Kirkyard Romanticism - (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Romanticism) by Sarah Sharp (Hardcover)

About the Book

Examines Scottish Romantic writers' shared focus on the ideological import of an imagined national dead

Book Synopsis

The early nineteenth century saw the dead take on new life in Scottish literature; sometimes quite literally. This book brings together a range of Scottish Romantic texts, identifying a shared interest an imagined national dead. It argues that the publications of Edinburgh-based publisher William Blackwood were the crucible for this new form of Scottish cultural nationalism. Scottish Romantic authors including James Hogg, John Wilson and John Galt, use the Romantic kirkyard to engage with, and often challenge, contemporary ideas of modernity. The book also explores the extensive ripples that this cultural moment generated across Scottish, British and wider Anglophone literary sphere over the next century.

From the Back Cover

[headline]Examines Scottish Romantic writers' shared focus on the ideological import of an imagined national dead The early nineteenth century saw the dead take on new life in Scottish literature. Bursting onto the literary periodical scene in 1817 with an infamous first edition, many of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine's early tales, poems and essays shared a recurring motif: the place of the dead in society. Analysing the development of this theme and the debates around it, Sharp maintains that the publications of the Edinburgh-based publisher William Blackwood were the crucible for this new form of Scottish cultural nationalism. Kirkyard Romanticism argues that Scottish Romantic authors, including James Hogg, John Wilson and John Galt, used the Romantic kirkyard to engage with, and often challenge, contemporary ideas of modernity. It also explores the extensive ripples that this cultural moment generated across Scottish, British and the wider Anglophone literary sphere over the next century. [bio]Sarah Sharp is a Lecturer in Scottish Literature at the University of Aberdeen and Deputy Director of Aberdeen's Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies. Her research focuses on Scottish literature and the long nineteenth century and she has published articles on James Hogg, shipboard diaries, Robert Burns, crime writing and settler colonialism.

Review Quotes

In Kirkyard Romanticism, Sharp transcends the national to make a significant contribution to nationhood theory, as well as 19th-century Scottish literature and politics.

Summing Up: Highly recommended.

--J. Walker, emeritus, Queen's University at Kingston "CHOICE"

Sarah Sharp's brilliant account of a Blackwood's-based 'Kirkyard School' of fiction shows how Romantic-era Scotland figured as a repository for regional values at risk of being forgotten in modernity's sweep. In so doing, the book helpfully reconnects the period with a longer nineteenth century history of both literary and colonial engagements with the dead.--Anthony Jarrells, University of South Carolina

About the Author

Sarah Sharp is a lecturer in Scottish Literature at the University of Aberdeen and deputy director of Aberdeen's Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh and has previously held positions at the University of Otago and University College Dublin. She was selected for a Fulbright Scottish Studies Scholar Award in 2018 and was based at the University of South Carolina. Sarah's research is focused on Scottish literature and the long nineteenth century. She has published articles on James Hogg, shipboard diaries, Robert Burns, crime writing and settler colonialism.