New Light on Boswell: Critical and Historical Essays on the Occasion of the Bicententary of the ‘Life’ of Johnson

Boswell’s Life of Johnson is established as one of the foremost literary biographies in the English language. This collection of new essays, commemorating its bicentenary, investigates Boswell’s achievements and limitations in both literary and personal contexts, and goes beyond the Life to examine the full range of Boswell’s writings and interests (in legal, social, theological, political and linguistic fields). Drawing Boswell out of Johnson’s shadow, the volume places him in a wider context, juxtaposing Boswell with other contemporaries and compatriots in the Scottish enlightenment, such as Hume, Robertson and Blair. In addition it investigates some of the critical and theoretical questions surrounding the notion of biographical representation in the Life itself. Boswell emerges as a writer engaged throughout his literary career in constructing a self or series of selves out of his divided Scottish identity. This collection combines new archival research with fresh critical perspectives and constitutes a timely review of Boswell’s current status in eighteenth-century literary studies.