Scotland and the Fictions of Geography: North Britain 1760-1830

by Penny Fielding

Overview

Focusing on the relationship between England and Scotland and the interaction between history and geography, Penny Fielding explores how Scottish literature in the Romantic period was shaped by the understanding of place and space. The book examines geography as a form of regional, national and global definition, addressing national surveys, local stories, place-names and travel writing, and argues that the case of Scotland complicates the identification of Romanticism with the local. Fielding considers Scotland as ‘North Britain’ in a period when the North of Europe was becoming a strong cultural and political identity, and explores ways in which Scotland was both formative and disruptive of British national consciousness. Containing studies of Robert Burns, Walter Scott and James Hogg, as well as the lesser-known figures of Anne Grant and Margaret Chalmers, this study discusses an exceptionally broad range of historical, geographical, scientific, linguistic, antiquarian and political writing from throughout North Britain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107402782
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/11/2011
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Romanticism , #78
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Penny Fielding is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Previous books include an edition of Walter Scott, The Monastery (2000), and Writing and Orality: Nationality, Culture, and Nineteenth-Century Scottish Fiction (1996).

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. North Britain; 2. Burns, place, and language; 3. Great North Roads: the geometries of the nation; 4. Antiquarianism and the inscription of the nation; 5. Ultima Thule: the limits of the North; 6. Norths: James Hogg and post-Enlightenment space.

Editorial Reviews

"[A] compelling and rich read that also introduces a historical dimension into the ongoing debate on the dangers and promises of globalization."
Eighteenth Century Fiction, Leith Davis, Simon Fraser University

"With a keen ear for her chosen authors' subtle (and sometimes contradictory) agendas, an admirable grasp of both the historical and contemporary theoretical trends informing their texts, and a highly readable prose style, Fielding ensures that Scotland and the Fictions of Geography will take its place alongside Writing and Orality as a touchstone text of Scottish studies for years to come."
18th Century Scotland, Evan Gottlieb, Oregon State University

"This is a work that will be valuable to any reader trying to make senseof Scottish or North British Romanticism and indispensable to those who wish to delve deeper into that contested, contradictory territory."
-David Goldie,University of Strathclyde

From the Publisher