly, the contrastbetween rural andurban is absolute.Falsyth is associatedwith continuity and cohesion,Glasgow represents discontinuity and decline,and togetherthey form a picture of a disunitednation. My secondpoint is relatedto the questionof time in that the tramition betweena rural and an urbanenvironment is a breakin humanexperience departedfrom innocentFalsyth, fall. - oncethe charactershave they cannotreverse their In his rendition of Edinburghand Glasgowin The nree Brothers andPoor Tom, Muir establishesa connectionbetween urban destitution,industrialism and Calvinism. In "A Note on the ScottishBallads", Transition andJohn Knox, he had suggestedthat the onceprosperous nation of Scotlandwas brokenby a Reformationthat split Scottish experiencein two. The effectsof the division were worsenedin the eighteenthcentury, the authorpointed out in ScottishJourney, because added to the spiritual corruptionof Calvinismwas a systemof physicalexploitation (Muir 1935/1985:103-4). Yet the roots of suchselfish individualism lay in the religious upheavalas SandyBlackadder recognisesin The ThreeBrothers: Many a wild day rve beenthrough since then, Davie, and many a cruel deedrve done;but then I got sick of that aswell, for I could find no rest anywhere,and I saw that the Protestantsat the headused the Protestants at the bottom, andthat mademe wild, for I was resolvedthat I shouldbe usedby nobody.So I madeup my mind that I would get siller andpower, and I gatheredenough gear together from lootedmonasteries and other placesto stockthe shop.But thenI found that I was still oppressedin somemeasure unless I kept my eyesopen, and so I cameto the conclusion... that you must oppressall that areunder ye or weakerthan ye, and standyour groundas long as you can to them that are aboveye. (Muir 1931:289-90).

What connectsCalvinism and industrialism,as they arepresented in The nree Brothers andPoor Tom,is the lack of respectfor individual well-being. As early as 1918,Muir had notedthe processof dehumanisationin WeModerns, and that tendencyis the main reasonbehind Mansie and David's crisesof faith. As regardsthe more generaltheme of dissociation,the first part of The ThreeBrothers and the concludingchapters of Poor Tomconjure up imagesof Scotlandbefore and after the disruption:David growsup in an ordered,medieval world, which installs in him a senseof cohesionthat allows him to withstandthe forcesof fragmentation.Mansie, on the other hand,is a post-Reformation Scot.No universalprinciples are available in his struggleto cometo termswith Tom's decay,which eventuallybrings him to questionthe beliefs he originally held. Edwin Muir 1918-43 174 Accordingly,Poor Tomand The ThreeBrothm arepermeated by the senseof discontinuitywhich Muir had beendeveloping in his writings since 1923:the differencesbetween David andMansie stress a breakin Scottishexperience, whereas the contrastbetween rural Falsythand urban Glasgowhighlights the implicationsof the Fall.

In Scottish Journey (1935), Muir examines the economic, social and cultural state of the nation in the 1930s.Like John Knox, Scottish Journey was a commissioned work. The author had been asked to write a companion volume to J. B. Priestley's English Journey, and the road he was expected to take had already been laid out by such works as William Power's Scotland and the Scots and George Blake's The Heart ofScotland. Muir did not choose the traditional structure of such "Condition of Scotland" works, however, which in the midst of depressionsaw an opportunity for national revival. The three central themes in Scottish Journey are depression,division and discontinuity, and

although he may have wished Scotland well when he originally acceptedthe commission, Muir seemsto be losing faith in the nation as the travelogue unravels. In the introduction, he sums up his impressions: I shouldlike to put heremy main impression,and it is that Scotlandis graduallybeing emptiedof its population,its spirit, its wealth, industry, art, intellect, and innatecharacter. This is a sadconclusion; but it has somesupport on historical grounds.If a countryexports its most enterprisingspirits andbest minds yearafter year, for fifty or a hundred or two hundredyears, some result will inevitably follow. Englandgives somescope for its best; Scotlandgives none; and by now its largetowns arecomposed of astutecapitalists and angryproletarians, with nothing that mattersmuch in between.(Muir 1935/1985:3-4)

He had expressedsimilar views in the 1931essay "rhe Functionlessnessof Scotland"', but this was the first time he devoteda book-lengthdiscussion to the thesis(Muir 1931/1982c:106). At the sametime, he now derivedhis conclusionsfrom an actual journey round Scotland,which is significant ashe appearsto havebeen shocked by what he saw.Muir had beenback in Scotlandsince his departurein 1919,but with the exceptionof the Montroseinterlude, that had beenfor shortervisits which did not necessarilytake him into the depressedareas. In 1935,on the contrary,he soughtout the areasthat had beenworst hit by the economicslump, and evenif he had encountered slumsas an adolescentin Glasgow,nothing could haveprepared him for this. "EdwardianScotland, for all its brutality and squalor," T. C. Smoutobserves in his Edwin Muir 1918-43 175 introductionto ScottishJourney, "'was imbued with the confidencethat comeswith economicvitality" (Muir 1935/1985:xvii); the ScotlandMuir rediscoveredwas not. As an exampleof the "Condition of Scotland7'genre, Scottish Joumey is exceptionallyrich in content.Among the issuesaddressed in the courseof Muir's travel arethe parochialismof small-townScotland, Border life as the last manifestationof authenticScottish culture, Walter Scott andRobert Bums as examplesof a deformed literary tradition, aswell as the dehumanisationof the poor which the authorhad noted in "Our Generation!'. With referenceto my argument,the most interestingthemes are the analysisof Scottishculture and the condition of Scotlandgenerally, for it is in his discussionof suchmatters that the writer's equivocalfeelings for his homecountry comeacross most clearly.In relation to the problem of nationalculture, Muir writes: As I write this, it strikesme that I am not describinga Scottishscene at all. And that is true, simply becauseterms like Scottishand English are becomingless and lessdescriptive of any form of life. So although Edinburghis Scottishin itself, onecannot feel that the peoplewho five in it areScottish in any radical sense,or have any essentialconnection with it. They do not evengo with it; they look Re visitors who havestayed therefor a long time. One imaginesthat not very long ago the real populationmust havebeen driven out, and that the peopleone sees walking aboutcame to stayin the town simply becausethe houses happenedto be empty.In otherwords, one cannotlook at Edinburgh without being consciousof a visible crack in historical continuity. (Muir 1935/1985:23)

Althoughit wasonly in Scottand Scotland that he would make the claim that Edinburgh no longerexisted as a nationalcentre, the critic is obviouslyconcerned with thesame processof denationalisationthat Gibbon had pointed out in GreyGranite (Muir 1936/1982b:2). Theloss of nationhood,Muir implies,meant that there was nothing particularlyScottish about Scottish fife, whichmade national surroundings such as EdinburghCastle irrelevant to modemScots. As a result,Scottish writers were placcd in animpossible position: if theyinsisted on their Scottishness,they had to rely on a past thathad closed with the 1707Union, if not before,which made their*art of no consequenceto the present; if, on theother hand, they addressed the present, they could not be Scottishas there was no sustainableScottish identity in 1935.From such initial considerations,the argument takes a nationalistturning: 'Though Scotland has not been a nationfor sometime, it haspossessed a distinctly marked style of life; andthat is now falling to pieces,for thereis no visibleand effective power to hold it togethee,(Muir Edwin Muir 1918-43 176 1935/1985:25). Scottishnationalism matters, in other words, as Scotlandmight otherwiselose the nationalconsciousness necessary for the developmentof great literature. So far, so good.Muir hasput forward an analysisof Scottishculture compatible with his thesisof discontinuity,as well as the nationalistclaim that a restorationof nationhoodwould inspirea renaissance.Unfortunately, this doesnot matchhis observationsin otherparts of the travelogue.For, while the problemsthat haveturned Edinburghinto an emptyshell arerelated to the decline in nationalconsciousness, the writer perceivesScotland's general crisis as anythingbut nationalin character.In the introductionMuir describeshow ScottishJourney had beeninspired by his 1934 encounterwith unemployedLanarkshire miners (Muir 1935/1985:1). That suggeststhat it was intendedas a personalconfrontation with a depressednation, which is confirmed by the chapteron "Glasgow", which has a clear industrial bias. This may seem paradoxicalin the light of the author'spersonal preference for rural Scotlandover the urban areas,but this is Muir writing as a social critic, not as a poet. Orkney,he stresses at the endof ScottishJourney, represents "the only desirableform of fife that I found in all myjoumey throughScotland" (Muir 1935/1985:241). Yet he recognisesin a passage reminiscentof Gibbon's 'The Land" that it offers no solution to the problemsof modem man. It is as an exception,"an erratic fruition; an end; not a factor which can be taken into accountin the painful and vital processesthrough which societyis passingat presenf'(Muir 1935/1985:241). Having discardedrural Orkney,he turns to the Scottish nation for an answer,only to be overwhelmedby its internal fragmentation.In "Edinburgh", he had longedto imagineScotland as a coherentwhole in the mannerof MacDiarmid,but his concludingcomments on the Highlandsunderlines that suchunity is impossible.To Muir, Scotlandremains a divided countrythat has failed to createa sharedsense of belonging: I reflectedthat Wallace had been betrayed, that David I hadsold his country-,I saw the first four Jamesesthwarted on everyside, Mary Stuart soldto theEnglish, Charles I soldto theEnglish, and Scotland itself sold to theEnglish. I rememberedCulloden and the Highland clans delivered helplessto Cumberlandbecause of theintrigues and counter-intrigues of theirchieftains and a few LowlandScots; I thoughtof thepresent fcud betweenGlasgow and Edinburgh, the still continuingantipathy between theHighlands and the Lowlands; and it seemedto me thatthe fmal betrayalof Scotlandwhich made it no longera nationwas merely the inevitableresult, the logicallast phase, of theintestine dissensions which hadall throughits historycontinued to rendit. (Muir 1935/1985:226-27) Edwin Muir 191843 177

The focus on betrayalconnects the non-fictionalScottish Journey with The Three Brothers, which beganwith the murderof CardinalBeaton. Although he claimedin "Glasgow" to portray"the Scotlandwhich presentsitself to one who is not looking for anything in particular,and is willing to believewhat his eyesand his earstell him!', Muir seemsto havearrived in Scotlandwith a view to identify the aspectsof Scottish life that would supporthis discontinuitythesis (Muir 1935/1985:101). In the light of that, it is perhapsno surprisewhen he suddenlydevelops his argumentinto an attackon Scottish nationalismunjustified by the factshe hashitherto put forward. Muir underlinesin "Glasgow"how the dismalcondition of inter-war Scotlandis the result of industrialism,which is an internationalrather than national process (Muir 1935/1985: 102). Sucha recognitionof the economicbasis for the crisis brings him back to the socialism of TheNew, 4ge: only a furtherdevelopment of the industrial system,which will involve economicredistribution, can create a better Scotland.Unfortimately, this is not his final word on the matter.After he hasestablished the economicroots of the crisis, the tone changesonce again: "A Scotlandwhich achievedthat end would be a nation, but it would not carevery muchwhether it was called a nation or not: the problem would havebecome an academicone" (Muir1935/085: 249). At this point, Muir is clearly contradictinghimself. He tries to balancethe nationalismof the Edinburghsection against the socialismof "Glasgow", only to leavethe reader confused.As a result,Scottish Journey does not appearto havehelped the writer in his strugglewith Scotlandas became obvious in the yearsthat followed.

