Robert Burns and Pastoral - Poetry and Improvement in Late Eighteenth-Century Scotland

This book restores the long marginalised Scottish poet Robert Burns to his rightful place as a major poet of the 18th century and Romantic period. It discusses his education as a farmer during the revolutionary period of 'improvement' in 18th-century Scotland, decision to write 'Scots pastoral' poetry, and influence on Wordsworth and Coleridge.

List of contents

Introduction: 'The Heaven-taught ploughman'; 1 Burns and the 'New Husbandry'; 2 Scots Pastoral; 3 The Making of a Poet; 4 Pastoral Politics; 5 Beasties; 6 Hellfire and Commonsense; 7 The Annals of the Poor; 8 The Deil and the Exciseman; 9 Across the Shadow Line: Burns and British Romanticism; Bibliography; Index

About the author

Nigel Leask was appointed to Glasgow's Regius Chair of English Language and Literature in 2004, and is currently Head of the School of Critical Studies. He was previously Reader in Romantic Literature in the English Faculty at Cambridge University. He has published widely in the area of Romantic literature and culture, with a special emphasis on empire, orientalism, and travel writing, as well as Scottish literature and thought 1750-1850. His most recent book, Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late-18th Century Scotland (Oxford University Press, 2010) won the Saltire Prize for the best Scottish Research Book of 2010. He has also taught at the universities of Bologna and the UNAM, Mexico City. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Summary

This book restores the long marginalised Scottish poet Robert Burns to his rightful place as a major poet of the 18th century and Romantic period. It discusses his education as a farmer during the revolutionary period of 'improvement' in 18th-century Scotland, decision to write 'Scots pastoral' poetry, and influence on Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Additional text

In Robert Burns and Pastoral, Leask updates the "big" book on Burns' for a twenty-first-century audience, situating Burns within a complex frame of national and international historical forces and ideas.

Product details

• Authors: Nigel Leask, Nigel (Regius Professor of English Language Leask, Nigel (Regius Professor of English Language and Literature Leask, Leask Nigel
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.12.2015
• EAN: 9780198732426
• ISBN: 978-0-19-873242-6
• No. of pages: 362
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, History, HISTORY / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Literary studies: general, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Literary studies: poetry and poets