Literature in modern Scotland

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Scottish Literary Renaissance

Literature in modern Scotland is

Scottish Gaelic and Scots
in forms including poetry, novels, drama and the short story.

In the early twentieth century there was a new surge of activity in Scottish literature, influenced by

Sorley Maclean. The generation of poets that grew up in the postwar period included Douglas Dunn, Tom Leonard, Liz Lochhead. The 1980s and 1990s saw the emergence of a new generation of Scottish poets that became leading figures on the UK stage, including Don Paterson, Robert Crawford, Carol Ann Duffy, Kathleen Jamie and Jackie Kay
.

Among the most important novels of the early twentieth century was

Christopher Brookmyre, and particularly Ian Rankin and his Inspector Rebus novels.[2] The most successful author of Scottish origins in recent years has been J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series.[3]

The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil. The 1960s and 1970s also saw the flourishing of Scottish Gaelic drama, with key figures including Iain Crichton Smith, Tormod Calum Dòmhnallach, Fionnlagh MacLeòid, Donaidh MacIlleathain and Iain Moireach. The political and funding climate changed radically in the 1980s. The Scottish Theatre Company achieved critical success but suffered financial setbacks. By the last two decades of the twentieth century a substantial body of Scottish theatrical writing had built up. Now multiple companies drew on a community of writers. Scottish play writing became increasingly internationalised, with Scottish writers such as Liz Lochhead and Edwin Morgan adapting classic texts, while Jo Clifford and David Greig
investigated European themes.

Poetry

Main article:
Scottish poetry
Edwin Morgan, poet, playwright and the first official Scott Makar

In the early twentieth century there was a new surge of activity in Scottish literature, influenced by

Scots Makar (the official national poet), appointed by the inaugural Scottish government in 2004.[4]

The parallel revitalisation of Gaelic poetry, known as the

Sorley Maclean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain, 1911–96). A native of Skye and a native Gaelic speaker, he abandoned the stylistic conventions of the tradition and opened up new possibilities for composition with his poem Dàin do Eimhir (Poems to Eimhir, 1943). His work inspired a new generation to take up nea bhardachd (the new poetry). These included George Campbell Hay (Deòrsa Mac Iain Dheòrsa, 1915–1984), Lewis-born poets Derick Thomson (Ruaraidh MacThòmais, 1921–2012) and Iain Crichton Smith (Iain Mac a' Ghobhainn, 1928–98). They all focused on the issues of exile, the fate of the Gaelic language and bi-culturalism.[5]

The generation of poets that grew up in the postwar period included

Poet Laureate in May 2009, the first woman, the first Scot and the first openly gay poet to take the post.[9] A new group of Scottish poets have come up, chief among them is Bashabi Fraser. Fraser's poetry tries to see Scotland as it is; a hospitable land where everyone is welcome.[10]

Novels

Main article: Novel in Scotland

Among the most important novels of the early twentieth century was

governor-general from 1936 until his death). His work was an important link between the tradition of Scot and Stevenson and the Scottish Renaissance.[3]

The first edition of John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), which played a major role in the creation of the modern thriller

The Scottish Renaissance increasingly concentrated on the novel, particularly after the 1930s when Hugh MacDiarmid was living in isolation in Shetland and its leadership moved to novelist

Neil Gunn (1891–1973). Gunn's novels, beginning with The Grey Coast (1926), and including Highland River (1937) and The Green Isle of the Great Deep (1943), were largely written in English and not the Scots preferred by MacDiarmid, focused on the Highlands of his birth and were notable for their narrative experimentation.[3] Other major figures associated with the movement include George Blake (1893–1961), A. J. Cronin (1896–1981), Eric Linklater (1899–1974) and Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1901–35). There were also a large number of female authors associated with the movement, who demonstrated a growing feminine consciousness. They included Catherine Carswell (1879–1946), Willa Muir (1890–1970),[3] Nan Shepherd (1893–1981)[2] and most prolifically Naomi Mitchison (1897–1999).[3] All were born within a fifteen-year period and, although they cannot be described as members of a single school, they all pursued an exploration of identity, rejecting nostalgia and parochialism and engaging with social and political issues.[2] Physician A. J. Cronin is now often seen as sentimental, but his early work, particularly his first novel Hatter's Castle (1931) and his most successful The Citadel (1937) were a deliberate reaction against the Kailyard tradition, exposing the hardships and vicissitudes of the lives of ordinary people.[12] He was the most translated Scottish author in the twentieth century.[13] George Blake pioneered the exploration of the experiences of the working class in his major works such as The Shipbuilders (1935). Eric Linklater produced comedies of the absurd including Juan in America (1931) dealing with prohibition America, and a critique of modern war in Private Angelo (1946). Lewis Grassic Gibbon, the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell, produced one of the most important realisations of the ideas of the Scottish Renaissance in his trilogy A Scots Quair (Sunset Song, 1932, Cloud Howe, 1933 and Grey Granite, 1934), which mixed different Scots dialects with the narrative voice.[3] Other works that investigated the working class included James Barke's (1905–58), Major Operation (1936) and The Land of the Leal (1939) and J. F. Hendry's (1912–86) Fernie Brae (1947).[3]

