The Cambridge Companion to Scottish Literature

Scotland's rich literary tradition is a product of its unique culture and landscape, as well as of its long history of inclusion and resistance to the United Kingdom. Scottish literature includes masterpieces in three languages - English, Scots and Gaelic - and global perspectives from the diaspora of Scots all over the world. This Companion offers a unique introduction, guide and reference work for students and readers of Scottish literature from the pre-medieval period to the post-devolution present. Essays focus on key periods and movements (the Scottish Enlightenment, Scottish Romanticism, the Scottish Renaissance), genres (the historical novel, Scottish Gothic, 'Tartan Noir') and major authors (Burns, Scott, Stevenson, MacDiarmid and Spark). A chronology and guides to further reading in each chapter make this an ideal overview of a national literature that continues to develop its own distinctive style.

Chronology; Introduction Gerard Carruthers and Liam McIlvanney; 1. Scottish literature before Scottish literature Thomas Clancy; 2. The Medieval period Alessandra Petrina; 3. Reformation and Renaissance Sarah Dunnigan; 4. The aftermath of Union Leith Davis; 5. Robert Burns Nigel Leask; 6. Enlightenment, Romanticism and the Scottish Canon: cosmopolites or narrow nationalists? Murray Pittock; 7. Scott and the historical novel Ian Duncan; 8. The Gaelic tradition Peter Mackay; 9. Scottish Gothic David Punter; 10. Victorian Scottish literature Andrew Nash; 11. Robert Louis Stevenson Penny Fielding; 12. Hugh MacDiarmid and the Scottish Renaissance Scott Lyall; 13. Popular fiction: detective novels and thrillers from Holmes to Rebus David Goldie; 14. Muriel Spark Robert Hosmer; 15. The Glasgow novel Liam McIlvanney; 16. 'What is the language using us for?': Modern Scottish poetry Fiona Stafford; 17. The emergence of Scottish studies Matthew Wickman; 18. Otherworlds: devolution and the Scottish novel Cairns Craig; 19. Scottish literature in diaspora Gerard Carruthers; Index.

This Companion offers a unique introduction, guide and reference work for students and readers of Scottish literature from the pre-medieval period to the post-devolution present. A chronology and guides to further reading make this an ideal overview of a national literature that continues to develop its own distinctive style.

Gerard Carruthers is Professor of Scottish Literature Since 1700 at the University of Glasgow.
Liam McIlvanney is Stuart Professor of Scottish Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand.