The Scottish Invention of English Literature

Description

The Scottish Invention of English Literature explores the origins of the teaching of English literature in the academy. It demonstrates how the subject began in eighteenth-century Scottish universities before being exported to America and other countries. The emergence of English as an institutionalised university subject was linked to the search for distinctive cultural identities throughout the English-speaking world. This book explores the role the discipline played in administering restraints on the expression of indigenous literary forms, and shows how the growing professionalisation of English as a subject offered a breeding ground for academics and writers with an interest in native identity and cultural nationalism. This book is a comprehensive account of the historical origins of the university subject of English literature and provides a wealth of new material on its particular Scottish provenance.

'This is a riveting book. Its implications for intellectual history and for current political questions are far-reaching. As we watch Britishness apparently breaking up, this learned and lucid expression of Scottish cultural self-confidence is very welcome. It contributes to the self-understanding of England as well as that of Scotland, and at a critical moment.' The Observer