Kelly, Aaron

English

Edinburgh Research Explorer

     Edinburgh Research Explorer                                      The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century ScottishLiteratureCitation for published version:Kelly, A 2010, 'The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century Scottish Literature' Scottish Literary Review[formerly Scottish Studies Review], vol 2, no. 2, pp. 209-210.Link:Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research ExplorerDocument Version:Publisher final version (usually the publisher pdf)Published In:Scottish Literary Review [formerly Scottish Studies Review]Publisher Rights Statement:© Kelly, A. (2010). The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century Scottish Literature. Scottish Literary Review[formerly Scottish Studies Review], 2(2), 209-210.General rightsCopyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s)and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise andabide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Take down policyThe University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorercontent complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright pleasecontact openaccess@ed.ac.uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately andinvestigate your claim.Download date: 20. Feb. 2015The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century Scottish Literature. Editedby Ian Brown and Alan Riach. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,2010. ISBN 9780748636945. 272pp. pbk. £21.99.Ian Brown and Alan Riach’s edited collection is a great addition to the EdinburghUniversity Press’s Companions series. This collection not only fits the bill interms of  a comprehensive, illustrative range of  discussions which give thereader a deep sense of  Scottish writing in the twentieth century, but it alsooffers thought-provoking and engaging perspectives on that terrain which gobeyond a mere guide and provide a set of  snapshots of  luring intellectualpathways. The introduction sets out the stall really effectively with referenceto MacDiarmid’s sense of  the Irish Literary Revival as far as it granted a modelfor Scottish practice. In particular, the editors in their introduction establishthe spirit of  the whole collection by disputing T.S. Eliot’s assertion – whichhad longstanding canonical currency – that Scottish literature never really existed,that it was and is a regional appendage of  an overarching English literature.The editors insist, with reference to Cairns Craig’s work, that the fact thatScottish literature has many voices and many constituencies testifies not to itsweakness but to its strength. Eliot’s position, which can also be traced in aScottish writer and critic such as Edwin Muir, asserted that the heterogeneityof  Scottish literature was a sign that it didn’t really add up to the homogeneityand unity supposedly required by a proper nation. Instead, as this collectionindicates, that multiplicity helps redefine what a nation is and can be. Scottishliterature, as Cairns Craig would have it, is an agreement to disagree, an ongoingdispute that recalibrates the model of  any national tradition that would claimthat unity is the ultimate tendency of  literature in a national context.As this collection makes clear, it is not just differences between Gaelic, Scotsor English, but also a range of  issues concerning region, class, gender, religion,empire etc. that demonstrate the impacted, energetic dynamics of  Scottishwriting. In terms of  the individual contributions, Cairns Craig’s ‘Arcades – TheTurning of  the Nineteenth Century’ is a brilliant recovery of  writing in the1870s-1920s period that contests the idea that this era was one of  stagnationor cosy comfort in abeyance of  modern pressures. As Craig shows, a range ofwriting in this juncture – via developments in Scottish science – actuallydismantled a settled sense of  material reality in highly radical ways. So ratherthan Scottish literature in this period being not able to handle too much reality209SL010 - Scottish Literary Review:Layout 1  7/3/11  09:58  Page 209(hence the self-sustaining critical myth of  the Kailyard), this period witnessesa profound undermining of  the tents of  realism and its governance of  reality.As Craig conceives it, this is not a period of  quaint withdrawal but a directsubversion of  modes of  literary reality and realism. Murray Pittock’s ‘Scotland, Empire and Apocalypse – From Stevenson toBuchan’ is a terrific rethinking of  Stevenson and Buchan with direct referenceto empire and habituated views of  each writer as, respectively, a producer ofsimple adventure stories or a straightforward racist and imperialist. Pittock’sanalysis challenges the easy assumptions of  both positions with nuance andverve. Trevor Royle’s ‘Literature and World War One’ offers a great appraisalof  how the changes wrought by the Great War enabled a renegotiation ofcultural values that drove MacDiarmid and the Renaissance. Similarly, AlanRiach’s ‘Arcades – the 1920s and 1930s’ recuperates an era of  innovation andrenewal. Donald Smith and Ksenija Horvat provide a rich reading of  Scottishdrama. Roderick Watson traces a thorough interrogation of  identity in the1920‒1945 period, while Douglas Gifford’s contribution on Scottish writingand World War Two is really comprehensive and illuminating.Moira Burgess lucidly discusses the 1940s and 1950s, John Corbett proffersa deep reading of  language in the work of  MacDiarmid and W.S Graham, andBernard Sellin offers an insightful account of  post-war fiction. Moving to thepresent, Ian Brown and Colin Nicholson rediscover the 1960s and 1970s, CarlaSassi addresses the issue of  borders in Scottish writing with prescient attentionto post-devolution identity, while Robyn Marsack treats contemporary poetrywith lucidity and perception. Michelle Macleod enhances Gaelic poetry beyondnostalgia or loss with great use of  Irish parallels in Nuala Ní Dhómhnaill’saesthetic, Michael Gardiner offers a shrewd and sophisticated reading of  literaturein the 1980s and 1990s, and Marie Odile Pittin-Hédon engages the muchneglected area of  popular and genre fiction in a Scottish context. Finally, DonnyO’Rourke examines contemporary poetry through a post-Edwin Morgan lens,and Ian Brown’s closing piece on entering the twenty-first century very astutelyfocuses the whole collection in its sense of  an open, plural set of  possibilitiesfermenting in Scottish writing. Never settled and always unsettling, Scottishwriting, as brilliantly captured in these essays, continues to provoke and engage.This is a really great, resourceful and illuminating book.Aaron KellyUniversity of  Edinburgh210REVIEWSSL010 - Scottish Literary Review:Layout 1  7/3/11  09:58  Page 210Copyright of Scottish Literary Review is the property of Association for Scottish Literary Studies and itscontent may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder'sexpress written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century Scottish Literature

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Edinburgh Research Explorer