What does it mean to write from a provincial place, a conquered place, a marginal rather than a central cultural locus? "Imagining Scotland" looks at a variety of writers, and at some historical and cultural sources, as well, asking this question with specific reference both to Scotland and ways in which English-language writers from the far north of the British isles have depicted themselves over time. We will read writers in many genres and from older as well as recent times. Students are also expected to read a brief history of Scotland, Christopher Harvie's Scotland and Nationalism (NOTE: Harvie is due complete by 13 February), as well as some theoretical essays on literature and geographical/cultural marginalization, to be distributed in photocopy, alongside the primary texts for this class.

Students are expected to attend all classes and to contribute to the discussion of issues raised in the readings. Active classroom participation will be an important factor in all grades. The class has neither a midterm nor a final.

In addition, the course requires two short papers and one longer final one. Short papers should be short -- approximately 750 words (1000 words maximum). The final paper should be about 2000 words (2500 words maximum). The instructor will either provide paper topics as assignments or students with a specific topic in mind may write on it if the instructor, after consultation, has agreed.

Some additional points:

1. Grades will be based on a combination of paper grades, quiz grades (if any), attendance, and classroom participation. Ask now if there is anything about this grading policy that you do not understand or find worrisome.

2. Death (preferably yours) is the only acceptable excuse for lateness with papers. I am particularly tired of killing off grandparents whenever papers are due.

3. In general, I appreciate good writing. I look with disfavor upon essays, whether short or final papers, that are poorly written. Writing will affect your grades. Sloppy writing normally means sloppy thinking.

The following texts are available for purchase at the Penn Book Center (34th and Sansom Streets) -- except for (1) texts that YOU must order directly from the UK (the instructor believes that you cannot order multiple copies; each of you must order your own individual copy) and (2) titles that the syllabus notes can be provided as photocopies (bulkpack) by the instructor:

• J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan and Other Plays (World's Classics, Oxford University Press)
• John Buchan, The Island of Sheep (World's Classics, Oxford University Press) [NOTE: this edition is not available in the United States; you should order individual copies from Amazon.co.uk or from Bol.com -- when the instructor last compared prices, Amazon was cheaper than Bol.]
• Robert Burns, Poems and Songs (Dover)
• David Daiches, Two Worlds (Canongate)
• Susan Ferrier, Marriage (World's Classics, Oxford University Press) [NOTE: this edition is not available in the United States; you should order individual copies from Amazon.co.uk which claims to have copies in stock; Bol.com says "unavailable." Many copies can be found, used, at http://www.addall.com/Used/.]
• John Galt, The Spaewife: A Tale of the Scottish Chronicles -- BULKPACK
• Christopher T. Harvie, Scotland and Nationalism: Scottish Society and Politics, 1707 to the Present (Routledge)
• Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland / The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (Penguin)
• Paul Johnston, Body Politic (New English Library) [NOTE: this edition is not yet published in the United States; you should order individual copies from Amazon.co.uk or from Bol.com -- when the instructor last compared prices, Amazon was cheaper than Bol.]
• A. L. Kennedy, Original Bliss (Vintage)
• Edwin Muir, An Autobiography (Graywolf)
• Edwin Muir, Collected Poems (Faber & Faber) [NOTE: this edition is not available in the United States; you should order individual copies from Amazon.co.uk or from Bol.com -- when the instructor last compared prices, Amazon was cheaper than Bol.]
• Sir Walter Scott, Waverley (World's Classics, Oxford University Press)
• Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (NAL)
• Robert Louis Stevenson, (World's Classics, Oxford University Press)

One book, dropped from the syllabus, remain strongly recommended:

• James Thomson, The Seasons -- available in VPL: many editions

1. WEEK 1 -- January 9
   Introduction (the provincial, the metropolitan)
   • Burns, Poems and Songs

   • You can consult an Official Robert Burns Site ("official"?)
   • The University of South Carolina has mounted the catalogue of Robert Burns, 1759-1796: A Bicentenary Exhibition from the G. Ross Roy Collection

