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A History of Scottish Literature

A History of Scottish Literature: Episode 4: Wizards of the North

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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Episode 4

Episode 4: Wizards of the North

Wizards of the North

BBC Radio Scotland - A History of Scottish Literature, Wizards of the North

Billy Kay explores the legacy of Scott, Ossian, Burns and Byron in the Romantic movement.

Billy Kay traces Scottish literature from its origins to the present. He explores the legacy of Scott, Ossian, Burns and Byron in the European Romantic movement.

Billy Kay explores the portrayal of Scotland as a centre of the Romantic Movement through the influence of the Ossian cult, Burns, and the epic poetry and novels of Sir Walter Scott. Scott is regarded as the author who created the new genre of the historical novel - here we discover just how innovative he was.

The balancing act between restrained sensibility and extravagant romanticism emerged in one of the iconic works of the age, James Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry which the author claimed were part of an oral tradition going back to the ancient Celtic bard Ossian. Professor Willie Gillies asserts that the pathos in Ossian was quite alien to the native Gaelic tradition. But the great and good from Thomas Jefferson to Napoleon lapped it up as yet another expression of an appealing Zeitgeist with a Caledonian epicentre.

That epicentre also claimed the other literary giant of the period, George Gordon, Lord Byron, who prided himself on his Aberdeenshire roots and celebrated them in his song, Dark Lochnagar. With all this evocation of history and landscape, Scotland became THE must see travel destination for cultured Europeans with the Trossachs, Fingal's Cave and Burns Cottage becoming places of pilgrimage and commerce! Billy discusses the role writers still have in promoting the country with Ali Bowden, Director of the world's first Unesco City of Literature, Edinburgh. 

Another reason for our writing flourishing in the 19th century was a thriving publishing industry, and contributing to it was a talented group of female writers such as Mrs Oliphan and Susan Ferrier. Sadly, many of these authors await re-discovery, so when growing up, the Scottish tradition appeared very masculine to a contemporary writer like Louise Welsh.

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Billy Kay celebrates Scottish literature and its importance to national identity.

Billy Kay traces Scottish literature from its origins in Celtic myths to its role in creating national identity.

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