To "Scottland" and beyond 193643

If ScottishJourney left the readerwondering as to whethernationalism or socialism provided the answer to Scotland's crisis, Edwin Muir's next publication did little to the ideological As resolve confusion. part of a thesis that challenged the relevance of the national question to present-dayScots, the author claimed in Scott and Scotland that Calvinism,not theloss of sovereignty,had caused the ruPture within Scottishtradition. ,s back Muir argumentreferred to earlierwritings suchas 71e ThreeBrothers, which had fictionalisedhis discontinuitY. experienceof Its connectionwith the conclusionof Scott Scotland lessthan however, and was obvious, as the discussionclosed with the Edwin Muir 1918-43 178 following declarationof the needfor economicreforms to take precedenceover constitutionalmatters: I do not believein the programmeof the ScottishNationalists, for it goes againstmy readingof history,and seemsto me a trivial responseto a seriousproblem. I canonly conceivea free and independentScotland comingto birth asthe resultof a generaleconomic change in society, after which therewould be no reasonfor Englandto exert compulsionon Scotland,and both nationscould live in peaceside by side. But meanwhileit is of living importanceto Scotlandthat it shouldmaintain and be ableto assertits identity-,it cannotdo so unlessit feels itself a unity-,and it cannotfeel itself a unity on a planewhich has a right to humanrespect unless it cancreate an autonomousliterature. (Muir 1936/1982b:113)

Like the GrassicGibbon of ScottishScene, Muir's lack of confidencein the ability of the Scotsto affect changeleads him into self-contradiction.On the one hand,he identifies "autonomousliterature" as a necessityif the nation is to overcomeits stateof internal fragmentation.On the other,he emphasisesthat socialism,not nationalism,is what Scotlandrequires, which is at oddswith his insistenceon Scottishdifference. As in ScottishJourney, he diagnosessymptoms that appearnational in origin, then drawsfrom them a socialistconclusion that fits uneasilyinto his theoriesas a whole. The readeris temptedto agreewith Neil Gunn,who observedin his review of Scottand Scotlandthat it was time Muir madeup his mind asto whetheror not Scottishnationhood was a trivial matter(Gunn 1936/1987a:126). Betweenthe publicationof ScottishJourney and Scottand Scotland,the Muirs had returnedto Scotland,which seemsto havestrengthened Edwin's Pessimismwith regard to his native country."[When] Edwin satdown to do Scottand Scotland'', Willa Muir recollectsin Belonging,"something of a very different natureemerged, with an undertoneof personalexasperation in it, to be found in no other book of Edwin's" (W. Muir 1968: 195).Willa Muir blamedthe bitternessshe detected between the lines of Scottand Scotland on their 1935 moveto St. Andrews,but shemaybe wrong to ascribe her husband'snegativity to theirchange of environmentexclusively. As partof my discussionof Muir's developmentin the 1920s,I mentionedthe ambivalencetowards Scotlandthat emergesfrom his letters,which is worth recalling at this point (p. 159). For, like GrassicGibbon, who had discoveredhe could only write aboutthe Mearns when in H=pshire, Muir was most happyabout Scotland when abroad.His first Scottishpieces were written whilst travelling aroundEurope, while little cameout of his Edwin Muir 1918-43 179 Montrose period; his mostproductive period as a Scottishcritic were the yearsin England between1929 and 1935,whereas his interestdiminished after the 1935 homecoming.Accordingly, there appears to be somethingin Scotlandthat actedas a block on his imaginationas he recognisedwith referenceto Scott in the introductionto Scott and Scotland: Scott,in otherwords, lived in a communitywhich was not a community, and set himself to carryon a tradition which was not a tradition; and the result wasthat his work was an exactreflection of his predicament.His picture of life hadno centre,because the environmentin which he lived had no centre.What traditionalvirtue his work possessedwas at second- hand,and derived mainly from Englishliterature, which he knew intimatelybut which was a semi-foreignliterature to him. Scotlanddid not haveenough life of its own to nourisha writer of his scope;it had neither a real communityto fosterhim nor a tradition to direct him; for the anonymousballad tradition wasnot sufficient for his genius.(Muir 1936/1982b:2-3)

Allan Massieargues in his introductionto the Polygonedition of Scottand Scotlandthat Scott was merely"a peg on which Muir could hanga generalargument" (in Muir 1936/1982b:ii). It wasnot Scott'sEdinburgh that was emptyýin other words, but the Scotlandthat Muir had encounteredin the mid-1930s.Once again he was writing out of his own experiencerather than providing an objectivesurvey of the stateof affairs, which calls into questionhis trustworthinessas a critic. Though obviouslymotivated by a personalagenda, Muir pretendedto provide an objective accountof the impactof a Scottishenvironment on the creativegenius of Walter Scott.In his third chapter,he comparedpoetry beforeand after the Reformation had in order to demonstratethat Scottishtradition goneastray, but this examinationwas clearly intendedto confirm his theoryof Calvinismas the distorting influencein Scottishhistory. Becauseof the Reformation,Muir claimed,the Scottishmind had becomeseparated from the Scottishheart in a mannerthat madeit impossiblefor artists to achievethe cohesionof the past(Muir 1936/1982b:43-4). The origin of this argumentwas Eliot's 1921essay "Ibe MetaphysicalPoets", which identified a similar "dissociationof sensibility"in seventeenth-centuryEnglish poetry. In the fight of that, it is ironical that Muir suggesteda retreatto English literatureas the solution to the Scottish predicament: "a Scottish writer who wishes to achieve some approximation to completenesshas no choice except to absorb English tradition! ' (Muir 1936/1982b: 4). basis muies words challengedthe of the revival Hugh MacDiannid had been promoting Edwin Muir 1918-43 180 since the early 1920s,while inspiring the authorto a dismissalof Scotsas a literary language.In the concludingchapter of Scottand Scotland,Muir thus writes: (Scots]still exists,in forms of varying debasement,in our numerous Scottishdialects; but -thesecannot utter the full mind of a peopleon all the levelsof discourse.Consequently when we insist on using dialect for restrictedliterary purposes we arebeing true not to the idea of Scotland but to provincialism,which is oneof the things that havehelped to destroyScotland. If we areto havea completeand homogeneousScottish literatureit is necessarythat we shouldhave a completeand homogeneouslanguage. Two suchlanguages exist in Scotland,and two only. The oneis Gaelicand the other is English.There seemsto me to be no choiceexcept for these:no half-way houseif Scotlandis ever to reach its completeexpression in literature.(Muir 1936/1982b:111)

Not surprisingly,MacDiarmid reacted strongly to the challenge,but he missedthe true weaknessin the argument,which is Muir's inability to acceptthe diversity that was the strengthof Scottishinter-war literature. By 1936A DrunkMan Look7at the 77jistleand A ScotsQuair hadput the potentialof Scotsbeyond doubt, which is to say that the vernacularneeded no defenceagainst the allegations.Muir, on the contrary,had as yet been unsuccessfulin his poetic experiments,which must have left him somewhat insecurewith regardto the languageissue: if Scottishliterature was definedon the ýasis of the vernacular,as Gibbonmaintained in "Literary Lights", the critic would be confined to a limited role; if in contrast he could demonstratethat English was the only realistic medium for a Scottishauthor, his personalpreference for the imperial tongue was justified, while therewould be considerablymore room for him to makean impact on Scottishpoetry. On top of that,Muir's ambivalenceabout his "second"home country niade him eagerto prove Scotlanda disappointmentfor creativewriters. The Reformation,he stressed,and the dissociationof Scottishsensibility that was the consequencethereof, meant that only artistswho put Scotlandbehind them, might succeedin the creationof greatart. Suchan argumentjustified the Muirs, move to London in 1919,as well as Gibbon'sEnglish exile, but it ignoredthe accomplishments of Hugh MacDiarmidand Neil Gunn,who had succeededin spite of their Scottish homes.Hence Scott and Scotland revealed much about Muir andhis probl=s with Scotland,whereas it containedlittle on the actualstate of the nation. Whetheror not Scottand Scotlandhelped him cometo a decisionon the Scottish question,Muir's Scottishpublications decrease after 1936.On the basisof that, Douglas Dunn hasargued in "Edwin Muir: Poetry,Politics and Nationality" for Scottand Edwin Muir 1918-43 181 Scotland as'. 'a gesturalfarewell to nationalityas a shapingfactor in the making of Muir's poetry" (Dunn 1987: 27). Although I acceptit as crucial to the criticism, I doubt that nationality was evera "shapingfactoe, in the poetry, while I do not considerScott and Scotlanda definitebreak with Scotland.It is true that Muir neverpublished another book on Scottishmatters, but theremay be otherreasons for that. First of all, Scottish Journey andScott and Scotlandwere commission6dworks, which is to say that it was his publishers,not necessarilyMuir himself, who had beeninterested in the issue. Secondly,the "Condition of Scotland"genre, which both ScottishJourney andScott and Scotlandbelong to, characterisesScottish writing up to the mid-1930s,while their number declinesthereafter as a possibleresult of a changingpolitical and cultural climate. MeanwhileMuir might havewanted more time for his poetry, whereasthe internationalcrisis of the late 1930s,which eventuallyled to the SecondWorld War, probably convincedhim that therewere moreurgent concerns than Scotland.To these could be addedthe role of MacDiarmid,who had attackedMuir repeatedlysince Scott and Scotland,although that shouldnot be overemphasised.If Muir had had something important to sayon the Scottishquestion, I doubt that MacDiannid could have silenced him. As it is, MacDiarmidoffered Muir a convenientexcuse for a withdrawal he was likely to makeanyway. The Story and theFable (1940),the first edition of Muir's autobiography,proves that the national questiondid not disappearentirely from Muir's writings. in Edwin Muir.. Poet, Critic and NovelistMargery McCulloch noteshow in the 'Trague and Dresden" chapterMuir originally expresseda wish for Scottishautonomy, which was removed from the 1954edition (McCulloch 1993:86). Yet it is the diary extractsthat completed TheStory and the Fable, which containthe strongestargument for nationalism: I believethat men arecapable of organizingthemselves only in relatively small communities,and that eventhen they needcustom, tradition, and memoryto guidethem. For thesereasons I believe in Scottish Nationalism,and shouldlike to seeScotland a self-governingnation. In greatempires the quality of individual life declines:it becomesplain and commonplace.The little tribal communityof Israel,the little city stateof Athens,the relatively,small Englandof Elizabeth'stime, meanfar more in the history of civilization than the British Empire.I am for small nationsas againstlarge ones, because I am for a Idnd of societywhere men havesome real practicalcontrol of their lives. I am for a Scottish nation,because I am a Scotsman.(Muir 1940:260) Edwin Muir 1918-43 182

Thoughreminiscent of Gunn's"Nationalism and Internationalism",this is at oddswith everythingMuir had said aboutScottish separatism in the mid- 193Os, which makes PeterButter's decisionto excludeit from the diary extractsreprinted in the Canongate edition ofAn Autobiographyappear somewhat strange. Muir's wordsunderline the complexityof his views on the nationalquestion, for, wherein previousworks he had optedfor a socialistrather than a nationalistsolution, he now seemsto be approaching the position of Gunn:that is, the small nation is beneficialto the individual becauseit offers a senseof continuity,and to civilisation becauseit stimulateshuman values rather thanundermining them. Although suchan argumentrepresents a departurefrom Scottand Scotland,it is not incompatiblewith the writer's other concernsin the late thirties. For, if during the Hampsteadyears his prime interesthad beenScotland, he now turnedhis attentionback to the situationin Europe.Throughout the inter-warperiod, Muir's Europeanoutlook had manifesteditself in the form of critical essayson H61derlin,his andWilla's translationsof Kafka aswell as the involvementwith TheEuropean Quarterly in 1934- 35. Yet it becameincreasingly important towards the end of the 193Os, when the Muirs' translationsof HermanBroch's novelsinto English andBroch's later arrival in St Andrewsensured an understandingon Edwin Muir's behalf of the threatof totalitarianismto Europeancivilisation. "(Everything] is dark, andis gettingdarker", Muir observesin a 1939letter to SydneySchiff, thenproceeds with the following analysisof the fascistthreat: "There is a real denial of humanityhere, as Broch says; thereis more,a contemptfor humanity,hatred of anyonewith a separate,unique life of his owif '(Muir 1939/1974:108). In TheStory and the Fable Muir connectssuch lack of respectfor individual integrity with the Germaninvasion of Czechoslovakia: The nineteenthcentury thought that machinerywas a moral force and would makemen better.How could the steam-enginemake men better? Hitler marchinginto Pragueis connectedwith all this. If I look back over the last hundredyears it seemsto me that we havelost more than we havegained, that what we havelost was valuable,and that what we have gainedis trifling, for what we havelost was old andwhat we have gained is merelynew. The world might havesettled down into a passableUtopia by now if it had not beenfor "progress".(Muir 1940:257)