2. WEEK 2 --January 16
   Scotland as a Real Place
   • Edwin Muir, An Autobiography
   • David Daiches, Two Worlds

3. WEEK 3 -- January 23
   A View from Central
   • Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland

4. WEEK 4 -- January 30
   Response to Central's View
   • James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

5. WEEK 5 -- February 6
   The Good Old Days
   • Sir Walter Scott, Waverley
   • . . . or, if you prefer, here is a publicly-accessible e-text version of Waverley (CAUTION: it's a BIG file! and it has no particular "authority" as a text)

6. WEEK 6 -- February 13
   The Good Old Days, continued
   • Scott, Waverley, continued

   • NOTE: Christopher T. Harvie, Scotland and Nationalism is due COMPLETE by the beginning of class, 13 February

7. WEEK 7 -- February 20
   The Bad Old Days
   • John Galt, The spaewife : a tale of the Scottish chronicles -- BULKPACK

   • Note that an online edition of The spaewife (of unknown accuracy but from the University of Guelph, Ontario) can be located at http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/SESLL/STELLA/STARN/prose/GALT/spaewife/spae.htm#Title
   • That text comes from Guelph's larger site, The Works of John Galt
   • Guelph Professor Gilbert A. Stelter has mounted the syllabus and reading list of his Independent Reading Course on John Galt
   • A Galt archive is maintained at the National Library of Canada, although Guelph's Galt collection calls itself the best collection in Canada of his literary production
     

     PAPER ONE IS DUE TODAY

     "Finally, what distinguishes them is that Sir Walter Scott really is simply a better writer than John Galt. His plots are better constructed. His characters are more vital. His themes, not only usually more clearly enunciated than Galt's, are also, in many fundamental ways, more suited to 'the Scottish temper' than Galt's. That is to say, Scott is a far more politically palatable writer for his contemporaries to take seriously and value than Galt ever dreamt of being." Discuss this point of view. Agree with it or disagree with it -- but avoid wishy-washy-ness: do not try both to agree and disagree with it!

     OR

     Compare and contrast the attitudes Scott and Galt take towards the Stuarts and explain the significance of these attitudes.

8. WEEK 8 -- February 27
   Domestic Arrangements
   • Susan Ferrier, Marriage

   • The University of Edinburgh has a website with Aileen Christianson's lecture notes about Susan Ferrier

9. WEEK 9 -- March 6
   Modernity and Its Discontents
   • Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
   • Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

   • The New York Times ran an obituary for Robert Louis Stevenson on 18 December 1894
   • Richard Dury (of the Università di Bergamo, in Italy) has a Robert Louis Stevenson Web Site
   • The University of South Carolina has mounted the catalogue of its exhibition, Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894
   • Brian Doyle wrote about Stevenson in the November 2001 issue of The Atlantic Monthly

10. WEEK 10 -- March 13
    SPRING VACATION -- NO CLASS

11. WEEK 11 -- March 20
    Get Me Out Of This Place
    • J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan
    • J. M. Barrie, The Admirable Crichton

    • Barrie sites are few; this is one of them, with a link to one scholarly article

      PAPER TWO IS DUE TODAY

      Both Stevenson and Barrie have reputations as "children's writers" whom adults also read -- "arrested-development" adults, that is. What appeals to them in the sorts of fantasies they embody in their fictions? (And what appeals to their readers do they seem to share?)

      OR

      Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been called the archetypical Edinburgh novel; presumably the Scot who made this comment thought there was also something peculiarly "Scottish" about it. What might the writer have had in mind? Might he have said anything similar about Peter Pan? Kidnapped? -- and why/why not?

12. WEEK 12 -- March 27
    Dreams of Glory
    • John Buchan, The Island of Sheep

    • Interest in Buchan may be assisted by consultation of the (rather awkward) website mounted by the John Buchan Society

13. WEEK 13 -- April 3
    A modern poet
    • Edwin Muir, Collected Poems

    • Here is a site devoted to Edwin Muir: Poet, Critic and Translator

14. WEEK 14 -- April 10
    A regionalist
    • A. L. Kennedy, Original Bliss

    • Interest in Kennedy may be assisted by consultation of her website, A. L. Kennedy
    • Thomas Lynch reviewed Original Bliss ecstatically in The New York Times (which must mean it's good, right?)
    • David Sacks's Times review of So I Am Glad is more bemused than Lynch's; he's not quite sure what he's read (you might not be, either; but it is well worth your time!)

15. WEEK 15 -- April 17
    A contemporary
    Paul Johnston, Body Politic