Burns the Radical by Liam Mcilvanney

Burns the Radical by Liam Mcilvanney

In this text, the author looks behind the trivializing image of the "heav'n-taught ploughman" to uncover the intellectual context of the poet's political radicalism. He reveals Burns as a sophisticated political poet whose work draws on a range of intellectual resources: the democratic, contactarian ideology of Scottish Peresbyterianism, the English and Irish "Real Whig" tradition, and the political theory of the Scottish Enlightenment. Throwing light on the poet's education and his early reading, Liam McIlvanney provides detailed readings of Burn's major poems. The book also offers research on Burns's links with Irish poets and radicals, providing a radical interpretation of the man who is coming to be recognized as the poet laureate of the radical Enlightenment.

""Innovative, fascinating, scholarly, and highly readable"

Liam McIlvanney is the Stuart Professor of
Scottish Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He won the
Saltire First Book Award for Burns the Radical in 2002, and his work has
appeared in the Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of
Books. He lives in Dunedin with his wife and three sons. All the Colours of
the Town, his first novel, was published in 2009.

Ray Ryan is a publisher and critic. He is the author of Ireland and Scotland: Literature and Culture, State
and Nation, 1966-2000, editor of Writing in the Irish Republic: Literature,
Culture, Politics, 1949-1999, and, with LiamMcIlvanney, co-editor of Ireland
and Scotland: Culture and Society, 1700-2000.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781862321779
ISBN 10	1862321779
Title	Burns the Radical
Author	Liam Mcilvanney
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Birlinn General
Year published	2002-08-26
Number of pages	220
Prizes	Short-listed for Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award 2002
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.