Muir's conclusionis probablydrawn on the basisof a comparisonbetween the vigour he had discoveredin the Pragueof the 1920sand the impressionthat sucha world was comingto a closein the late thirties. Hencehis insistenceon the virtues of small-state Edwin Muir 1918-43 183 nationalismin TheStory and the Fable reflectsa growing concernover the dehumanisingforces of totalitarianism,not necessarilythe Scottishnationalism of Gunn andMacDiarmid. In orderto gain a full picture of Muir's strugglewith Scotlandtowards the endof the inter-warperiod, it is necessaryto turn to the poetry.The poet's Scottishverse divides into poemsconsidering the nation as a whole andpoems that addressthe specificissue of Calvinism.All seeScotland as a problem,however, 44a difficult land (where]things miscarry/whether we care,or do not careenough! ' (Muir 1956/1991:219). Most significantamong the poemsin the first group is "Scotland 1941".Peter Butter's notes to The CompletePoems ofEdwin Muir revealthat it was originally publishedin New Alliance in 1941,which explainsthe title. The themeof the poem is reminiscentof ScottishJourney and Scott and Scotland,however, which implies that the first version might havebeen written in the 1930srather than the 1940s.In 1943the poemwas reprintedin TheNarrow Place with an interestingrevision: wherethe 1941version had endedwith the words"If we could raisethese bones so braveand wrongAevive our ancientbody, part by partMe'd touchto pity the annalist'siron tongue/Andgather a nation in our sorrowfulheart", the 1943edition reads:"Such wastedbravery idle as a songj Suchhard-won ill might proveTime's verdict wrongjAnd melt to pity the annalist'siron tongue"(Muir 1941/1991:330 and 1943/1991:101). The original conclusiondoes not promiseScots an easyway out of their presentmalaise, but at least it offers the possibility of revival. Muir thus removedan unequivocalmanifestation of nationalismwhen he revisedthe poemfor TheNarrow Place, which indicateshow importantit was for him to tone down his Scottishnessat this stage. The idea of Scotlandas an artistic wasteland,which is highlightedin "Scotland 19419%is reinforcedby the poemsthat engagewith Calvinism.As early as 1923,"A Note on the ScottishBallads" had arguedfor Presbyterianismas an iron creedthat offeredMuir nothing as a poet. The Reformationbrought the old cohesionto its end, andwhat followed was a long-termprocess of physicaland spiritual deterioration.The 1956poem "The IncarnateOne" is probablythe author'smost openconfrontation with his Presbyterianheritage:

The Word madeflesh hereis madeword ag i, A word madeword in flourish and arrogantcrook. Seethere King Calvin with his iron pen, And God threeangry letters in a book, And therethe logical hook Edwin Muir 1918-43 184

On which the Mystery is impaledand bent Into an ideologicalinstrument. (Muir 1956/1991:213)

"The IncarnateOne" attacksScottish Calvinism, Bolshevismand any systemof belief that neglectsthe humandimension to life. In inter-warwritings suchas ne Three Brothers,Scottish Journey and Scott and ScotlandMuir had demonstratedhow such impersonalityhad madeof Scotlandan enviroriment hostile to the arts and,indirectly, resultedin a divided, Scottishsensibility. At the time, this thesiswas challengedby Neil Gunn andM. P. Ramsay,who thoughtthe critic was wrong to blamethe fall of Scotland on Calvinism exclusively.In his review of Scottand Scotland,Gunn askedwhy Protestantismhad not killed off English and Germanart when it proved so disastrousfor Scotland,whereas Ramsay's 1938 pamphlet, Calvin andArt was meantto provethat Calvinism and art were not incompatible(Gunn 1936/1987a:125; Ramsay 1938: 9). Their points did little to changeMuir's opinionswith regardto Presbyterianism.George Marshall's In a Distant Isle demonstratesto what an extent the ghostof Calvin had hauntedthe poet during his Orkneychildhood, and as "The IncarnateOne" reveals,it was only in the late 1940s,when in Romehe encountereda humandimension to Christianitythat he abandonedhis negativity in favour of an affumative vision (Marshall 1987: 127-28).Accordingly, Muir's own experiencewith Scottishreligion had installedin him a strongopinion on theologicalmatters as Margery McCulloch observesin Edwin Muir.- Poet, Critic and Novelist: Muir's poetry springsessentially from his responseto his Scottish environmentand culture,a culturein which religion hashad a distinctive and dominantrole, andwhere the specificdoctrines of that religion seemedat variancewith the valuesof the -socialcommunity in which he grew up andwith the aspirationtowards self-knowledge and self- determinationof the developinghuman being. (McCulloch 1993:97)

My previousexamination of Muir's writings in the late 193Os has been intended to show that he did not abandonhis Scottishnessafter Scottand Scotland.He may have turnedtowards a poetic vision that seemedrelevant to all mankindrather than the nationalsof one specific country,but the questionsof discontinuityand Calvinism lingeredon in his work. In consequence,Edwin Muir's strugglewith Scotlandremained centralto his writings throughoutthe inter-warperiod, which justifies a considerationof his work within the frame of a generalisedScottish Renaissance programme. Edwin Muir 1918-43 185 Edwin Muir in the Scottish Renaissance

VlWlst his most productiveperiod as a prosewriter was the 1920sand 1930s,Edwin Muir's maturity as a poet only reaUybegan in the 1940s.Prior to that, he hadbeen experimentingwith different voices,including the ballad Scotsof his ScottishChapbook pieces,but only with the 1943collection 77zeNarrow Place did he approachthe toneof his maturepoetry. There are several reasons for that. First of all, the authorhad to overcomethe frustrationsemerging from his traumaticmigration from an edenicOrkney to the modemhell of industrial Glasgow.Because of suchpersonal experience, he had found it hard to look beyonda senseof dissociation,an absolutecontrast between light and darkness,in the 1920sand 1930s,while in the 1940she cameto accepthis trials as part of a generalmyth of mankindthat embracedhuman pain as well as kindness.A secondexplanation is that Muir had to learn the poetic craft first. To MacDiarmid,who was naturally gifted, the growth towardsa maturepoetry was swift and primarily took the form of linguistic and formal experimentation.To Muir, on the other hand,whose principal concernwas the ideasthemselves rather than their articulation,the searchfor a voice was a long process,during which he testedout various stylistic and formal codes. Henceit was only in the late 1940sthat he found a poetic languagethat could express his philosophyin a satisfactoryway. Muir's late maturationis relatedto his world vision which is anotherproduct of the forties. While in the inter-war period, he hadprimarily consideredthe conceptsof pastcohesion versus present fragmentation in relationto British affairs, the SecondWorld War broughthome to him the universalscale of the disruption.Not only Scotlandsuffered from dissociation;the entire world was deterioratingas the writer realisedin 1948when, as a British Council employee,he witnessedthe communisttake-over in Czechoslovakia.As in the "Our Generation" series,where he had attackedBritish societyfor its inhumantreatment of the underprivileged,Muir objectedto the communists'inability to acceptthe integrity of the single humanbeing. In An Autobiography,he reflectson the impossiblechoice such a categoricalsystem had inflectedon a femalefriend: Theycould understand a good worker, but a goodhuman being was an abstractionwhich fell outsidetheir sphereof thoughtand therefore a sourceof confusion.So they could not believethat my Czechfriend reallyfound it hardto giveup herreligion, or cut herselfoff fromher parents.History, the masses, revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat,and the final utopiawhen, at thegreat halting place of history, the statewould wither away and all wouldbe changed;what could a Edwin Muir 191843 186 privateperson's beliefs and affectionsmatter compared with thesegreat things?(Muir 1954/1993:265-6)

Paradoxically,the nervousbreakdown provoked by the author'smeeting with totalitarianismmay havehelped him towardshis maturevision. That is, severalof Muir's finestpoems such as "The Labyrinth!'and "The GoodTown! ' cameout of his experiencein Prague,pointing forwardsto his celebrationof the humancondition in OneFoot in Eden.In his 1956collection, Muir underlinesthat it is our humanity,for goodor bad,that in the end enablesus to restorea senseof unity, which suggeststhat he hasfinally movedbeyond the fragmentationof his inter-warwork. With regardto Scotland,Edwin Muir becameincreasingly detached from Scottish politics andculture towards the endof his St Andrewsperiod. To an extent,that is the result of the troublesthe Muirs encounteredwhen in 1939,the outbreakof a second world war deprivedthem of their incomefrom the Germantranslations. At the same time, Edwin Muir was excludedfrom an academicenvironment which did not recognise the achievementof a critic whosereputation relied on newspaperwritings ratherthan formal education.Such difficulties strengthenedhis imageof Scotlandas an environmenthostile to the arts.He felt he had beenlet down by his homecountry, and his disappointmentresembles that of Hugh MacDiarmid,who in the late 1930swas undergoinga similar crisis of faith. After the departurefrom St Andrewsin 1942,Muir worked temporarilyfor the British Council in Edinburghbefore he was sentto Prague. In 1950,he returnedto Scotlandone last time in orderto takeup the position aswarden of NewbattleAbbey. Lettersfrom the early 1950sindicate that the writer was initially happywith the new environment,as well aswith his responsibilityfor the students. Gradually,his tonebecame more bitter as it dawnedupon him that his ideal of liberal educationdid not matchthe Committee'swish for a vocationalcollege, and in 1955,he decidedto leaveNewbattle to takeup the post as CharlesEliot Norton Professorat Harvard.In a letter composedon the vergeof his departure,he sumsup his feelingsfor Scotland:"I agreethat Scotlandis hard to put up with, and difficult for a poef '(Muir 1955/1974:174). Such disillusionment probably influenced Muir's accountof Scotland in An Autobiography,which was written during the Newbattleyears. In the end,he thus decidedto excludefrom that work his involvementwith the Scottishmovement in the 1920sand 1930sbecause that meanthe did not haveto engagewith suchsensitive matters.Scotland did not disappearentirely from his writings. In OneFoot in Eden, Edwin Muir 1918-43 187

Muir's homecountry was reimaginedas "The Difficult Land", whereasthe final diary extractsfrom SwaffharnPrior, 1958,returned to his Glasgowyears (Muir 1954/1993: 293-94).Whether or not he wantedto do so, Scotlandwas too intimate a part of his being, in otherwords, to allow for a completewithdrawal. Even if his writings showEdwin Muir taking a standon Scottishquestions, it is his necessaryfor the readerto take into consideration life-long problemsin comingto termswith Scotland.With referenceto that, a comparisonbetween Willa Muir's Belongingand her husband'sautobiographies is illuminating, for, whereasEdwin cuts his involvementwith the ScottishRenaissance in the 1920sand 1930sdown to a mere twenty pagesout of 277 in An Autobiography,Willa makesthem appearsomewhat more substantial.That enablesher to elaborateon the developingfriendship between Muir andMacDiarmid during the Montrosespell of 1924-25(W. Muir 1968:115-16). Shereflects on the 1932P. E. N. Congressin Hungary,where Muir had stoodup for an independentScottish organisation, whilst remindingthe readerthat Scottand Scotland did not comeout of nothing,but was part of the VoiceofScotland series(W. Muir 1968: 153 and 194).To adoptMuir terminology,one is well advisedto readWilla's accountas Story,Edwin's asFable. Although it underlineshow selectiveEdwin Muir's accountis, Belongingdoes not explainwhy. In the previouschapter, I mentionedthe differencein tonebetween The Story and the Fable andAn Autobiography,where the more nationalistsections had disappeared,and that may offer a clue (pp. 181-82).When in 1954the authorsat down to bring his story up to the present,his bad feelingsfor Scotlandhad been reinforced by his recenttroubles at Newbattle,which left him with little inclination to write of his associationwith the ScottishRenaissance. As a result, Muir's writings leavethe impressionthat he had disappearedas a Scottishwriter between1940 and 1954. A seconddifficulty with Muir as a spokesmanfor the Renaissanceis the pessimism that runs throughhis criticism of the 1930s.Because he perceivedScottish experience in terms of dissociation,he was unableto "seeScotland whole", which is an essential differencebetween him andMacDiarmid. Muir's Scottishnation is "the difficult country"; his Scotsthe Covenantersat Bothwell Brig or the Jacobitesat Culloden, whoseinternal disunity brings abouttheir destruction,and that makesthe Renaissance programmeof nationalregeneration somewhat unsatisfying to him (Muir 1935/1985: 227). Had thereexisted a Scottishnation to promoteit, suchideals would havebeen Edwin Muir 1918-43 188 fine, but in the poet's interpretation,the historic fall of Scotlandmeant there no longer existedsuch a thing. Muir writes in ScottishJourney: If therewas areally strongdemand for such a union, Englandcould not withhold it, nor probablyattempt to do so. The real obstacleto the maldngof a nation out of Scotlandlies now in the characterof the people,which is a result of their history, as their history was in large measureof the things of which I havebeen speaking, geographical and racial. And that obstacle,being the product of severalcenturies of life, is a seriousone; it is, in fact, Scotland.(Muir 1935/1985:231-32)

