Robert Burns in Global Culture

Murray Pittock - Contributions by Robert Crawford; Leith Davis; Dominique Delmaire; R D. S. Jack; Nigel Leask; Pauline Anne Mackay; Clark McGinn; Silvia Mergenthal; Andrew Monnickendam; Alan Rawes; Frauke Reitemeier and Christopher A. Whatley

Robert Burns has been a key figure in Scottish identity globally since his death in 1796. But he has always been much more than that. In America, his admirers have included Emerson, President Lincoln, Maya Angelou and many others, for Burns was long held to be a friend to the American way of life, an opponent of kings and tyranny, and someone who proved that the values that built the United States were not extinct in Europe. In Europe itself, Burns was seen as both an authentic voice of the people-a representative of their way of life-and a progressive, informed and radical writer. In the British Empire and later the Commonwealth, he was a symbol of Scottish nationality and sociability abroad. In more recent times he has been seen as a poet of universal brotherhood and sisterhood.

It takes a great poet to be all things to all people, and to be interpreted so variously worldwide. One of the extraordinary things about Burns is that while his books were sold globally, while he remains the second most translated Scottish author of all time, and when even the USSR issued a stamp in his honor, the postwar academic world turned away from a poet whom it had previously recognized as a major figure. Burns disappeared from accounts of Romanticism, and such meager helpings of critical attention as he received were often directed towards his supposed status as a laboring class or dialect poet, a status which is completely at odds with Burns' sophisticated control of register.

Robert Burns in Global Culture is an ambitious book. Drawing on the work of leading experts from Scotland, England, North America, France, Germany and Spain, it analyses the reasons for Burns' critical decline, examines the phenomenon of Burns' global influence on areas from Italian politics to American identity, and places Burns' influence, reputation and unique qualities as a poet within a framework of reference which blends rigorous intellectual inquiry into the poet and his poetry with analyses of popular culture.

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 276 • Trim: 6¾ x 9½

978-1-61148-030-6 • Hardback • May 2011 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

978-1-61148-031-3 • eBook • May 2011 • $102.50 • (£79.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Literary Criticism / Poetry

Robert Burns in Global Culture

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Robert Burns has been a key figure in Scottish identity globally since his death in 1796. But he has always been much more than that. In America, his admirers have included Emerson, President Lincoln, Maya Angelou and many others, for Burns was long held to be a friend to the American way of life, an opponent of kings and tyranny, and someone who proved that the values that built the United States were not extinct in Europe. In Europe itself, Burns was seen as both an authentic voice of the people-a representative of their way of life-and a progressive, informed and radical writer. In the British Empire and later the Commonwealth, he was a symbol of Scottish nationality and sociability abroad. In more recent times he has been seen as a poet of universal brotherhood and sisterhood.

It takes a great poet to be all things to all people, and to be interpreted so variously worldwide. One of the extraordinary things about Burns is that while his books were sold globally, while he remains the second most translated Scottish author of all time, and when even the USSR issued a stamp in his honor, the postwar academic world turned away from a poet whom it had previously recognized as a major figure. Burns disappeared from accounts of Romanticism, and such meager helpings of critical attention as he received were often directed towards his supposed status as a laboring class or dialect poet, a status which is completely at odds with Burns' sophisticated control of register.

Robert Burns in Global Culture is an ambitious book. Drawing on the work of leading experts from Scotland, England, North America, France, Germany and Spain, it analyses the reasons for Burns' critical decline, examines the phenomenon of Burns' global influence on areas from Italian politics to American identity, and places Burns' influence, reputation and unique qualities as a poet within a framework of reference which blends rigorous intellectual inquiry into the poet and his poetry with analyses of popular culture.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 276 • Trim: 6¾ x 9½

978-1-61148-030-6 • Hardback • May 2011 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

978-1-61148-031-3 • eBook • May 2011 • $102.50 • (£79.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Literary Criticism / Poetry

Author

Murray Pittock is Bradley Professor of English Literature, head of the College of Arts, and vice-principal of the University of Glasgow.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: Global Burns
Chapter 2 Chapter 1: "A Long Farewell to All My Greatness": The History of the Reputation of Robert Burns
Chapter 3 Chapter 2: Robert Burns and the Mind of Europe
Chapter 4 Chapter 3: Burns and European Identities
Chapter 5 Chapter 4: "Nature's Poet" and Socialist Model: The Reception of Robert Burns in Germany
Chapter 6 Chapter 5: Burns in Italy: Giuseppe Chiarini's "Roberto Burns"
Chapter 7 Chapter 6: The Aestheticization of Robert Burns in Nineteenth-Century French Literature
Chapter 8 Chapter 7: Enlightened Religion and Enlightened Sex: Robert Burns and his French Contemporaries
Chapter 9 Chapter 8: "If ever there was a man who felt, it was Burns": Burns and Desire
Chapter 10 Chapter 9: Translating Burns: The Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives
Chapter 11 Chapter 10: "Their Groves o' Sweet Myrtles": Robert Burns and the Scottish Colonial Experience
Chapter 12 Chapter 11: Vehement Celebrations: The Global Celebration of the Burns Supper since 1801
Chapter 13 Chapter 12: Robert Burns, Memorialization, and the "Heart-beatings" of Victorian Scotland
Chapter 14 Chapter 13: "Rules of Art": The Life of Burns on Page and Stage, 1800-1954

Reviews

Robert Burns in Global Culture, edited by Murray Pittock, is part of a substantial series of publications and activity that aims to re-establish Burns as a central figure in Romantic studies. It is telling, and appropriate, that the contributors attempt to do so by noting the combination of Burns’s intense feeling for local place with his global reach and global interests.
— The Year's Work In English Studies