World War II had a greater impact on the novel than in poetry. It ended the careers of some novelists and delayed the start of others.[3] Many major Scottish post-war novelists, such as Robin Jenkins (1912–2005), Jessie Kesson (1916–94), Muriel Spark (1918–2006), Alexander Trocchi (1925–84) and James Kennaway (1928–68) spent much or most of their lives outside Scotland, but often dealt with Scottish themes.[2] Jenkins major novels such as The Cone Gatherers (1955), The Changeling (1958) and Fergus Lamont (1978) focused on working-class dilemmas in a world without spiritual consolation. Very different in tone, Spark produced novels that explored modern social life as in her only two overtly Scottish novels The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960) and the Edinburgh-set The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961).[3] Successful mass-market works included the action novels of Alistair MacLean (1922–87), and the historical fiction of Dorothy Dunnett (b. 1923).[2] A younger generation of novelists that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s included Allan Massie (b. 1938), Shena Mackay (b. 1944) and Alan Spence (b. 1947).[2] Massie's work often deals with historical themes while aware of the limitations of historical objectivity, as in his Augustus (1986), Tiberius (1991) and The Ragged Lion (1994).[3] Working class identity continued to be a major theme in the post-war novel and can be seen in Archie Hind's (1928–2008) The Dear Green Place (1966), Alan Sharp's (1934–2013) A Green Tree in Gedde (1965), George Friel's (1910–75) Mr Alfred M.A. (1972) and William McIlvanney's (b. 1936) Docherty (1975).[3]

Ian Rankin with the final volume in his Inspector Rebus series in 2007

From the 1980s Scottish literature enjoyed another major revival, particularly associated with a group of Glasgow writers focused around meetings in the house of critic, poet and teacher

stream of consciousness novel dealing with a life of petty crime.[2] These works were linked by a reaction to Thatcherism that was sometimes overtly political, and explored marginal areas of experience using vivid vernacular language (including expletives and Scots dialect).[2]

Other notable authors to gain prominence in this period included

Christopher Brookmyre (b. 1968), and particularly the success of Edinburgh's Ian Rankin (b. 1960) and his Inspector Rebus novels.[2] The most successful author of Scottish origins in recent years has been J. K. Rowling (b. 1965), author of the Harry Potter children's fantasy novels.[3]

Drama

Main article:
Theatre in Scotland

Glasgow Citizens' Theatre (1943), a member of the body that became the Scottish Arts Council and was its first President (1947). He founded the College of Drama within the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, Glasgow (1951).[16]

James Bridie, one of the leading figures in Scottish theatre in the early twentieth century

The early twentieth century saw the emergence of a tradition of popular or working class theatre. Hundreds of amateur groups were established, particularly in the growing urban centres of the Lowlands. Many were offshoots of the Workers' Theatre Movement (WTM) and the Unity Theatre Society (UTS). Among the most important were the Fife Miner Players (1926–31), Glasgow Workers' Theatre Group (1937–41) and Glasgow Unity Theatre (1941–51), which lay the ground for modern popular theatre groups.[18] Important playwrights in the movement included former miner Joe Corrie (1894–1968), whose plays included In Time o' Strife (1927), based on the events of the general strike the year before.[19] The Scottish Repertory Theatre was the first Scottish company to encourage native playwrights. In the interwar period its aim was taken up by other amateur companies, particularly the Curtain Theatre, Glasgow,[18] who "discovered" the work of Robert McLellan (1907–85), including his first full-length play Toom Byers (1936) and his best known work Jamie the Saxt (1936). A talented comic dramatist, his commitment to the use of Lallans limited his impact on the wider theatrical world.[20]

The shift to drama that focused on working class life in the post-war period gained momentum with Robert McLeish's The Gorbals Story (1946), which dealt with the immense social problems of urban Scotland.

The Heart is Highland (1959), and George Munro (1902–68) whose plays included Vineyard Street (1949).[21]

The

Salzburg, which could not be held in the aftermath of World War II.[23] The Edinburgh Festival Fringe began when eight theatre companies, who had not been included in the programme, organised their own performances in small and converted theatres. Until the 1960s relations with between the two co-existing festivals were strained. Together they are now the largest, and among the most prestigious, arts festivals in the world, and have included large and small-scale theatrical productions.[24]

A Scottish theatrical renaissance has been perceived by Ian Brown as occurring between the opening of the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in 1963 and the foundation of the Scottish Society of Playwrights in 1973.[25] The Theatres Act 1968 abolished the system of censorship of the stage by the Lord Chamberlain that had existed in Great Britain since 1737. This allowed much greater artistic freedom, but local authorities in Scotland still retained the ability to prosecute "obscene performances" under local by-laws and statutes.[26]

Rehearsal room at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow

In the 1970s a large number of plays explored the nature of Scottish identity.