At variousstages of his career,the authorputs forward socialism,Douglasism and guild socialismas alternativesto nationalism,but he fails to convince.He is at his bestwhen identifying the shortcomingsof a nationalistvision, whereashe finds it harderto developsubstitute creeds, which suggestshe had no viable answerhimself. In short, Muir is powerful in his analysisof the condition of Scotland,but hasno affirmative vision to matchthose of Gunn andMacDiarmid. My final problemwith a readingof Muir within the contextof the Scottish Renaissanceis also the most important as it may explain his curiousomission of the Scottishyears from An Autobiography,as well as the lack of a positive vision. In the introductionI quotedMuir's 1927letter to the Thorburns,but it is worth repeatingat this point: "I feel ratherdetached, as I've often told Grieve,because after all I'm not Scotch,I'm an Orkneyman, a good ScandinaviaW'(Muir 1927/1974:64). The reader shouldnot overemphasiseMuir's insistenceon the Scandinavianelement, for, as opposedto Eric Linklater, he nevervisited Scandinaviaor includedNordic referencesin his writing. Yet his senseof distanceis significant:Willa Muir recallsin Belonginghow her husband'sunderstanding of the languageproblem differed from MacDiarmid's becauseof his Orcadianroots, andMuir's perceptionof himself as outsiderwithin Scottishletters may well haveinfluenced his stanceon other Renaissanceideas, too (W. Muir 1968: 115-16).The effectsof suchdetachment were strengthenedby the fact that he wrote most of his Scottishcriticism abroad.After the 1919departure for London,he spentmost of his life outsideScotland because he found it easierto be acceptedthere, which undoubtedlycoloured his feelingsfor the homeland.In a letter composedonly twenty five daysafter his return to Scotlandin 1924,Muir writes: "Scotlandhas been a saddisappointment to us after all the longing we had for it, so shut in, unresponsive, acridly resolvednot to openout and live. For our own sakewe shall not live here for long, not more than two monthsI think, if we can help if ' (Muir 1924/1974:4 1). Edwin Muir 1918-43 189 Apparently,the Muirs could not help it, for they remainedin Montrosefor anotheryear, but Edwin's disenchantmentis clear: he had returnedafter threeyears in Europewith the intentionof settlingdown. His cosmopolitanattitudes did not suit small-town Scotland,however, which broughthim to the conclusionthat he could expectno recognitionfrom his compatriots.In order to acceptScotland, he went to Englandin 1929in a move that sumsup his relationshipwithhis native country: that is, Edwin Muir is outsiderwhen he is inside, insider when out, and suchambivalence makes him unableto cometo termswith Scotland. Conclusion

"41L iLne DissociatedImagination? 191 The dissociatedimagination?

In "The Nameand Nature of Modernism",Malcolm Bradbury andJames McFarlane's introductionto Modernism(199 1), the editorsquestion the notion of one,unified modernistmovement: Modernismwas indeedan internationalmovement and a focus of many forceswhich reachedtheir peak in various countriesat varioustimes. In someit seemedto stayfor a long period; in others,to function as a temporarydisturbance and then go awayagain. In someit seemedto do greatviolence to the receivedtradition - of Romanticismor Victorianism, Realismor Impressionism- and in othersit seemsa logical development of it. IndeedModernism can look surprisinglydifferent dependingon whereone finds the centre,in which capital (or province) onehappens to stand.Just as "modem" in the Englandof today can meansomething very different from Whatit meanta centuryago for Matthew Arnold, so it can alsobe observedvarying significantly fi-om.country to country, from languageto language.(Bradbury/McFarlane 1991: 30-1)

The discrepancieswithin the ScottishLiterary Renaissance,which I havetried to bring out throughmy examinationof Hugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn,Lewis GrassicGibbon and Edwin Muir, underlinethe absurdityof a too essentialistconception of modernism in Scotland.If the critic acceptslanguage as the centralissue, the main proponentsof modernistexperimentation are MacDiarmid and Gibbon,who tried to developthe Scots vernacularinto a literary vehicle suitablefor modernthought. If one considersthe Europeandimension, on the otherhand, which is emphasisedin much of the inter-war propaganda,the protagonistof the Scottishrevival must be Muir, who actuallylived on the Continentwhere most of his colleagueswere internationalistsin theory only. Finally, a studyconcerned with geographicaldecentralisation might nameGunn the central authorin the Renaissanceon the basisof his Highland novels,which placedthe most north-easterlycomer of Scotlandon the literary map of Europe.Accordingly, thereis not one ScottishRenaissance, but many;not one or two single spokespersons,but several,depending on which thematicand ideological considerations lie at the back of our interpretation. A similar concernwith alternativesto the traditionally unifying conceptionof literatureis manifestwithin Scottishtradition in suchpublications as Genderingthe Nation (1995) andA History ofScottish Women'sWriting (1997),which highlight the multiplicity of voiceswithin Scottishliterature. The theoreticalbasis of this revisionism The dissociatedimagination? 192 is the Russiancritic M. M. Bakhtin. With specificreference to language,Cairns Craig showsin TheModern Scottish Novel (1999)how Bakhtin allows us to deconstructthe unitary approachto nationsand nationalism: The ideaof the nation as a single andunified totality is itself an invention requiredby a -specificphase of the developmentof the systemof nation- statesin the global developmentof modernitY,one which hascontinued to exertenormous influence in British cultureprecisely to the extentthat Englandhas been presented as the most effective exampleof sucha unity. The nation-as-unityis the reflex of an idea of the nation as founded on linguistic purity andhomogeneity, but asBakhtin pointedout such conceptionsof a unitary languageare in fact the expressionof a desireto limit what is fundamentalto the natureof language- its diversity andits tendencyto fragmentinto a multiplicity of voices: (C. Craig 1999:30-3 1)

Thanksto the effort of critics over the pastdecades, I think we havereached a point whereEngland is no longertaken to be the absolutemodel for nationaldevelopment which is crucial for a recognitionof Scottishtradition. In the courseof my discussion,I havetried to go one stepfurther. For, althoughHugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn,Lewis GrassicGibbon and Edwin Muir are all establishedrepresentatives of Scottish modernism,their visions areby no meansidentical. Whilst substantiatingMalcolm Bradburyand James McFarlane's claim for modernismas the meetingof different agendas,this lack of cohesionimplies that the Bakhtiniannotion of pluralism could be appliedto the mainstreamof Scottishliterature. That is, the critic may identify a number of recurringthemes in the literature,as I proposedin my initial chapter,but asthe previousdiscussion has demonstrated,these motifs are employedin different waysby the individual authors.In consequence,I would arguefor the ScottishLiterary Renaissanceas a variety of discoursesrather than a movement,and I hopemy point will be provedby this concludingre-examination of the visions of MacDiarmid, Gunn, Gibbon andMuir in the light of the generalthemes of geography,history, religion, languageand literature which I introducedearlier in the "Voice of Scotland"section (pp. 3348).

Voices of Scotland I believemy analysesof the individual visions of Hugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn,Lewis GrassicGibbon andEdwin Muir havedemonstrated the extentto which a concernwith the stateof the nationbrought eachauthor to reconsiderScotland and his own relationto it. All writers camefrom rural backgrounds,which installed in them a strongsense of The dissociated imagination? 193 the native tradition that had survivedin suchareas. It is thus unlikely that Gibbonand MacDiarmidwould havebeen inspired to experimentwith the Scotslanguage, had they not had first-handexperience with the Mearnsand Border dialectsthemselves. At the sametime, theseartists decided to write aboutScotland in an agewhen suchallegiances might haveinhibited their growth.The publishingmarket was controlledby London,the largestaudience for literaturewas English,which only seemedto leavea limited scope for intellectualswho favoureda lesscentralised perspective. MacDiarmid, Muir, Gibbon and Gunnparted company over ideologicalmatters and indeedthe probability,or improbability,of a restorationof Scottishnationhood. Yet they recognisedthat somethingwas wrong with Scotlandand felt compelledto act upon it. As a result,they usedliterature to draw attentionto the political, economic,social andcultural conditions of the nation in a mannerthat is characteristicof the period literatureas a whole. just as the ideaof presentdepression versus future regenerationreflected the interests of a majority of Scottishintellectuals in the 1920sand 1930s,the themesthat recur in the writings of my chosenwriters aresymptomatic of their age.As I discussedin my analysesof the individual artists,the inter-war concernwith geography,history, religion, languageand literature was prominent in the work of MacDiarmid, Gunn,Gibbon and Muir, and it undoubtedlycontributed to their different ideasof Scottishness.On the most generallevel, that madethese motifs crucial in the constructionof Scotlandas an imaginedcommunity in the 1920sand 1930s.As the previousinquiry hasunderlined, my four spokesmenfor the Renaissancedid not necessarilyunite in their approachto suchissues, however. In an attemptto foregroundsuch tension, I thereforewant to end with a considerationof the five themesin relation to the particularvisions of Scotland that emergedfrom the chapterson MacDiarmid, Gunn, Gibbon andMuir. I shall begin with a summaryof the generalidea as it comesacross in the majority of inter-wartexts, move on to an examinationof the positionsthe authorsadopted with regardto the specificissue, then finish with a reflection on the possibleimplications. As a conclusion to my argument,it is my intention to constructa discoursebetween four key writers of the period in orderto identify somefimdamental problems in relation to the Renaissance idea.

Geography: The dissociatedimagination? 194 As I discussedin chapterone, the revaluationof geographyin ScottishRenaissance writing combineda constructiveand a deconstructivestrategy. In the passagefrom Scotlandand the Scotsthat introducedmy initial considerationof space,William Power describedhow his contemporarieswere stripping the nation of the false imageryof the past (p. 37), andmy four representativesseem to be motivatedby similar concerns.In the prologueto SunsetSong, Gibbon stresseshow Kinraddie aimedto balanceout the rival claimsof Kailyard and anti-Kailyard,whereas Gunn! s first novels challengethe Celtic Twilight ideologyof FionaMacleod in particular (p. 125 and 102).In Scottish Journey,Edwin Muir observeshow Barrie, Scott andBums distortedthe perceptionof the Scottishscene, while Hugh MacDiarmid rejectswhat he termedthe "Thibetisation" [sic.] of the Highlandsand Islands in his Islands ofScotland (Muir 1935/1985:43-44, 57-61,89-90;MacDiarmid 1939: 18). Gibbon,Gunn, Muir and MacDiarmid thus agree aboutthe needto demolishany false ideasof Scotlandas a land of romanceor Celtic Twilight. As regardsthe imagethat is chosento replacethe stereotypes,there is lessconsensus amongthe four. All prefer a rural vision to the Scotlandrepresented by Glasgowand the IndustrialBelt, but the local basesof their imaginedcommunities differ, as do the ideologicalmessages conveyed. Gunn! s Highland villages comeout of the authoes childhoodlandscape of Caithness,while Gibbons Kinraddie reflectsthe Meams.Muir's "organiccommunity" represents an imaginativereworking of his native Orkney,while MacDiarmid!s second"Direa&' constructsan imageof Scotlandthrough the fusion of all the complexitiesof a Border scene.Accordingly, eachartist approachesScotland from a stancethat is geographicallyspecific, which raisesthe questionof whetheror not he hasthe right to presumeto speakfor the nation on sucha narrow ground. Geographicalspecificity in itself is not a problem,for the fiction of William Faulkner provesthat it is possibleto channelthe entire Southernexperience through the novelist's homecounty in Mississippi,whereas Joyce universalised Dublin. More often thannot, the portrait of the Scottishlandscape is tied to the writers' political beliefs, however, which causesfriction. The first problemwith the Renaissancegeography is the conflict betweenreality and fable. The inter-warwriters emphasisedin their criticism that their rural visions conveyedno completeimage of the nation. In "Literary Lights" Gibbon points out that the real test of his methodwould haveto be the modemcity, while Edwin Muir stresses The dissociated imagination? 195 in ScottishJourney that Glasgowrepresents the heartof modemScotland in termsof numbers(Gibbon/MacDiarmid 1934: 205; Muir 1935/1985:102). Occasionally, such an awarenessof the contrastbetween the reality of urbanScotland, where most Scotslive, aid the countrysidewhich dominatesthe literature,brings the writers to reflect on the city experienceas in Gibbon'sGrey Granite and Gunn!s Wild GeeseOverhead. Alternatively, it might force upon them a needto justify their vision. In relationto this, two strategiesare particularly common. The first involves an acceptanceof the fact that ruralism hasbecome impossible as a result of historical change,and the classic exponentof this view is Gibbon,who writes in "The Land": They changereluctantly, the men andwomen of the little crofts and cottarhouses; but slowly a quite new orientationof outlook is taking place.There are fewer children now plodding throughthe black glaur of the wet sommerstorms to school,fewer in both farm and cottarhouse. The ancient,strange whirlimagig of the generationsthat enslavedthe Scotspeasantry for centuriesis broken.(Gibbon/MacDiarmid 1934: 302)

