The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature
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THE Ian Brown is a freelance scholar, playwright and EDINBURGH HISTORY OF poet. Acclaim for The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature, Volume 1: SC SCOTTISH LITERATURE Thomas Owen Clancy is Professor of Celtic at the THE EDINBURGH HIS University of Glasgow. ‘This exciting new history unites scholarship and imagination, cutting OT General Editor: Ian Brown TISH LITERATURE Co-editors: Thomas Owen Clancy, Susan Manning is Grierson Professor of English across narrow divisions of period and language and adopting multiple THE Susan Manning and Murray Pittock Literature and Director of the Institute for perspectives to bring out as never before the varieties of Scots, Gaelic Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the EDINBURGH HISTORY OF University of Edinburgh. and Latin writing.’ The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature offers a David Norbrook, Merton Professor of English Literature, major reinterpretation, re-evaluation and reposition- Murray Pittock is Professor of Scottish and SCOTTISH LITERATURE ing of the scope, nature and importance of Scottish Romantic Literature at the University of University of Oxford literature, arguably Scotland’s most important and Manchester, and a Fellow of the Royal Society VOLUME 3 influential contribution to world culture. Drawing on of Edinburgh. the very best of recent scholarship, the History contributes a wide range of new and exciting Acclaim for The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature, Volume 2: Modern Transformations: insights. It takes full account of modern theory, but refuses to be in thrall to critical fashion. It is T V important not only for literary scholars, but because ORY ‘Volume Two of The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature is a OL New Identities (from 1918) it changes the very way we think about what massive contribution to today's new, post-Devolution, Scottish story. Scottishness is. For the first time Scotland and its literary culture, in the post-Union UME OF period, are seen in the widest of socio-political, economic, and THE intellectual contexts. This extraordinarily comprehensive volume 3 EDINBURGH HISTORY OF defines Scottish literature in terms wide enough to be acceptable to the SCOT TISH LITERATURE New Identities (from 1918) eighteenth-century literati themselves, while replacing the narrow Modern Tr VOLUME 3 cultural nationalism of many past accounts with a new sense of internationalism.’ Modern Transformations: New Identities (from 1918) Andrew Hook, Emeritus Bradley Professor of English Literature, University of Glasgow an Period Editor: Ian Brown sf In almost a century since the First World War ended, orm Scotland has been transformed in many rich ways. ation Its literature has been an essential part of that Acclaim for The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature, Volume 3: transformation. The third volume of the History explores the vibrancy of modern Scottish literature ‘Monumental yet accessible, comprehensive in its scholarly range but s: in all its forms and languages. Giving full credit to full of unexpected delights, a mirror of a fast-changing society and its writing in Gaelic and by the Scottish diaspora, it brings together the best contemporary critical culture, the third volume of The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature Edited by insights from three continents. It provides an represents a new level of knowledge and consciousness about M accessible and refreshing picture of both the Scotland’s literature in all its facets and multiple identities.’ annin varieties of Scottish literatures and the kaleido- scopic versions of Scotland that mark literary Michael Lynch, Professor Emeritus in Scottish History, developments since 1918. g and Pittock former William Fraser Chair of Scottish History and Palaeography, Br The other volumes in the History are: own, Clancy, University of Edinburgh The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature, Volume 1: From Columba to the Union (until 1707) The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature, Volume 2: Enlightenment, Britain and Empire (1707–1918) Cover design & illustration: River Design, Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LF barcode Edinb Period and General Editor: Ian Brown www.eup.ed.ac.uk ISBN 978 0 7486 2482 1 Co-editors: Thomas Owen Clancy, Susan Manning ur gh and Murray Pittock The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature Volume Three: Modern Transformations: New Identities (from 1918) General and Period editor: Ian Brown Co-editors: Thomas Owen Clancy Susan Manning Murray Pittock Assistant editor: Ksenija Horvat Editorial assistant: Ashley Hales Edinburgh University Press © in this edition, Edinburgh University Press, 2007 © in the individual contributions is retained by the authors Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in 10/12pt Goudy by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester, and printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN-10 