Scottish Literature in Class

Scottish authors play a part in numerous canons, and are known for pushing the boundaries of tradition. For instance, Walter Scott is a major figure in the development of Romanticism, the Novel, National Literatures, and even Postmodernism; Robert Louis Stevenson can figure in courses on Modernism, the Novel, the Gothic, Science and Literature, and Gender Studies; Ali Smith drives today’s discussions on the Postmodern, poetic prose, and short fiction; Jackie Kay gives a new twist to postcoloniality.

Below you will find a list of links to documents which show how colleagues teach Scottish texts within a variety of courses. They were contributed by Caroline McCracken Flesher (University of Wyoming), Ian Duncan (UC Berkeley), Scott Hames, Suzanne Gilbert, Douglas Mack and Rory Watson (University of Stirling) and Donna Heddle (University of Highlands and Islands).

Contributors encourage us to think both directly and obliquely about how to foreground the Scottishness of texts included in traditional curricula, and how to use Scottish texts to expand curricula. For instance, the Scottish Literature course at the University of Wyoming is taught within a category called "Emerging Fields." That field includes courses as wide ranging as "Men and Monsters," "Australian Literature," "Native American Literature," and "The Graphic Novel." Wyoming's "British Postcolonialisms" course, aimed at graduate students, weaves together various times and places in which the –colonial becomes post–, and categories shift — from Walter Scott to Salman Rushdie.

• Studies in: British Postcolonialisms
• Scotland and Romanticism
• Emerging Fields: Scottish Literature
• The Scottish Historical Novel
• Comparative Perspectives on Scottish Writing
• Scotland and Empire
• Highlands and Islands Literature (MA)

ASLS would be very interested to consider additional syllabi for this page. Please email them to: office @ asls.org.uk