Within the samecategory, I would placethe Muir of ScottishJourney and the Gunnof The Grey Coast,The Lost Glen andMorning Tide, for theseworks suggestthat a rural ideal cannotrepresent contemporary Scotland. The alternativeto the "deathof the countryside"approach is to movebeyond reali sm towardsthe sphereof myth and fable. In Out offfistory CairnsCraig discusseshow ScottishRenaissance writers found it difficult to relateto the problemof history in a satisfactorymanner, and he substantiates his argumentwith referencesto the personalmythologies that Muir, Gunn and MacDiarmid developedtowards the end of the 1930s(C. Craig 1996:48-56). What connectsMuies portrayalof a harmonious,never-changing Wyre, MacDiarmid!s recoveryof an ideal Scotlandthrough his GaelicMuse, and "the other landscape"of Gunn's later works, is the representationof landscapeas a symbolof permanencein a world that is threateningto fragment."Behind the world of time and history lies this eternalgeometry of the landscape",Craig writes: "an imagein geologicalformation of what the mind can strive after, 'a condition of no connectionwith time at all"' (C. Craig 1996:55). 1 find Craig lessconvincing when he applieshis thesisto Gibbon,which is perhapsnot surprising,given the Mearnswriter's preoccupationwith marxist evolution. The questionof realismversus idealism determinesto what extentthe individual authormanages to "seeScotland whole". Many inter-war intellectualssaw a united Scotlandas the preconditionfor a restorationof nationhood,and the authorsmost The dissociatedimagination? 196 obsessedwith unity also appearto havebeen the keenestsupporters of nationalism. With referenceto the four writers in question,Muir and Gibbon show a lack of confidencein a possiblere-unification of Scotland!s various factions,where Gunn and MacDian-nidview the 11ighlandsand Lowlandsas one. In responseto the imageof fi-agmentation,the jigsaw nation that Muir denouncedat the end of ScottishJourney (p. 176),Gum observesin Risky and Scotlandhow the Lowland responseto the Reformationproves the integrity of the Scottishspirit: Why didift the TeutonicLowlands show the samecharming reaction as TeutonicEngland? Actually Highlandsand Lowlandsbehaved alike, striving for the sameend with the samefiiry, thefuror caledoniensisor perfervidiumscotorum of historic Scotland.Accordingly - for nothing movedthe spirit moreprofoundly thanreligious feeling-I am compelled to concludethat spiritually the Highlandsand Lowlandsare akin over againstEngland, and not Englandand the Lowlandsover againstthe Highlands.(Gunn 1935: 101)

MacDiarmidtakes the ideal of a (re-)unitedScotland one stepfinther when in Lucky Poet he declareshis Scotlanda unit composedof all differences(MacDiarmid 1943: 324). From the treatmentof Scottishgeography in the work of MacDiarmid, Muir, Gunn and Gibbon,I will draw two conclusions.First of all, the imageof the nation in the literatureis derivedfrom the artists' individual experiencesof a rural Scotland.The writers recognisethat their visions cannotbe maintainedwithout a withdrawal into the realm of myth, which is to saythat the most realistic portraitsof Scotlandare critical of ruralismbecause it constitutesan impossibledream in twentieth-centuryScotland. Equally significantis the striving towardsan idea of a united Scotland.Such an inclusive vision requiresa high degreeof idealismand confidencein the nation,which is availableto MacDiarmid and Gunn,who had found in Scottishnationalism a solid foundationfor a "Scotlandwhole'. Muir and Gibbon,on the otherhand, lack suchan ideologicalanchor, and their imagesof the nation consequentlyfragment.

History: The most commoninterpretation of the pastin the inter-warliterature is in termsof discontinuity.Where nineteenth-century intellectuals had acceptedScottish history as constantprogress towards the evolutionaryheight of their own age,their Renaissance successorswere lessenthusiastic. The key eventsin Renaissancehistoriography were The dissociatedimagination? 197 the Reformation,the 1707Union of Parliamentsand the IndustrialRevolution, but as MacDiarmidpoints out in Albyn, they were interrelated: The explanationsof Scotland!s leewaylie in the Reformation,the Union with Englandand the* Industrial Revolution. If I isolatethe secondof theseas the main cause,it is becauseit was indispensableto the consummationand continuance of the first and largely determinedthe effectupon Scotland of the third.... At all eventsthe effect of all these threecauses was overwhelminglyrepressive and anti-Scottish. (MacDiarmid 1927/1996a:11-12).

As I arguedpreviously, a centralfactor in the revaluationof history is the processof demythologisationwhich dismissedtraditional figuressuch asMary Queenof Scotsand Bonnie PrinceCharlie in favour of ordinarypeople (p. 40). Their accountsof the past broughtthe Renaissancewriters to discussionsof the present,the inter-warDepression, as well asthe possiblefuture for the nation. Onceagain, the individual authoesidea of Scotlandwas influencedby his/herideological stance, and a recurringtheme is the possiblerestoration of nationhood.The motivation behind ScottishRenaissance historiographyseems to be an attemptto initiate a processof nationalregeneration, in otherwords, which might bring aboutthe rebirth of Scotland. With referenceto theindividual histories of Muir, MacDiarmid,Gunn and Gibbon, thereseems to be a consensusabout the Reformation, the Union and industrialism as the threekey eventsin Scottishhistory. All recognisethe connection between these episodes,but differ in theirinterpretations. To MacDiarmid,the main issue is denationalisation.Following upon the disastrous Battle of Flodden,which in 1513had broughtthe GoldenAge of JamesIV to anend, the Reformation weakened the nation evenfurther when, on theone hand, it severedthe old alliancebetween Scotland and France,while strengthening,on theother, the Scottishties with England.(MacDiarmid Albyn 1927/1996a:12). Once Scotland started to absorbEnglish manners, it waseasy to introducethe Union of Parliamentswhich put anend to Scottishautonomy, whilst increasingthe effects of anglicisation.The decline of Scotlandculminated with the IndustrialRevolution, which would have spread, MacDiarmid claims, "to Scotland muchless injuriously if Englandhad suddenly disappeared about 1700" (MacDiarmid 1927/1996a:11). Although driven by similarideas about the erosionof Scottish nationhood,Neil Gunnis lessconcerned with thedangers of Englishinfluence in Scotland,and more with the internaldisintegration that manifested itself in theform of theHighland Clearances, emigration and a generalloss of belief amongScots in their The dissociatedimagination? 198 capacityto decidefor themselves.Gunn would agreethat the consequencesof the Reformationand the Union were disastrousfor the nation, while his Highland origins inspire him to an examinationof the Clearancesin relation to industrialism.Only a Scot, Gunn observesin NisAy and Scotland,could have composedthe oath that broke the spirit of the Gaelin the aftermathof the JacobiteRisings (Gunn 1935:71); only Scots might put a halt to the declineand restore prosperity to the nation. Like MacDiarmid, Gunn looks to nationalismfor an answer:if Scotlandwas to experiencea second GoldenAge, it would requirenative geniusand control, for it was the loss of nationhood,accompanied by anglicisationand internal division, that had broughtthe nation to its fall. Edwin Muir andLewis GrassicGibbon sharethe view that the Scottishsense of nationhoodhad beenchanged by the Reformation,Union and industrialisation,but they remain critical of Gunnand MacDiarmid! s emphasison the national questionas the key issue.Nationhood matters, but only when it is part of the experienceof ordinary Scots; when imposedfrom above,it is insignificant at best,oppressive at worst. In Scottish Journey Muir reflectson the insignificanceof Scottishautonomy to the majority of the population: If the Nationalists'ideas were put into practiceit would no doubt help to redressthe inequalitybetween the two countries:the unemployedfigures in Scotlandwould probablydecrease, and thoseof England simultaneouslygo up; that is, assumingthat the presentindustrial system continued.There would still be a fairly big residueof unemployment;the slumswould still exist as they are;the greatmajority of the peoplewould still be poor; the workmanwould still live in fear of being thrown out of his job. In return the populationwould havethe comfort of knowing they were citizensof an independentScotland, of being poor on Scottishnotes andcoins insteadof on English,of drawing the dole from a Scottish Governmentinstead of the presentone, and of being examinedon Dunbarand Bums in the schoolsin place of Shakespeareand Milton. (Muir 1935/1985:246-7).

To Muir, the loss of sovereigntyis not a vital issue.As I shall return to in my discussion of religion, he sawthe Reformationas the main eventin Scottishexperience because it broke the connectionbetween the GoldenAge of JamesIV andpost-Reformation Scotland.In addition,it twistedthe minds of ordinaryScots and inspired the capitalist ethosthat eventually cleared the Highlands and built the Glasgowslums. Muir's interest in impact history the of on theconditions of the Scottishpeople resembles that of Gibbon, history whosereading of underlineshow major events had affected ordinary The dissociated imagination? 199 folk. In "The Antique Scene"the novelist suggeststhat nationhoodis only significant when it comesfrom the people.The struggleof William Wallace'sArmy of the Commons,for example,is crucial becauseit representsa popular rising againstan invading oppressor,whereas Robert the Bruce'sstrategic manoeuvres, which mostly involved the aristocracy,hardly mattersat all (Gibbon/MacDiarmid1934: 27-28). On a similar note, Gibbonstresses that the Reformationmight havebeen turned into victory for the commoners,had Knox! s ideasof social reform prevailed.Instead it was expropriatedby the nobility, with the peoplesuffering as a result (Gibbon/MacDiarmid 1934:3 1). Towardsthe endof "The Antique Scene",the 1745Rising, which the author presentsas a last standfor Highland culture,is connectedwith the arrival of an industrial system: (PrinceCharles's] final defeatat Cullodeninaugurated the ruthless extirpationof the clan systemin the Highlands,the extirpation of almost a whole people.Sheep-farming came to the Highlands,depopulating its glens,just as the IndustrialRevolution was coming to the Lowlands, enrichingthe new plutocracyand brutalizing the ancientplebs. Glasgow and Greenockwere coming into being as the last embersof the old Scots cultureflickered andfaffed andwent out. (Gibbon/MacDiarmid1934: 36)

Like Muir, Gibbonis pessimisticwith regardto a presentand future for Scotland.The Scottishnation had provenits incapacityin the past,which left internationalismas the only viable answerto the inter-warcrisis. Accordingly, nationalismand internationalism seemmutually exclusiveto Muir and Gibbonin a way they neverwere to Gunn and MacDiarmid.