0 7486 2482 1 (hardback) ISBN-13 978 0 7486 2482 9 (hardback) The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The publisher acknowledges subsidy from the Scottish Arts Council towards the publication of this volume. Contents Preface viii Ian Brown, Thomas Owen Clancy, Susan Manning and Murray Pittock 1 Changing Cultures: The History of Scotland since 1918 1 Richard Finlay 2 Notes on a Small Country: Scotland’s Geography since 1918 11 Hayden Lorimer 3 Resistance to Monolinguality: The Languages of Scotland since 1918 21 Wilson McLeod and Jeremy Smith 4 The International Reception and Literary Impact of Scottish Literature of the Period since 1918 31 Paul Barnaby and Tom Hubbard 5 The Criticism of Scottish Literature: Tradition, Decline and Renovation 42 Cairns Craig 6 Literature and the Screen Media since 1908 53 Richard Butt 7Material Culture in Modern Scotland 64 Murray Pittock 8 Sir James Frazer and Marian McNeill 69 Robert Fraser 9 Hugh MacDiarmid 75 Alan Riach 10 Edwin and Willa Muir: Scottish, European and Gender Journeys, 1918–69 84 Margery Palmer McCulloch 11 ‘To Get Leave to Live’: Negotiating Regional Identity in the Literature of North-East Scotland 95 Alison Lumsden 12 Disorientation of Place, Time and ‘Scottishness’: Conan Doyle, Linklater, Gunn, Mackay Brown and Elphinstone 106 Ian Campbell vi Contents 13 Past and Present: Modern Scottish Historical Fiction 114 Colin Milton 14 Tradition and Modernity: Gaelic Bards in the Twentieth Century 130 Thomas A. McKean 15 Theatres, Writers and Society: Structures and Infrastructures of Theatre Provision in Twentieth-Century Scotland 142 David Hutchison 16 Cultural Catalysts: Sorley MacLean and George Campbell Hay 151 Christopher Whyte 17 Living with the Double Tongue: Modern Poetry in Scots 163 Roderick Watson 18 Monsters and Goddesses: Culture Re-energised in the Poetry of Ruaraidh MacThòmais and Aonghas MacNeacail 176 Michel Byrne 19 Old Country, New Dreams: Scottish Poetry since the 1970s 185 Eleanor Bell 20 The Lost Boys and Girls of Scottish Children’s Fiction 198 Maureen A. Farrell 21 The Human and Textual Condition: Muriel Spark’s Narratives 207 Margaret Elphinstone 22 From Carswell to Kay: Aspects of Gender, the Novel and the Drama 214 Susanne Hagemann 23 The Autobiography in Scottish Gaelic 225 Meg Bateman 24 Varieties of Voice and Changing Contexts: Robin Jenkins and Janice Galloway 231 Bernard Sellin 25 Breaking Boundaries: From Modern to Contemporary in Scottish Fiction 237 Douglas Gifford 26 Re-imagining the City: End of the Century Cultural Signs in the Novels of McIlvanney, Banks, Gray, Welsh, Kelman, Owens and Rankin 253 Marie Odile Pittin-Hédon 27 The Border Crossers and Reconfiguration of the Possible: Poet-Playwright-Novelists from the Mid-Twentieth Century on 262 Ian Brown and Colin Nicholson Contents vii 28 In the Shadow of the Bard: The Gaelic Short Story, Novel and Drama since the early Twentieth Century 273 Michelle Macleod and Moray Watson 29 Staging the Nation: Multiplicity and Cultural Diversity in Contemporary Scottish Theatre 283 Ian Brown 30 Varieties of Gender Politics, Sexuality and Thematic Innovation in Late Twentieth-Century Drama 295 Ksenija Horvat 31 The Diaspora and its Writers 304 Iain Wright 32 New Diversity, Hybridity and Scottishness 320 Alastair Niven Notes on Contributors – Volume Three 332 Index 337 Preface Ian Brown, Thomas Owen Clancy, Susan Manning and Murray Pittock The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature is conceived and produced as a single entity. In consultation with the publishers, the editors have sought to present it in three volumes. This is done for practical reasons. Each volume is in itself of some substance. To publish all three in one volume might have produced an unwieldy and inaccessible tome, not so much weighty as burdensome. The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature in three volumes then is, yet, a single work. Each editor has taken prime responsibility for an individual period: Thomas Owen Clancy for up to 1314, Murray Pittock for 1314–1707, Susan Manning for 1707–1918 and Ian Brown for 1918 onwards. Nonetheless, it is the essence of our editorial process that every chapter has been considered by all editors. In other words, the conception and shaping of this History aims to avoid false time divisions, and to promulgate the understanding that Scottish literature is a continuous and multi-channelled entity from its beginnings – pre- sumably well before the first remnants that survive from the first millennium – till the present moment. Similarly, it has sought to include, and give adequate representation to, wide varieties of Scottish literature, including that in Gaelic, Latin, Norse, Welsh and French as well as the Scots and English most commonly in the past associated with the term ‘Scottish literature’. It also includes, as appropriate, oral and performance literature and diaspora literatures and writers. Scottish literature is best understood as an inclusive, not an exclusive, term. This is a theme, both of intellectual discourse and architectonic structure, of The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature.