Howard Gaskill – författare

This is the first modern edition of all Macpherson's Ossianic poetry, including Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Fingal and Temora - as well as his accompanying prefaces and dissertations, and Hugh Blair's Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian. Based on the 1765 text of the Works of Ossian, major variants from the other editions are included, together with a comprehensive register of Ossianic names.

The intellectual scope and cultural impact of British writers cannot be assessed without reference to their 'European' fortunes. This collection of 20 essays, prepared by an international team of scholars, critics and translators, records the ways in which Macpherson's Ossian has been received, translated and published in different areas of Europe. The Ossian poems caused a sensation on their first appearance in the early 1760's. Indeed, there is hardly a major Romantic poet on whom they failed to make a significant impression. The essays brought together in this volume explore the reception of Ossian in a wide range of European countries, in both literary and non-literary forms of reception and in the work of both individual writers and national literary cultures.

James Macpherson''s Poems of Ossian, said to be translations from the Gaelic of a third-century bard, caused a sensation on their first appearance in the early 1760s. Contrary to the impression often conveyed in literary histories, enthusiasm for the poetry of the ''Homer of the North'' cannot be dismissed as a short-lived fad, for its appeal lasted a century or more, both at home and abroad. There is hardly a major Romantic poet on whom it failed to make a significant impact. In the words of Sir Walter Scott, it succeeded in "giving a new tone ot poetry throughout all Europe" and its influence was ubiquitous, from Poland to Portugal, from Paris to Prague. The essays brought together here consider the reception of Ossian in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, as well as in a wide range of European countries. In some the focus is on individual writers (for instance, Goethe, Schiller, Chateaubriand, Espronceda), in others there is a broader sweep and a survey of reception in a national literary culture is offered (for instance, Hungary, Russia, Sweden). One of the two essays on Ossian in Italy at last gives Macpherson''s influential epigone, John Smith, his due. Consideration is also given to Ossian''s significance for the rise of historicism, and to non-literary forms of reception in music and art. Series Editor: Dr Elinor Shaffer FBA, Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London     Contributors:  Howard Gaskill, University of Edinburgh

Dafydd Moore, University of Plymouth

Donald Meek, University of Edinburgh

Mary-Ann Constantine, University of Wales

Mícheál Mac Craith, University of Galway

Joep Leerssen, University of Amsterdam

Colin Smethurst, University of Glasgow

Sandro Jung, University of Wales, Lampeter

Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

Wolf Gerhard Schmidt, University of Saarbrücken

Peter Graves, University of Sweden

James Porter, University of Aberdeen

Gabriella Hartvig, University of Pécs

Nina Taylor-Terlecka, Oxford, UK

Peter France,  University of Edinburgh

Enrico Mattioda

Francesca Broggi-Wüthrich

Andrew Ginger

Gerald Bär, Aberta University

Christopher Smith, Norwich, UK

Murdo MacDonald, University of Dundee

Reception of Ossian in Europe Review Reception of Ossian in Europe Review 2

This is a collection of international research surveying the reception of James Macpherson's Ossian poems in European literature and culture.The intellectual scope and cultural impact of British writers cannot be assessed without reference to their European fortunes. This collection of 20 essays, prepared by an international team of scholars, critics and translators, records the ways in which Macpherson's Ossian has been received, translated and published in different areas of Europe.The Ossian poems caused a sensation on their first appearance in the 1760s. Indeed, there is hardly a major Romantic poet on whom they failed to make a significant impression. The essays brought together in this volume explore the reception of Ossian in a wide range of European countries, in both literary and non-literary forms of reception and in the work of both individual writers and national literary cultures.Our knowledge of British and Irish authors is incomplete and inadequate without an understanding of the perspectives of other nations on them. Each volume examines the ways authors have been translated, published, distributed, read, reviewed and discussed in Europe.In doing so, it throws light not only on the specific strands of intellectual and cultural history but also on the processes involved in the dissemination of ideas and texts.

James Macphersons Ossian zählt im späten 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert zu den wichtigsten Werken der Weltliteratur. Dabei stilisiert man den keltischen Barden zum "Homer des Nordens" (Madame de Staël) und seine Poesie zur "Mutter der Romantik" (Uhland, Jean Paul). Indem Ossian mit 'süßer Wehmut' auf die Vergangenheit zurückblickt und die Distanz zum Ideal ästhetisch kompensiert, stellt er zugleich das'Urbild' des sentimentalischen Dichters dar. Die vorliegende Arbeit unternimmt erstmals eine Gesamtdarstellung der deutschen "Ossianomanie" und macht wichtiges Textmaterial zugänglich. Grundlage hierfür bietet eine poststrukturalistische Vermittlung wirkungsästhetischer und diskursanalytischer Modelle.Band 1 behandelt die Poems of Ossian, die zeitgenössischen Diskurse sowie die Frühphase der Rezeption; Band 2 befasst sich mit der Haupt- und der Spätphase der Rezeption. Die Bände 3 und 4 präsentieren die rezeptionssteuernden deutschen Übersetzungen sowie die wichtigsten Rezeptionszeugen.