Robert Burns in Global Culture by Alan Rawes

Robert Burns in Global Culture by Alan Rawes

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 USR 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.

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 studiesIt 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 *

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

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781611480306
ISBN 10	1611480302
Title	Robert Burns in Global Culture
Author	Murray Pittock
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Associated University Presses
Year published	2011-05-19
Number of pages	276
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.