Scottish Literary Renaissance in the Twentieth Century (10 credit points)

Content of Course

1. Introductory class on National Identity and Literature in Scotland throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Working from handouts, which will be provided.

2. Hugh MacDiarmid: Scotland and the Infinite. Selection from Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry, and essays / prose excerpts provided as handouts.

3. Edwin and Willa Muir: Sham Bards of a Sham Nation. Selection from Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry, and essays / prose excerpts provided as handouts.

4. Lewis Grassic Gibbon: Scotland’s Favourite Scottish Book? Sunset Song, and essays / prose excerpts provided as handouts.

5. Sorley Maclean, George Campbell Hay, and Ian Crichton Smith: Gaelic Renaissance. Selection from Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry, and essays / prose excerpts provided as handouts.

6. Edwin Morgan and Ian Hamilton Finlay: Exploding the Renaissance. Selection from Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry, and essays / prose excerpts provided as handouts.

7. Alasdair Gray: Early Days of a Better Nation? Poor Things, and handout.

8. James Kelman: How Late it Was… Greyhound for Breakfast, and handout.

9. Liz Lochhead: History Gets its Head Chopped Off. Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, and selection from Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry.

10. Contemporary Scottish Writers and National Identity. A selection of essays, poems and prose works provided as handout. Particular focus on recent debates around Scottish politics and identity.

Teaching method(s)

Classes will begin with a short (30-40 minute) lecture on the week's text followed by structured group discussion.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of key writers and ideas from the interwar Scottish Literary Renaissance, and its late twentieth-century counterpart.

• Demonstrate basic skills in literary criticism and analysis.

• Show grasp of historical, political, and cultural contexts for range of texts from throughout modern Scottish literary history.

• Articulate and structure thoughts on literary texts, and demonstrate confidence in own perspective, showing independence of thought and developing own critical voice.

Sources

Core Readings

Essential:

• Dunn, Douglas. ed., 2006. Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry. London: Faber.

• Grassic Gibbon, Lewis. 2007. Sunset Song. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

• Gray, Alasdair. 2002. Poor Things. London: Bloomsbury.

• Kelman, James. 2011. Greyhound for Breakfast. Edinburgh: Polygon.

• Lochhead, Liz, 2009. Mary Queen of Scots Got her Head Chopped Off. London: Nick Hern Books.

Recommended:

• Watson, Roderick. 2007. The Literature of Scotland: The Twentieth Century London: Palgrave Macmillan.

• Crawford, Robert. 2007. Scotland’s Books: The Penguin History of Scottish Literature. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

• Lindsay, Maurice and Duncan, Lesley, eds., 2006. The Edinburgh Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP.

• MacDiarmid, Hugh, 1992. Selected Poetry, Alan Riach and Michael Grieve, eds. Manchester: Carcanet.

Web Sources

http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk

Scottish Poetry Library

http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS

Association for Scottish Literary Studies

http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/SWE/TBI

The Bottle Imp

http://www.dsl.ac.uk

Dictionary of the Scots Language

http://www.sorleymaclean.org/english

Sorley MacLean Online

http://www.grassicgibbon.com

The Grassic Gibbon Centre

http://www.alasdairgray.co.uk

Alasdair Gray Official Website

Class Handouts

Some selected primary readings / quotations / biographical and historical contexts will be provided as handouts, precirculated in PDF form.

Assessments

10 credit courses have one assessment. Normally, the assessment is a 2000 word essay, worth 100% of the total mark, submitted by week 12. To pass, students must achieve a minimum of 40%. There are a small number of exceptions to this model which are identified in the Studying for Credit Guide.

Studying for Credit

If you choose to study for credit you will need to allocate significant time outwith classes for coursework and assessment preparation. Credit points gained from this course can count towards the Certificate of Higher Education.

Queries

If you have questions regarding the course or enrolment, please contact COL Reception at Paterson's Land by email COL@ed.ac.uk or by phone 0131 650 4400.

Student support

If you have a disability, learning difficulty or health condition which may affect your studies, please let us know by ticking the 'specific support needs' box on your course application form. This will allow us to make appropriate adjustments in advance and in accordance with your rights under the Equality Act 2010. For more information please visit the Student Support section of our website.