This substantial new volume is a stimulating yet in-depth introduction to Scottish literature in English and Scots. From medieval to modern, the entire range of literature is introduced, examined and explored. Aimed primarily at those with an interest in Scottish literature, this guide also responds to the need for students and teachers to have detailed discussions of individual authors and texts.The volume looks at Scottish literature in six period sections: Early Scottish Literature, Eighteenth-Century, The Age of Scott, Victorian and Edwardian, The Twentieth-Century Scottish Literary Renaissance, and Scottish Literature since 1945. Each section begins with an overview of the period, followed by several chapters examining exemplary authors and texts. Each section finishes with an extensive discussion including suggestions as to how to further explore the rich and often neglected hinterlands of Scottish writing. Extensive reading lists identify primary texts of the period as well as details of a wide range of additional authors. Opening up neglected areas of study as well as responding to the burgeoning interest in novelists, modern poets and dramatists, this book serves as an invaluable guide to Scottish Literature.

Professor Douglas Gifford, Emeritus Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow, explores James Hogg’s most famous work, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. This shocking tale of a minister’s son who believes himself chosen by God to punish those he sees as evil-doers, and who has a mysterious guide in all his atrocities, has been labelled a Gothic story – yet it has more in common with traditional Scottish folk-tales, but with the alternative possibility of an astonishingly modern reading, in which there are no devils and no wonders, only the delusions of a diseased mind.Professor Gifford guides the listener through the turns and twists of the novel, accompanied by atmospheric readings of selections from the text by John Shedden. Both psychological and supernatural elements are explored, along with the background to Hogg and his works.This double-disk audio CD makes an excellent tool for classroom use or for home study.

This substantial new volume is a stimulating yet in-depth introduction to Scottish literature in English and Scots. From medieval to modern, the entire range of literature is introduced, examined and explored. Aimed primarily at those with an interest in Scottish literature, this guide also responds to the need for students and teachers to have detailed discussions of individual authors and texts.The volume looks at Scottish literature in six period sections: Early Scottish Literature, Eighteenth-Century, The Age of Scott, Victorian and Edwardian, The Twentieth-Century Scottish Literary Renaissance, and Scottish Literature since 1945. Each section begins with an overview of the period, followed by several chapters examining exemplary authors and texts. Each section finishes with an extensive discussion including suggestions as to how to further explore the rich and often neglected hinterlands of Scottish writing. Extensive reading lists identify primary texts of the period as well as details of a wide range of additional authors. Opening up neglected areas of study as well as responding to the burgeoning interest in novelists, modern poets and dramatists, this book serves as an invaluable guide to Scottish Literature.

Professor Douglas Gifford, Emeritus Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow, explores James Hogg’s most famous work, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. This shocking tale of a minister’s son who believes himself chosen by God to punish those he sees as evil-doers, and who has a mysterious guide in all his atrocities, has been labelled a Gothic story – yet it has more in common with traditional Scottish folk-tales, but with the alternative possibility of an astonishingly modern reading, in which there are no devils and no wonders, only the delusions of a diseased mind.Professor Gifford guides the listener through the turns and twists of the novel, accompanied by atmospheric readings of selections from the text by John Shedden. Both psychological and supernatural elements are explored, along with the background to Hogg and his works.This double-disk audio CD makes an excellent tool for classroom use or for home study.