The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil. McGrath's work, such as The Game's a Bogey (1974), was socialist in intent and took the part of resurgent Scottish nationalism. Independent theatre companies that formed along the lines of this model included TAG (1967–),[3] Borderline Theatre Company (1974–) and Wildcat Stage Productions (1978–).[18]

The 1960s and 1970s also saw the flourishing of Scottish Gaelic drama. Key figures included Iain Crichton Smith, whose plays explored wide-ranging themes. Often humorous, they also dealt with serious topics such as the betrayal of Christ in An Coileach (A Cockerel, 1966) of the Highland Clearances in A' Chùirt (The Court, 1966).

Noh theatre. Fionnlagh MacLeòid's (Finley Macleod) work included Ceann Cropic (1967), which was strongly influenced by the theatre of the absurd. Similarly, Donaidh MacIlleathain (Donnie Maclean), made use of absurd dialogue in An Sgoil Dhubh (A Dark School, 1974). Many of these authors continued writing into the 1980s and even the 1990s, but this was something of a golden age for Gaelic drama that has not been matched.[29]

The political and funding climate changed radically after the failure of the devolution referendum of 1979 and the election of a Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher. The Scottish Arts Council encouraged theatre companies to function as business, finding funding in ticket sales and commercial sponsorship. In 1981 the actor Ewan Hooper was given £50,000 to found the Scottish Theatre Company based in Glasgow and designed to promote the work of Scottish writers. The company found touring difficult as there were insufficient large venues that could generate the necessary income outside of the major cities. Works in the first season included McGrath's Animal (1979) and Bryden's Civilians (1981). Artistic successes were accompanied by financial disaster and the company was £120,000 in debt by the end of its second season. Despite some critical triumphs, the company was wound down in 1987. 7:84 also encountered a period of financial instability, but new structures, new management and an emphasis on encouraging new writing led to works such as Rona Munro's (b. 1959) Bold Girls (1990).[30] By the last two decades of the twentieth century a substantial body of Scottish theatrical writing had built up. There was also a change from a habit of one writer working with one company to several companies drawing on a community of writers. Scottish play writing became increasingly internationalised, with Scottish writers adapting classic texts such Liz Lochhead's version of Molière's Tartuffe (1985) and The Misanthrope (1973/2005) or Edwin Morgan's translation of Cyrano de Bergerac (1992). Scottish playwrights were also increasingly preoccupied with wider European culture, as can be seen in Jo Clifford's (b. 1955) Losing Venice (1985) and David Greig's (b. 1969) Europe (1995).[31]

Notes

  1. ^ S. Lyall, '"Tenshillingland": Community and Commerce, Myth and Madness in the Modern Scottish Novel', in S. Lyall, ed., Community in Modern Scottish Literature (Leiden | Boston: Brill | Rodopi, 2016), pp. 1-24 (pp. 4-10).
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "The Scottish 'Renaissance' and beyond", Visiting Arts: Scotland: Cultural Profile, archived from the original on 30 September 2011
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-19-211696-7
    , pp. 157–9.
  4. ^ The Scots Makar, The Scottish Government, 16 February 2004, archived from the original on 4 February 2012, retrieved 28 October 2007
  5. ISBN 0-19-211696-7
    , pp. 255–7.
  6. ^
    ISBN 1400841429
    , pp. 1276–9.
  7. ISBN 074863309X
    , pp. 67–9.
  8. ISBN 019538623X
    , p. 653.
  9. ^ "Duffy reacts to new Laureate post", BBC News, 1 May 2009, archived from the original on 30 October 2011
  10. ISSN 0032-6178
    .
  11. ISBN 0-19-211696-7
    , pp. 149–51.
  12. ^
    ISBN 0-19-538623-X
    , p. 587.
  13. ISBN 0748624821
    , p. 32.
  14. ISBN 0786421754
    , p. 221.
  15. ISBN 019538623X
    , pp. 510–12.
  16. ^
    ISBN 0231144229
    , p. 199.
  17. ISBN 1847674747
    , p. 209.
  18. ^
    ISBN 0521434378
    , p. 971.
  19. ISBN 0521651328
    , p. 203.
  20. ISBN 0521651328
    , p. 204.
  21. ^
    ISBN 0521651328
    , p. 208.
  22. ISBN 0521651328
    , p. 228.
  23. ISBN 0748609997
    , pp. 136–8.
  24. ISBN 0691026572
    , pp. 63–7.
  25. ^ I. Brown, "Processes and interactive events: theatre and Scottish devolution", in S. Blandford, ed., Theatre and Performance in Small Nations (Bristol: Interlect, 2013), p. 36.
  26. ISBN 074864945X
    .
  27. ^ I. Brown, "Processes and interactive events: theatre and Scottish devolution", in S. Blandford, ed., Theatre and Performance in Small Nations (Bristol: Interlect, 2013), p. 37.
  28. ^ I. Brown, "Processes and interactive events: theatre and Scottish devolution", in S. Blandford, ed., Theatre and Performance in Small Nations (Bristol: Interlect, 2013), pp. 37–8.
  29. ISBN 0748624821
    , p. 282.
  30. ISBN 0521651328
    , pp. 218–19.
  31. ISBN 0521651328
    , p. 223.
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