Modernism and Nationalism: Literature and Society in Scotland 1918-1939 (Asls Annual Volume Series) - Hardcover

9780948877582: Modernism and Nationalism: Literature and Society in Scotland 1918-1939 (Asls Annual Volume Series)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0948877588 ISBN 13: 9780948877582

Publisher: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2004

From customer review: This is a valuable selection of writing reflecting the issues and debates which animated Scotland's literati in the years between the First and Second World Wars. The topics covered include the nature of Scottish literature, the use of the Scots language, feminism, modernist thought, the Highlands and Celtic Scotland, the great political movements of the period, and Scotland's constitutional and cultural development. McCulloch includes some fascinating passages from letters and articles by Christopher Murray Grieve revealing the evolution of his attitude to Scots as well as choice MacDiarmid polemics promoting his Scottish Renaissance. Neil M. Gunn and Lewis Grassic Gibbon also feature prominently. The selections from the writing of Edwin Muir reveal his pessimism and ambivalence on the national question, but also include very fine passages on the industrial settlements of Lanarkshire and the cult art associated with the Highland sporting estate from his Scottish Journey (1935).

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Review:

"The eclectic collection in this book is fascinating." -- The Herald, June 12 2004

McCulloch gives a vivid sense of how confusing and often exasperating the 20th-century "Scottish Renaissance" acually felt. -- The Scotsman, June 26, 2004

McCulloch's book is indispensable... Serious essays are presented in well-judged counterpoint to private letters, malicious flytings and delicious gossip. -- Times Literary Supplement, December 17, 2004

Synopsis:

What made the twentieth-century interwar literary renaissance unique among Scottish cultural movements was the belief of those involved that any regeneration of the nation's artistic culture could not be separated from revival in its social, economic and political life. An additional priority was engagement with Europe and with the artistic and intellectual ideas of the modern period. Nationalism, internationalism and modernity were therefore seen as complementary and interactive parts of an ambitious national renewal project. Modernism and Nationalism: Literature and Society in Scotland 1918-1939 is an edited collection of primary sources from this challenging period. Through excerpts from periodical articles, book chapters, letters and other documents, it brings us the voices of writers such as MacDiarmid, Gunn, Linklater, Compton Mackenzie, Naomi Mitchison, the Muirs, Carswells and many others, reviewing and arguing over the literary, social, economic and political issues of their time, both at home and abroad, while in the process offering new insights into the ideas behind their own creative writing.

The book makes an important contribution to our understanding of interwar Scotland.

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