To conclude,the four writers generallyagree on which eventscaused the declineof the nation,but disagreeover their implications.It is interestingthat the authorswho found it hardestto imagineScotland as a unit, alsohave the greatestdifficulties with the conceptof Scottishnationhood. Instead of a restorationof nationhood,which Gunn MacDiarmid and promoteas the future for Scotland,Muir and Gibbon focus on social reconstruction.Because of their unfortunatedisbelief in the Scottishnation, however,they havelittle confidencethat the Scotsmay affect that changefor themselves,which in the endleaves reform to be imposedfrom without.

Religion: The dissociated imagination? 200

centralconcern in the Renaissanceliterature is the questionof Calvinism.Though thereremained support for Presbyterianismwithin the political wing of the national movement the consensusamong the creativewriters was that the introductionof a Protestantreligion in the sixteenthcentury had broken the continuity of Scottish The experienceand that Scottishliterature suffered as a consequence. main introduction considerationis the Reformationlegacy. Before the of Calvinism,the Renaissancewriters argued,the Scottishnation had eni oyedthe benefitsof a strong culturethat was ableto retain its connectionwith Europewhilst r=aining Scottishin orientation.After the Reformation,image-making, which is at the core of art, was attackedbecause of its associationwith Catholicism.Scottish painting, music and drama were discouraged,whilst the artistslost the patronagethat had hitherto beenprovided by the RomanChurch. Scotland became an artistic wasteland,and its nationalculture declinedin consequencethereof. Hugh MacDiarmid,Neil Gunn,Edwin Muir and Lewis GrassicGibbon unite in their discussedin perceptionof Calvinismas a disasterfor the Scottishnation. As I the beginning previoussection, the Reformationis commonlyportrayed as the of Scotland's decline,and a connectionis drawnbetween the fanatic individualism inspiredby Presbyterianismand the inhumansystem of capitalism.There is also generalconsensus that Calvinismtwisted the Scottishmind. Before the Reformation,the Scottishworld picture could be expressedthrough the harmonious,balanced poetry of Robert Henryson;after the Reformation,Scots were forcedinto a position of partisanship, which severedall ties betweenthe old Catholic Scotlandand the Calvinist Scotland emerging.Edwin Muir writes in Scottand Scotland: [Just] at the momentwhen this literatureshould have flowered most splendidlyit was cut off, andthat dissensionarose which hastroubled Scotlandever since,and hasnot yet beencomposed. If this is true, then it is not fair to sayof Scotlandin generalthat the thingswhich divide it are of moreimportance than the things which unite it: for that is true historically only of ProtestantScotland. The Scotlandof JamesIV shows us a coherentcivilization, and in the individual writer thoughi and feeling harmoniouslyworldng together.Calvinism drove a wedgebetween these two things,and destroyedthe languagein which they had beenfused. (Muir 1936/1982b:44)

The breakin Scottishexperience is of particularsignificance to the poets.In their search for a literaturethat was at onceScottish and universal, traditional andyet in the mainstreamof Europeanculture, Muir andMacDiarmid lookedto the examplesof The dissociatedimagination? 201 RobertHenryson and William Dunbar,who proved to the twentieth-centurywriters the vitality of Scottishwriting in the past.Both thesewriters had beenCatholics, of course, which seemsto haveappealed to the modems.Hence MacDiarmid's earliestproposals for a Scottishrevival involved what he termeda "neo-Catholic"movement, whereas in Muir revealsin his autobiographyhow he was drawn towardsthe RomanChurch late life (MacDiarmid1916/1984a: 14; Muir 1954/1993:274-75). If they acceptCatholicism as an alternativeto Calvinismthat might be more sympatheticto the arts,the poets differ in their interpretationof the Reformation.As I discussedpreviously, Edwin Muir is concernedwith the way Calvinismbroke the continuity of Scottishlife (p. 168ff.). Before 1560,the Scottishworld vision had beencomplete in his view, thoughtand feelingworking togetherto producegreat art; after 1560,the Scottishmind became dissociatedand one could no longer achievegreatness within Scottishtradition. Accordingly,the legacyof the Reformationwas the dissociationof Scottishsensibility, which Muir exploresin Scottand Scotland.MacDiarmid would agreewith the notion that somethingcrucial had beenlost with the Reformation.In Albyn he stressesthat the cultural sterility of the Scottishnation was a product of the Calvinist mind, but where Muir was pessimistic,MacDiarmid looks for hope: The Reformation,which strangledScottish arts and letters,subverted the whole nationalpsychology and made the dominantcharacteristics of the nation thosewhich had previouslybeen churl elements.The comparative cultural sterility of the latter is undeniable.A premiumwas put upon Philistinism. Therehas been no religiouspoetry - no expressionof Reformation.As "divine philosophy"- in Scotlandsince the a consequenceScotland today is singularlydestitute of aesthetic consciousness.The line of hopelies partially in re-Catholicization, partially in the exhaustionof Protestantism.(MacDiarmid 1927/1996a: 12).

MacDiarmid ties the declinein Scottishculture to the erosionof Scottishnationhood andtherein lies the sourceof his optimism.If the main forcesof disruptionstrengthened by Calvinism are anglicisationand the declinein Scottishsovereignty, the flaws may be remediedthrough a re-nationalisationof Scotland.As a result,the Calvinist legacyis political to MacDiarmid whereit seemspersonal to Muir. Leastconcerned with theReformation are the novelists Gunn and Gibbon. The break in Scottishculture, which is socentral to thepoets, does not applyto the samedegree to writersof prose,for thenovel is a comparablyrecent form andtherefore untouched by thedisruption. Where Gunn and Gibbon comment on theReformation, it is becauseof The dissociated imagination? 202 its historical ratherthan its cultural significance,which leavesthem with a slightly different perspective.The portraitsof Calvinism in Gunn and Gibbon maybe divided into critical accountsof the past controversiesand fictional representationsof the Calvinist mind. As regardsthe former, the novelistsagree with MacDiarmid andMuir's identificationof the Reformationas a breakingpoint in Scottishlife, but they pick a political and a socio-historicalreading as opposedto the poets' cultural one.Gunn establishesin his 1936review of Scott and Scotlandthat the Reformationprimarily matteredas a symptomof the generalerosion of Scottishnationhood in the sixteenth century,which would eventuallyclear the way for the nation's assimilationinto Britain (Gunn 1936/19 87a: 125).This readingmay be ascribedto his Highland origins, which madethe religious controversiesperipheral, although his concernwith the stateof the Scottishnation was probablya factor too. To Gibbon, the Reformationrepresented a failed strugglefor socialjustice. In "The Antique Scene",he praisesthe heroismof the Covenanters,whose energy could havebeen turned into a force of change,but they were sadlydefeated, and their only legacybecame that of religious fanaticism,which to the authoris symptomaticof a repressedspirit (Gibbon/MacDiannid1934: 33-34). With referenceto their depictionof Calvinism in the fiction, both novelistsview the influence of Presbyterianismas disruptive,although they part companyover its implications. Wherein TheSerpent Gunn uses protagonist Tom's God-hauntedfather to commenton a faith peculiarto Scotland,Gibbon's portrait of John Guthrie belongswith his denunciationsof religion more generally. As with history and geography,Gunn, Muir, MacDiarmid and Gibbon meetin their over-all attackon Calvinism,but disagreein their interpretationof the details.To Muir, the Calvinist legacyis one of cultural disruption,while MacDiarmid relatesit to the questionof nationhood.To Gunn,the Reformationis mainly readin termsof politics, whereasGibbon interpretsit as a caseof socialhistory. Hencemy four Renaissance representativescome together in their attackon Scotland'sPresbyterian legacy, but do so for individual reasons,which leavesthem short of a cohesivevision.

Language: ThoughMuir's "dissociationof Scottishsensibility" thesisderived from his quarrelwith Calvinism, aswell ashis readingof Eliot, it is with referenceto languagethat it became notorious.Yet the generalattitude to the languageissue was liberal in the 1920and The dissociatedimagination? 203 1930s.Most intellectualsadmired MacDiarmid's experiment with Scotsbecause it had resultedin poetrythat was at oncemodernist and Scottish, but they wrote English nonetheless.The consensuswas that literaturewas possiblewithin all Scotland'sthree languagesof Scots,English and Gaelic,which meanta departurefrom the nineteenth- centurypreference of StandardEnglish over the vernacular,but for most authorsthe potentialof Scotswas a theoreticalconsideration only. The reviewsthat welcomed MacDiarmid'svernacular verse did so in the Imperial tongue,and by 1932the predominanceof English over Scotsand Gaelichad become so obviousin contemporary Scottishliterature that Eric Linklater declaredthe ScottishRenaissance "goals scoredon Englishground7 (in ThomsonScotland in QuestofHer Youth 1932: 165). Although ScottishRenaissance writers in practiceemployed whatever medium they preferredin spite of its political connotations,the theoreticalattitude to language changedaround 1934. From 1922,MacDiarmid had stressedthe necessityof Scots,but he seemsto haveaccepted that his fellow-writers' preferencefor English was not necessarilyincompatible with a loyalty to the Renaissanceidea more generally.In contrast,the choicebetween Scots or Englishbecame a declarationof allegianceto eithera pro-Scotsor a pro-Englishfaction in the 1930s,and the main reasonfor that is the changingtone of the polemics.Neither MacDiarmid,Muir or Gibbon,who all held strongopinions on the languagequestion, departed radically from the beliefs they had voicedin earlierwork, when in the mid-1930sthey returnedto the issue.Where they had previouslyseemed relatively securewith regardto language,however, they now becameincreasingly sensitive. MacDiarmid, who had achievedgreat feats in the in 1920s,felt vernacular the threatenedwhen in the 1930she found that English, which ferociously he had attacked in his earlier criticism, in fact proved the most suitable for his developing vehicle vision. MeanwhileMuir, who had testedhis own ability in in found Scots the mid-twentiesand it wanting, sawa needto justify his own choiceof Scots.Gibbon, finally, Englishover appearedto havemade up his mind when in a from "Literary somewhatoverwritten passage Lights" he claimedthit the majority of his failed fellow-Scots to qualify as Scottishwriters becausethey had opted for an English medium: With few a exceptionspresently to be noted,there is not the remotest the reasonwhy majority of modem Scotswriters shouldbe considered Scotsat all. The protagonistsof the Scotsliterary Renaissancedeny this. Theyhold, for example,that Norman Douglasor ComptonMackenzie, thoughthey write in English and deal with un-Scottishthemes, have The dissociated imagination? 204

neverthelessan essentialScottishness which differentiatesthem from the nativeEnglish writer. In exactly the samemanner, so had JosephConrad an essentialPolishness. But few (exceptfor the purposeof exchanging diplomaticcourtesies) pretend that Conradwas a Polish writer, to be judged as a Pole.He wrote brilliantly and strangelyand beautifully in English;so doesMr. NormanDouglas, so doesMr. Cunningharne Graham.(Gibbon/MacDiarmid 1934: 198)

