Understanding Scotland’s Languages and Literature 3301-JS2811
In order to understand the very essence of Scotland, it is necessary to reach towards the country’s languages and literature, how the turns of history have influenced what has been written, and how this literature has been written. Scotland’s multilingual situation in the past and today have had a natural influence on how writers have, over the centuries, used her three languages, Gaelic, Scots (Lallans) and Standard Scottish English, in the varied literary genres that make up this country’s literary heritage. The course will address the following topics:
1. The beginnings of a nation.
2. The languages of early Scotland.
3. The beginnings of a national literature.
4. The Auld Makars.
5. The Reformation and the English language.
6. The union with England.
7. The 18th century dichotomy of language.
8. Robert Burns – the national bard.
9. Sir Walter Scott and the re-invention of the Highlands.
10. Linguistic divisions and polarisations in the late 19th century.
11. The 20th century Scottish Literary Renaissance.
12. Hugh MacDiarmid: his linguistic and literary contribution.
13. The significance of Glasgow and Glaswegian on the literary mapTom Leonard and James Kelman
14. Scotland’s Poet LaureateS: Edwin Morgan, Liz Lochhead, Jackie Kay and Kathleen Jamie
15. The achievement of three languages.
Requirements: Regular class attendance and participation in discussion. The course will end with a written examination.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Knowledge of the most important events in Scotland’s history, how they influenced the linguistic variety of the inhabitants of that country, and how this variety in turn helped to shape the country’s literature and national awareness.
Assessment criteria
Regular attendance in class.
Bibliography
Bold, Alan (1989) Scotland: A Literary Guide, London & New York: Routledge.
Corbett, John (1997) Language & Scottish Literature, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Corbett, John (1999) Written in the Language of the Scottish Nation. A History of Literary Translation into Scots, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Goring, Rosemary (ed.) (1992) Chambers Scottish Biographical Dictionary, Edinburgh & New York: Chambers.
MacQueen, John & Winnifred (ed.) (1972) A Choice of Scottish Verse 1470-1570, London: Faber & Faber.
McClure, J. Derrick (1995) Scots and Its Literature, Varieties of English around the World, Vol. 14, Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamin’s Publishing Company.
Korzeniowska, Aniela (2008) Translating Scotland. Nation and Identity, Warsaw: University of Warsaw.
Stalmaszczyk, Piotr (2005) Celtic Presence. Studies in Celtic Languages and Literatures: Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish, Łódź: Łódź University Press.
Wallace, G. & R. Stevenson (eds) (1994) The Scottish Novel since the Seventies, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Watson, Roderick (ed.) (1995) The Poetry of Scotland. Gaelic, Scots and English, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: