Exhibition News & Updates

Calling all university lecturers in North America – we need your help! The Association for Scottish Literary Studies is interested in developing teaching editions of various Scottish texts in the form of Norton's (with critical essays), Longman's Critical Editions (with a focus on revisions), Broadview Texts (with historical contexts) or Bedford/St Martin's Case Studies (with theoretical perspectives). It would be a great help if you could take 5 minutes to reply to our Scottish Literature in North America survey and let us know what you think would be the best way for us to provide these resources. Thank you in advance for your time.

25 February, 2011: The MLA convention in Los Angeles was another great success for the Scottish Writing Exhibition! You can find a list of all the titles we brought to the convention on the MLA '11 Convention Los Angeles page, where you can also download the entire catalogue as a pdf. For our gift bags this year we printed an article by Stuart Kelly, Scotland, Europe and World Literature in booklet form. You can download this booklet free, from this page (see below).

11 March, 2010: The Chronicle of Higher Education (10 March 2010) has a fantastic article about the Scottish Writing Exhibition this past MLA convention in Philadelphia. James M. Lang (Assumption College) shares his excitement at rediscovering Scottish writing in "Tenured Professors and Passionate Learning".

Free Scottish Writing downloads:

ASLS have produced four new booklets on Scottish writing. You can download your own copy by clicking on the images below. The documents open as pdfs in a new window. Please contact us if you would like to receive multiple printed copies of any booklet for a course or project.

What is Scottish literature? What has Scotland exported to the rest of the world, and in turn, how has the writing of other nations affected Scotland's own unique and vibrant literary tradition? Alan Riach, Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow, answers these questions and offers an overview of Scotland's literary culture with an introduction to Scotland's best-known writers, poets and playwrights.

Are Scottish writers British? If not, what makes them Scottish and not English or Irish? Why does Scottish literature not also enjoy the longstanding international popularity of its Irish cousin? Professor Riach examines the history and perception of Scotland's writing in the UK and without, addressing issues of Scottish identity in literature starting with the significance – and unique beauty – of writing in Scots and Gaelic.

Literary Exchanges: Scotland, Europe and World Literatures by Stuart Kelly is an article previously published by the Scottish Book Trust, reprinted in booklet form for the MLA 2011 in Los Angeles.

Crossing Borders: A Scottish Sampler is a small selection of poetry from Gerry Cambridge, David Kinloch, Alan Riach and Fiona Wilson. It was compiled for the MLA convention in 2008, where all four poets took part in the Scottish session Crossing Borders: Four Scottish Poets in Conversation.

New ASLS publications:

Literary Scotland: A Traveller's Guide
by Alan Riach
a joint publication by VisitScotland, ASLS, University of Glasgow, 2011
Featuring everything from the castle where Bram Stoker penned Dracula to the heights of Ben Dorain, Literary Scotland: A Traveller's Guide highlights 60 fascinating literary locations throughout the country, including the stunning settings for world-famous novels, the scenery that inspired poets and the birthplaces of some of the country's most distinguished writers. It is the first guide of its kind to be put together by VisitScotland and it is hoped it will appeal to residents and visitors alike. Compiled in association with the University of Glasgow and the ASLS, Literary Scotland: A Traveller's Guide was written by Alan Riach, a noted poet, Past President of ASLS and Professor of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University. He said: "This little book is only a beginning, a first list of locations significant to writers or literary visitors to Scotland. I've included many familiar and also many unfamiliar names and places: Burns and Scott and MacDiarmid are all there of course, but also Mary MacLeod and Catherine Carswell, John Buchan and Irvine Welsh, Duncan Ban MacIntyre and Liz Lochhead. So many people—whether visitors or resident Scots—might not know how steeped in literature the landscapes they drive through or live in really are. The idea was simply to open a few doors, to suggest a few ways of thinking about what Scottish literature might do to help us really inhabit the country more fully."

The booklet is available free. You can download it from this website or pick up a printed copy from VisitScotland information centres around the country.

Kirsteen by Margaret Oliphant
Edited by Anne M Scriven
Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2010
Kirsteen is the tale of a young woman from an old but impoverished Argyllshire family who escapes her domineering father and seeks her independence. Kirsteen’s options appear to be unpaid drudgery at home, or a loveless marriage. Rejecting both, she escapes to London where she makes a living through her own innate craft and skill. Though scorned by her family for choosing to work as a mantua-maker, Kirsteen becomes highly successful in the life she carves out for herself. Kirsteen is a startlingly modern novel whose powerful voice, narrative drive and ironic exposure of injustice and hypocrisy give a fascinating perspective on women in Victorian society. First published in 1890, and written by Queen Victoria’s favourite novelist Margaret Oliphant, Kirsteen is a deep, rich novel by an author at the height of her powers.

The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott
Edited by Thomas Crawford with an introduction by Douglas Gifford
Foreword by First Minister Alex Salmond
Illustrations by Linda Farquharson
Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2010
In 1810 a literary phenomenon swept through Britain, Europe and beyond: the publication of Sir Walter Scott's epic poem The Lady of the Lake. The world's first international blockbusting bestseller, its impact was immediate and astonishing. It defined Scotland, and turned the Highlands—and especially Loch Katrine and the Trossachs—into one of Europe's great Romantic tourist destinations. In the words of Scott's biographer, Edgar Johnson, 'it became more fashionable to see the Trossachs than to make the Grand Tour of Europe'.

To mark the 200th anniversary of The Lady of the Lake, the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, in partnership with the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, has produced this new edition, with specially commissioned illustrations by leading Scottish artist Linda Farquharson. The text is supported throughout by substantial and accessible notes, allowing readers to appreciate fully the depth and meaning of Scott's great work.

This is a deluxe edition, printed in two colours throughout and produced to a very high standard. The craftsmanship of the book itself will compliment the quality of the poetry.

The Cottagers of Glenburnie by Elizabeth Hamilton, edited by Pam Perkins
Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2010
Annual Volume 38 (2008)
Writing in the late 18th and early 19th century, Elizabeth Hamilton produced fiction, satire, comical sketches, philosophical essays, historical biography, theological treatises, and essays on educational theory. She is best known for her novel The Cottagers of Glenburnie (1808) with its vivid depictions – and biting satires – of Scottish peasant life. A lively and entertaining tale, The Cottagers of Glenburnie also skilfully discusses and dissects class issues, British imperialism, and war. Also included here are three examples of Hamilton's non-fiction: Letters on the Elementary Principles of Education (1801); Memoirs of the Life of Agrippina, Wife of Germanicus (1804); and Letters Addressed to the Daughter of a Nobleman (1806). All three present different aspects of Hamilton's educational theories. Taken together, these works show how, despite its ostensibly simple plot and style, Glenburnie brings together the political and social concerns of the day with the Scottish Enlightenment interest in theories of the mind and of moral education on which Hamilton drew throughout her career. It is a fascinating example of early 19th-century women's fiction.

This volume is the only edition available in print, and it comes with a glossary and notes for scholars and students.

First Men on Mercury by Edwin Morgan
a comic adaptation by Metaphrog
Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2009
4 pages
Contact ASLS for copies
The First Men on Mercury, by Edwin Morgan, has been adapted into comic-strip form for the ASLS by the Glasgow-based comics duo metaphrog. To mark National Poetry Day 2009, more than 30,000 copies have been distributed to all Secondary school pupils in the poet's home city. ASLS gave away copies of The First Men on Mercury in our gift bags at the 2009 MLA in Philadelphia.

Crossing the Highland Line: cross-currents in eighteenth-century Scottish writing
Edited by Christopher MacLachlan
Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2009
Pbk 224 pages
£9.95 (£7.96 for members)
Scottish writing exploded across the globe in the eighteenth century, transforming world literature and culture. Crossing the Highland Line explores literary connections across Scotland, and traces the links between those who wrote in Scots and English and those who wrote in Gaelic. These essays, from fourteen leading scholars, show that the whole of Scotland – Highland and Lowland, high cultures and low – participated in the reshaping of literature in the eighteenth century. The Highland Line does not divide.