Gibbon's argumentis absurd.The novelist had himself admittedin the introductorynote to SunsetSong that his vernacularprose was to be regardedas an experimentwithin StandardEnglish, and he continuedto composemost of his fiction in English in spite of his strongviews on Scots.Gibbon's rhetoricsare therefore relevant to the language discussionmostly becausethey illustrate how languagewas madean issue. The principal protagonistsin the languagedispute are Edwin Muir and Hugh MacDiarmid.If the conflict is datedfrom the publicationof Scottand Scotlandin 1936, which broughtthe opponentsfrom slight disagreementto openconfrontation, Gibbon's prematuredeath in 1935prevented his participationin the quarrel.Gunn, on the other hand,believed that nationalidentity went beyondlanguage to the notion of a shared cultural heritage,which, togetherwith his Highland perspective,left him indifferentto the questionof Lowland Scots.In contrast,Muir andMacDiarmid had beenpushed towardsa considerationof languageby a numberof mutual concerns.First and foremost,they were poets.Composers of verserely more stronglyon languagesubtleties thanwriters of prose,and when linguistic experimentationbecomes the benchmarkof poetic achievement,as happened in modernism,it is crucial for the poet to choosethe right medium.Both MacDiarmid andMuir had found that decisiondifficult to make. Muir only developeda maturepoetic voice towardsthe end of his career,while MacDiarmiddiscovered in the mid-1930sthat Scots,the vehicle he had actively supportedin the 1920s,was no longeradequate for his expandingvision. The second similarity betweenMuir andMacDiarmid is their insistenceon discontinuitywithin Scottishexperience. They recognisedthat Scottishpoetry had thrived in the fifteenth century,that the Reformationhad destroyedthe basisof suchculture, and that in order to regaina strongliterary tradition in Scotland,they had to restoreto Scottishwriting the elementthat had enabledRobert Henryson and William Dunbarto engagewith universalmatters in a distinctively Scottishvoice. To Muir, the strengthof the Golden Age poetswas their unified world vision. In the fifteenth century,such cohesion could be expressedthrough the vernacularbecause it had beenthe languagefor thoughtas The dissociatedimagination? 205 well as feeling;in the twentiethcentury that was impossiblebecause of the declineof Scots.Hence the Scottishpoet had no choicebut to follow Muies own exampleand acceptan Englishmodel for his/her art. To MacDiarmid, on the contrary,the lost elementwas native genius,which broughthim to the oppositeconclusion. In the openingpart of A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle,he suggestedthat the declineof Scots poetrywas the result of the erosionof native tradition, which was broughtabout by the long-termassimilation of Scotlandinto Britain (MacDiarmid 1926/1987:6-12). Against sucha flawed,anglicised culture, he placed"Auld Scottishinstincts" (MacDiarmid 1926/1987:14): if a Scottishpoet was to createScottish literature, he/she had to reject the alien (readEnglish) aspectas that was the only way Scottishtradition might be acceptedon its own terms. MacDiarmid andMairs theoriesof languagerepresent absolute positions, and in practiceno Renaissancewriter was as categorical.Gunn, whose ancestral tongue was Gaelic,not Scots,shows little interestin the languageproblem, though he sawthe potentialsof the vernacularin relation to the questionof nationhood.Gibbon, who in theorywas very hard on writers suchas Muir and Gunn,who had chosenEnglish as their medium,published fiction in both languages,which compromiseshis position somewhat.Also MacDiarmid employedEnglish aswell asScots throughout his career, which contradictshis insistenceon the vernacularin the criticism. To the majority of thesewriters, the polemicsthus madean issueof somethingthat neverbothered them in practice.The exceptionis Muir, to whom languageappears to havebeen a serious concernin the 1930s.Throughout the inter-warperiod he remainedsceptical about the potential of Scottishnationhood, which may haveinfluenced his stanceon language. Whateverhis reasons,Muir cameto the paradoxicalconclusion that the Scots vernacularwas deadat a time when it reachednew heightsin the writings of MacDiarmid and Gibbon,which leavesthe readerwondering whether the only author suffering from a "dissociatedsensibility' was not in fact Edwin Muir.

Literature: Theinter-war representation of Scottishliterary tradition brings together the interpretationof Scottishhistory as a processof long-termdecay with themyth of dissociation.The Scottish Renaissance writers perceived their work ascompletely unprecedentedin its fasionof traditionand modernism, native and international The dissociatedimagination? 206 elements,and in orderto presstheir point, they highlightedthe differencesbetween their own presentand the past.The motivationbehind much Renaissancecriticism was the "anxiety of influence",which RobertCrawford discusses in Devolving English Literature with referenceto T. S. Eliot andEzra Pound(Cmwford 1992:230). Where Eliot and Poundadopted the slogan"Make It New" in order to challengethe preconceptionswithin Englishtradition, however, their Scottishcontemporaries applied their reconsiderationof literary tradition to Scottishwriting specifically. The accountof Scottishliterature the readerencounters in MacDiarmid, Muir, Gunn and Gibbon reflectsthe ideaof a discontinuoustradition. As I mentionedin relation to the questionsof Calvinismand language, the authorsaccepted the reign of JamesIV as a high point in the developmentof Scottishculture, but the impact of the Reformation had brought Scotland!s fifteenth-centuryRenaissance to an end. In the paragraphfrom Scott and ScotlandI quotedabove, Edwin Muir stressedthat Scottishliterature collapsedafter 1560(p. 200). Accordingto the twentieth-centuryRenaissance critics, the main causesfor the disruptionwere the erosionof nationhood,intense anglicisation, and the impact of Calvinism,against which they would placethe native impulsebehind the inter-warrevival. The supportfor the ScottishRenaissance ranges from the passionatecommitment of MacDiarmidand Gunnto the more restrainedviews of Muir and Gibbon,but they met in the desireto presentthemselves as a new departurein Scottishletters.

An importantpart of the revaluationof Scottishliterature is the deconstructionof the literary past.The main focusfor the Renaissanceassault is the Victorian age,for in the Celtic Twilight novelsof FionaMacleod and the Kailyard fiction of Ian Maclaren, had imagined amongothers, the nineteenth-centuryauthors a Scotlandthat was unreal. In ScottishJourney Muir denouncessuch Oversentimentalisation: The flight to the Kailyard was a flight to Scotland'spast, to a country which had existedbefore Industrialism; but by the time the flight took placeIndustrialism itself had suckedthat tradition dry of its old vigour, it was no longerof importanceexcept as a refugefrom the hard facts of Scottishtown life. (Muir 1935/1985:67-68)

inter-war Although it could be arguedthat the critics merelyremoved one myth in order to replaceit with anotherof their own making,MacDiarmid, Muir, Gunn and Gibbon were all dismissiveof the mannerin which nineteenth-centurywriters had distorted direct Scottishreality. The most encounterswith the Victorian legacyemerge from the The dissociated imagination? 207 novels,which is probablyto be expected,given that so much nineteenth-century literaturewas fiction. I previouslymentioned how Gunn had usedhis first works to underlinehow the Celtic Twilight had misrepresentedHighland life, whereasGibbon! s prologueto SunsetSong located his novel somewherebetween Kailyard and anti- Kailyard (p. 194).Because of their different backgrounds,the specifictypes of fiction the two novelistsengaged with differed. Yet both underlinedthe needfor the modem writers to challengetheir literary ancestorsin order to move forward. With regardto the nationalicons of Bums and Scott,the most frequentcommentary occursin the criticism of Muir and MacDiarmid. It seemsinevitable that MacDiarmid, who aimedfor recognitionas a great,vernacular poet, shouldhave wanted to cut his ancestorBums down to a more manageablesize, but Muir's problemswith Scott are m.ore paradoxical.At the heartof Scotts vision, Muir claimedin Scott and Scotland, was a blank, but asI discussedabove, that vacuumseems to havebeen the productof Muir's imaginationrather than Scott's(p. 179).In Lucky Poet MacDiarmidjumps to Scott's defence: Muir has,for all his cleveranalysis, missed the point of Scotfs significance,which the part his work playedin inspiring the resurgence of Flemishand Catalanshows. As canbe gatheredfrom Brandes,Scott's only value is his objectivetreatment of parts of Scottishhistory and the partial revivification by his influenceof the two mentionedand other minority literatures.The whole direction of Scotts line was his regret for the quite needlesspassing of Scottishinstitutions, mannerisms, &c., into English, as exemplifiedin many of his famoussayings - e. g., aboutan un-ScotchedScotsman becoming a damnedbad Englishman,&c. This leadson naturallyto the separatistposition.... (MacDiarmid 1943:202. 3).

Although he redeemsScott on accountof his nationalismin this particular example, MacDiarmid is as dismissiveas Muir elsewhere.Around 1900Scott and Bums were acceptedas the climax of Scottishtradition by literary historianssuch as 1. H. Millar and T. F. Henderson,and the cultivation of suchicons madeit hard for modemwriters to reachan audiencein Scotland.In order to improve their own situation,the modems soughtout waysto rival their ancestors.The best strategywas throughthe achievement of greatnessin their own art, of course,but their progressmight be speededup through the deconstructionof the ivory towers- an attemptto reducethe icons to morehuman proportions.Even if they occasionallydiffered in their readingof individual authors, The dissociated imagination? 208 both MacDiarmidand Muir thereforeadopted a demolition strategyin orderto create spacefor twentiethcentury-writing. With referenceto literature,there seemsto havebeen a consensusamong the four literary i writers aboutthe needfor a reconsiderationof tradition. Gunn!s Highlandori Gibbon makehim concernedwith the Celtic Twilight, where engageswith the Kailyard; MacDiarmid!s interestin Scotsdraws him towardýBums while Muir is obsessedwith Scott.Though individual differencespersist, Muir, MacDiarmid, Gunn and Gibbonare in agreementover the methodan authormight adoptin his/herrevaluation of Scottish tradition, which leavesliterature the one of my five Renaissancethemes to receivethe most consistenttreatment. Yet suchcohesion is probably inevitable,given that the representativesof most periodsin literaturewould want to seetheir art as a departure from ratherthan an imitation of their literary forebears.

The dissociatedimagination? The Renaissancelegacy From my discussionof the visions of Hugh MacDiarmid, Neil Gunn, Lewis Grassic Gibbon andNeil Gunnin relation to the five themesof geography,history, religion, languageand literature, I think it is possibleto derive two generalmyths. The first is a constructivemyth, which increasesthe visibility of Scotlandas an distinct entity at a time when the nation was only too easily assimilatedinto a united,British experience. The secondmyth is deconstructive,for the discontinuity and dissociationthat cameto the fore in the inter-warpolemics could be seento weakenthe Renaissancewriters' case for Scotland.Both havebeen highly influential in the perceptionof Scottishinter-war literatureas I shall return to below. To begin with the constructivemyth, I will arguethat ScottishRenaissance literature has contributedto the twentieth-centuryconstruction of Scotlandas an imagined community.In part one I consideredhow the inter-warwriting increasedthe concern with nationalautonomy, whilst trying to conveya senseOf Communityto a nation commonlyperceived as internally divided. The changingperception of the nation,which is the productof suchrevaluation, is reflectedin the Renaissancewriters' employmentof the five themesI consideredabove. With referenceto space,MacDiarmid, Muir, Gunn and Gibbon choosean imageof Scotlandthat is free from pastromanticism and sentimentalism,in the hopethey might presenta landscapereminiscent of Scottish reality. Their Scotlandsare locally based,but the artistswould claim that it is possibleto The dissociated imagination? 209

approachuniversals from suchnarrow ground.In consequence,they regardScotland as a settingas fit for modemliterature as any other place,which underlinestheir confidencein their nation.Historically, the Renaissancevision is importantbecause it stressesthat the country's GoldenAge was not the eraof Walter Scott,when Scottish intellectualscame to acceptthat their future lay with a United, British Kingdom,but the fifteenth centuryof Henrysonand Dunbarwhen Scotlandhad beenin control of its own affairs andin touchwith the Europeanmainstream. The implication is that the nation had thrived whilst sovereign,declined once Scotlandimitated English manners,which invites the conclusionthat Scotlandwould performbetter on its own. The effectsof the religious disputeare less connected to the visibility of the nation, althoughthe literature suggeststhat somethingin Catholic Scotlandwas more beneficial to native geniusthan Calvinism,which hadhastened the assimilationof Scotlandinto England.Scotland thus comesacross as a coherentnation during the Catholic era, as a nation of internal fragmentationand declinethereafter. As regardslanguage, the concernwith Scotsand Gaelicis possiblythe most successfulstrategy adopted to increasethe awarenessof Scottishnationhood. Hitherto it had beenpossible to categoriseScottish writers as representativesof a provincial elementwithin English literature; after the vernacular work of MacDiarmid and Gibbonit becameincreasingly difficult to view Scottish writing as anythingbut a literatureapart. The languageissue relates closely to the questionof literature.The four writers deliberatelypromote authors who representeda strong,independent tradition, while rejectingthe icons of Britishness.Hence they insist on the Scottishnessof Scottishliterature and locate their own efforts within a native vein. In conclusion,I will arguethat my four representativesof the Scottish Renaissance,in their treatmentof different aspectsof Scottishexperience, contributed to the creationof a more visible Scottishnation. In their insistenceon Scottishnessas somethingdistinct from Britishness,they challengedthe vision of nineteenth-century intellectuals,who had acceptedScotland as North Britain; andwhether or not the individual authorsupported such an ideology,that challengeprepared the way for political nationalism. Against a constructivemyth of Scottishness,I will placethe deconstructivemyth of dissociation.The four writers may agreeon the most generallevel aboutthe importance of Scottishdifference, but they differ in their commitmentto Scotlandand suchvariety of opinion could be seenas harmful. To begin with geography,the reinventionof The dissociated imagination? 210

