Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature

The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature offers a major reinterpretation, re-evaluation and repositioning of the scope, nature and importance of Scottish Literature, arguably Scotland's most important and influential contribution to world culture. Drawing on the very best of recent scholarship, the History contributes a wide range of new and exciting insights. It takes full account of modern theory, but refuses to be in thrall to critical fashion. It is important not only for literary scholars, but because it changes the very way we think about what Scottishness is. The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature, Volume 1: From Columba to the Union (from 1707) Period Editors: Thomas Owen Clancy and Murray Pittock General Editor: Ian Brown Co-editor: Susan Manning 'This exciting new history unites scholarship and imagination, cutting across narrow divisions of period and language and adopting multiple perspectives to bring out as never before the varieties of Scots, Gaelic and Latin writing.' David Norbrook, Merton Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford The History begins with the first full-scale critical consideration of Scotland's earliest literature, drawn from the diverse cultures and languages of its early peoples. The first volume covers the literature produced during the medieval and early modern period in Scotland, surveying the riches of Scottish work in Gaelic, Welsh, Old Norse, Old English and Old French, as well as in Latin and Scots. New scholarship is brought to bear, not only on imaginative literature, but also law, politics, theology and philosophy, all placed in the context of the evolution of Scotland's geography, history, languages and material cultures from our earliest times up to 1707. ISBN 978 0 7486 1615 2 344pp The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature, Volume 2: Enlightenment, Britain and Empire (1707-1918) Period Editor: Susan Manning General Editor: Ian Brown Co-editors: Thomas Owen Clancy and Murray Pittock 'Volume Two of The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature is a massive contribution to today's new, post-Devolution, Scottish story. For the first time Scotland and its literary culture, in the post-Union period, are seen in the widest of socio-political, economic, and intellectual contexts. This extraordinarily comprehensive volume defines Scottish literature in terms wide enough to be acceptable to the eighteenth-century literati themselves, while replacing the narrow cultural nationalism of many past accounts with a new sense of internationalism.' Andrew Hook, Emeritus Bradley Professor of English Literature, University of Glasgow Between 1707 and 1918, Scotland underwent arguably the most dramatic upheavals in its political, economic and social history. The Union with England, industrialisation and Scotland's subsequent defining contributions throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the culture of Britain and Empire are reflected in the transformative energies of Scottish literature and literary institutions in the period. New genres, new concerns and whole new areas of interest opened under the creative scrutiny of sceptical minds. This second volume of the History reveals the major contribution made by Scottish writers and Scottish writing to the shape of modernity in Britain, Europe and the world. ISBN 978 0 7486 2481 2 400pp The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature, Volume 3: Modern Transformations: New Identities (from 1918) Period and General Editor: Ian Brown Co-editors: Thomas Owen Clancy, Susan Manning and Murray Pittock In almost a century since the First World War ended, Scotland has been transformed in many rich ways. Its literature has been an essential part of that transformation. The third volume of the History,/i> explores the vibrancy of modern Scottish literature in all its forms and languages. Giving full credit to writing in Gaelic and by the Scottish diaspora, it brings together the best contemporary critical insights from three continents. It provides an accessible and refreshing picture of both the varieties of Scottish literatures and the kaleidoscopic versions of Scotland that mark literary developments since 1918. ISBN 978 0 7486 2482 9 368pp