Robert Burns and Scottish Cultural Politics

Paul Malgrati

Robert Burns and Scottish Cultural Politics
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Country
United Kingdom
Published
30 November 2024
Pages
280
ISBN
9781399503464

Robert Burns and Scottish Cultural Politics

Paul Malgrati

Robert Burns is Scotland's best known and most influential poet; yet his political legacy also ranks amongst the most contentious. His ambiguous verse, oscillating between patriotic odes, egalitarian lines and royalist songs, lends itself to interpretations from across the political divide. Blending political history and literary studies, this book explores this contested legacy of 'Scotland's National Bard'. It follows the transformations of Burns's image throughout the late modern era, as revolutionaries, nationalists and avant-garde writers co-opted Burns's myth to subvert their country's social and constitutional order. From Great War unionism to 1940s socialism and contemporary nationalism, the examination of Burns's tempestuous afterlives sheds light on the ongoing Scottish question. Overall, it reminds us that poetry is a very shifting ground on which to build a national identity.

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