Scotlanddepends on more than a deromanticisationof the landscape.In orderto see Scotlandas a nation,the artist would haveto imagineScotland whole, but only MacDiarmidand Gunnmanage that feat. Muir and Gibbon,in contrast,find no way to overcomeinternal fragmentation, and their scepticismweaken the Renaissance argument.As regardshistory, Gibbon and Muir areproblematic once again. They insist on a fifteenth-centuryGolden Age, of course,but when it comesto the present,they fall shortof a nationalistconclusion. While MacDiam-ddand Gunn believe that Scotland may regainits vitality througha programmeof nationalregeneration, Gibbon and Muir prefer a kind of socialreconstruction imposed from without, which calls into question Scotland'sability to affect changeon its own. In religiousmatters, the authorsagree that Calvinismis bad for the nation,but disagreeover the reasonswhy that is the case. Muir's "dissociationof sensibility' thesisis the most extremein its conclusionthat Scotlandhas no choicebut to acceptthat its daysof sovereigntyare gone.Gunn and MacDiarmidtie the Reformationlegacy to the questionof nationhood,while Gibbon views religion as a problemfor all humanityrather than an issuepeculiar to Scotland. As a result,the groupsplit into two optimists,Gunn and MacDiarmid, who find hopein a future restorationof Scottishautonomy, and the pessimistsGibbon and Muir, who perceivePresbyterianism as evidenceof a basic flaw in Scottishcharacter. Such divisions aredeepened by the languagedispute. Gibborfs views on languageplace him in the categoryof MacDiarmid,who supportsthe notion of Scottishliterature written in Scots.Somewhat marginal to the languagediscussion is Gunn,whose linguistic heritage is Gaelic,while Muir dismissesthe notion of a future for Scotsaltogether. In spite of the ferociouspolemics, I do not think that the languagecontroversy is as injurious to the idea of Scotlandas Muir and Gibbon!s generallack of confidencein Scotland,however, for, asI havepreviously mentioned, the Renaissancewriters picked whateverlinguistic mediumseemed most suitableto them,regardless of their public poses.The themeof literature,finally, is the areawhere we find most cohesion.All authorssettle for a GoldenAge-fall-Renaissance structure, which is to saythat any diffeiencesreflect personalpreference rather than an underlying,ideological disparity. To sumup: the myth of dissociationwhich challengesthe nationalistattempt to strengthenthe imageof Scotlandin literature,is most evidentin relation to geography,history and religion, whereMuir and Gibbon!s lack of belief in the nation indirectly underminesthe optimistic visions of MacDiarmid and Gunn. The dissociated imagination? 211 Thoughthe constructivemyth of Scottishnessis evidentin the way the representation of Scotlandhas changed in the twentiethcentury, the deconstructivemyth of dissociationhas dommated the discussionof the ScottishRenaissance in literary criticism. Most prominentin the criticism havebeen the idea of (dis-)continuityand the idea of dissociation.The concernwith continuity is most obviousin Kurt Wittig's The ScottishTradition in Literature and David Craig's ScottishLiterature and the ,although the needto identify somekind of continuousdevelopment survives into the later surveysof RoderickWatson (1984) and Marshall Walker (1996).Although MauriceLindsay's History ofScottish Literature offers the exceptionthat provesthe rule, it is inevitablethat literary historiansshould select a few, recurrentthemes to connectScottish writers throughoutthe centuries.The changinguse of the Scots vernacularin the poetry of Dunbar,Bums andMacDiarmid, for instance,should be consideredas different stageswithin a developing,vernacular tradition ratherthan isolatedcases, while the vision of Muir's later versemakes more sensein the light of Henryson.Where such long-term relationships become problematic is when the critics view oneperiod in literaturethrough the eyesof another.In ScottishLiterature and the ScottishPeople, for instance,David Craig offers an academicaccount of the post- Reformationcollapse of Scottishculture: We haveto recognise,then, that theredid not emergealong with modem Scotland "all-round" literature. a mature, Sheersocial forces- centralisation,emigration, the widespreadwasting awayof the regional andthe vernacular- were againstthe sustainedoutput of anythinglike a separateliterature for Scotland.By the close of this period that has become,simply, somethingit would be unreasonableto look for. (D. Craig 1961: 14)

Behind Craig's words,we detecta numberof Renaissancemyths. It is taken for granted that post-Reformationliterature is inferior to whatevercame before; that the declinein SFottishliterature is relatedto the weakeningof the Scottishnation, and that the strength of Scottishwriting may be measuredby the strengthof the vernacular.Such conclusions arenot unfamiliar to the Renaissance,which raisesthe questionof whetherCraig voices the ideasof Muir andMacDiarmid ratherthan his own. Although David Craig and Wittig appearsomewhat dated today when a new generationof critics is emerging,they thus serveas reminders of the dangers,once we acceptthe ScottishLiterary Renaissance on its own terms. The dissociated imagination? 212

Wbile advocatesof continuity tend to overestimatethe importanceof Renaissance ideology,proponents of the myth of dissociationonly reluctantly grantto the inter-war writers the differencethey made.In their readingof Scottishtradition, thesecritics insist on the inconsistencieswithin individual visions, aswell as incoherencewithin the Renaissancegroup as a whole, and in consequence,the period fragments.Gerard Carruthers'"The constructionof the Scottishcritical tradition" offers one example wherethe authordeconstructs the argumentof Edwin Muir without any considerationof whereMuir is comingfrom (Carruthers1999). Robert Crawford's recentpromotion of GregorySmith in 77zeScottish Invention ofEnglish Literature representsan alternative view that could prove equallydamaging to our perceptionof the ScottishRenaissance. Crawfordwrites: Thanksto GregorySmith, MacDiarmid is ableto shift the centreof gravity of literary productionand literary studiesin Scotlandso that there beginsin the early twentiethcentury a gradualmovement even in the Scottishuniversities to accordfull recognitionto Scottishliterature as a branchof study,allowing it accessto the privileges andpenalties of institutionalpower two centuriesafter Adam Smith, Blair, Watson,and othershad soughtto eradicatethe very markersof cultural difference which GregorySmith andMacDiarmid were keento identify, celebrate and evenredeploy. (Crawford 1998:237-38)

Crawford'sobservations are not problematicin themselves,but they only too easilylead on to an overemphasison the "CaledonianAntisyzygy". Undoubtedly,Smith inspired MacDiarmidto a positive revaluationof Scottishtradition, but as a critical construct,the "CaledonianAntisyzygy" shareswith Muir's "dissociationof Scottishsensibility" a modernistconcern with contrast.It is symptomatic,in other words, of the thingsthat divide ratherthan the things that unite within Scottishculture, andI believe we misrepresentthe period literatureif we insist on inconsistencyonly. Accordingly, the obsessionwith "antisyzygy" and"dissociation! ' is asharmful for our understandingof Scottishinter-war literatureas the insistenceon continuity, which underlinesthe need for a third way. In the courseof my work, I havebecome increasingly attracted to an interpretationof the ScottishRenaissance that combinesa recognitionof individual differenceswith an acknowledgementof the specifichistorical circumstancesthat pushedthe authorsto their conclusions.I am awareof the significanceof SusanneHagemann's Die SchottischeRenaissance as a pioneerstudy, which hastried to challengethe The dissociated imagination? 213 misconceptionsof the period,but I find Hagemannwanting on the level of abstraction. Henceshe never manages to bring the writers of the Renaissancetogether in a way that might establishthe discourseI would like to seeat the centreof any considerationof the CairnsCraig in NoveLI period.A more useful approachis that of TheModern Scottish previouslyreferred to Craig's challengeto the traditional perceptionof Scottish literature,but I think it is appropriateto return to it here.Against the defeatism,which the portrait of a divided cultureis commonlytaken to convey,Craig placesenergy derivedfrom the meetingof opposites: To exploreand to celebratethe multiplicities of the self is to recognise the fact that the self is neverself-contained - that the "divided self ' is not to be contrastedwith the "undivided self' but with the "self-in-relatioe': the "divided self' is preciselythe productof the failure of the dialectic of "self and other" ratherthan the outcomeof the self s failure to maintain its autonomyand singularity.The inner othernessof Scottishculture - Highland andLowland, Calvinist and Catholic- thus becomesthe very model of the complexity of the self ratherthan examplesof its failure: the self-divisionof the schizophrenicis not an "other" to a unified normalcybut the failure of the acceptanceof the other which constitutes the normal self (C. Craig 1999: 114)

Craig's commentsare relevant with referenceto the ScottishRenaissance because they challengethe way the contrastingvisions of Muir andMacDiarnU have been interpretedas a manifestationof Scottishschizophrenia. Scottish culture was never schizophrenic,Craig stresses,but consciousof its own "inner otherness"- the complexitiesthat demandthat the self define itself in relation to other, alternative selves.The implication of Craig's thesisis that therecan be no Muir without a MacDiarmid,no Gunnwithout Gibbon.Accordingly, the ScottishLiterary Renaissance consistsof a generaldebate over the questionsof Scotlandand Scottishness,and sucha discourserequires sceptics as well as enthusiasts,Muir's "dissociatedsensibility" besidesMacDiarmid's "antizysygy".My term for suchan exchangeis "Polyphony",a word employedby M. M. Bakhtin. In the glossaryto PamMorris's Bakhtin Reader, polyphonyis characterisedas a word "usedby Bakhtin primarily to describe Dostoevsky's'multi-voiced' novels,whereby author's and heroes'discourses interact on equalterms" (Morris 1994:249). It is the "interactionof discourseon equalterms" aspectof the definition that is interestingin the presentcontext. In my study of the ScottishLiterary RenaissanceI have focusedon four artistswho areequally The dissociated imagination? 214 representativeof the inter-war ethos,but who may only be broughttogether through a recognitionof individual difference,of their "multi-voiced polyphony". If it is necessaryto try to understandthe discursivecharacter of the Scottish Renaissance,it is equallyimportant to realisethat Scottishliterature has moved on since the 1930sand that we areessentially dealing with a period of history. My main problem with the criticism of Kurt Wittig and David Craig, amongothers, is that they perceive the ideasof Muir andMacDiarmid as universallyapplicable, when they were in fact productsof their time. The thesisof discontinuity,for example,on which so manyof Muir's pronouncementsare based, reflects the way the inter-war generationresponded to the experienceof the First World War. MacDiarmid's "CaledonianAntisyzygy", on the otherhand, shows a nationalistconcern with Scottishpeculiarities, which in the 1920and 1930swere perceived to be threatenedby the nineteenth-centuryinsistence on Britishness.When we readthese writers in their chronologicalcontext, such concepts makesense because they interactwith the political, social and cultural considerationsof the time; whenwe usethem outsidetheir temporalsetting, in contrast,they appear vagueand abstract.In the courseof the twentiethcentury, we havewitnessed a growing awarenessof the differencesbetween the cultural climate of EnlightenmentEdinburgh and contemporaryScotland, which hasbrought with it a critical reappreciationof the writings of Walter Scott.Likewise it is my hopethat my examinationof the work of Hugh MacDiarmid,Lewis GrassicGibbon, Edwin Muir andNeil Gunnwithin the historical contextof inter-war Scotlandmay contributesomething to a further understandingof theseauthors and their situationin their period. In conclusion,I think a revaluationof the ScottishLiterary Renaissancethat takes into accountthe discursivecharacter of the literatureand the historical circumstances that producedit, is long overdue.In my analysisI haveapproached such revisionism, but I am awarethat my limited focus conditionswhatever conclusions I havedrawn. Nevertheless,I believeI havemade some progress towards a moresatisfactory interpretationof the Scottishinter-war revival. 215 Bibliography

In accordancewith the HarvardSystem of referencing,most primary and secondary texts appearwithin the same-list of consultedmaterial. I have takenthe liberty of distinguishingthe work of my principal writers from the rest, however,because I think it makesmy bibliographymore user-friendly.

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