Cairns Craig is Director of the AHRC Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen. His books include Yeats, Eliot, Pound and the Politics of Poetry (1982), Out of History (1996), The Modern Scottish Novel (1999), Associationism and the Literary Imagination (2007). He was general editor of the four-volume History of Scottish Literature (1987-9) and has been on the editorial boards of Cencrastus, Radical Scotland, Edinburgh Review and the Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies
With this intelligent, challenging and provcative study of the defining characteristics of the modern - and not so modern - Scottish novel, Cairns Craig has made a major contribution to the ever-changing debate regarding the relationship of Scottish traditions to individual creative talents ! I believe we will come to regard this study as taking its place amongst the all too few major landmarks of Scottish cultural criticism ! its over-riding success lies not so much on its individual arguments - though these are always stimulating and fresh, if often controversial - but in its sheer scale and range of thought and challenge ... This ground-breaking discussion of the defining characteristics of modern Scottish fiction will undoubtedly lie at the centre of debate concerning issues of fiction and its place in the making of Scottish national myth and identity for a long time to come ! original, perceptive and provocative. Craig's text offers an insightful, fresh approach to the modern Scottish novel. The broad range of texts that he covers and the multiple themes he traces would provide a helpful critical text to a general course on the modern Scottish novel. For a more specific course, Craig's text would provide a firm and engaging frame of study for Scottish literature courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. -- Brooke McLaughlin An ambitious, impressive and hugely enjoyable exploration of the recurrent themes, concerns and styles of modern Scottish novels, from John Buchan and Neil Gunn to the more recent flourishing of Scottish writing from A. L. Kennedy, Alasdair Gray, Janice Galloway, James Kelman, Irvine Welsh, Muriel Spark and many others ... a reliable and rewarding study of Scottish fiction, an outstanding contribution to research and understanding of Scottish literary studies. It is, by a very long way, the most important book on the subject to date. This is good gutsy stuff: the sort of thesis that will energise countless seminars. -- Christopher Harvie An illuminating study. Choice With this intelligent, challenging and provcative study of the defining characteristics of the modern - and not so modern - Scottish novel, Cairns Craig has made a major contribution to the ever-changing debate regarding the relationship of Scottish traditions to individual creative talents ! I believe we will come to regard this study as taking its place amongst the all too few major landmarks of Scottish cultural criticism ! its over-riding success lies not so much on its individual arguments - though these are always stimulating and fresh, if often controversial - but in its sheer scale and range of thought and challenge ... This ground-breaking discussion of the defining characteristics of modern Scottish fiction will undoubtedly lie at the centre of debate concerning issues of fiction and its place in the making of Scottish national myth and identity for a long time to come ! original, perceptive and provocative. Craig's text offers an insightful, fresh approach to the modern Scottish novel. The broad range of texts that he covers and the multiple themes he traces would provide a helpful critical text to a general course on the modern Scottish novel. For a more specific course, Craig's text would provide a firm and engaging frame of study for Scottish literature courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. An ambitious, impressive and hugely enjoyable exploration of the recurrent themes, concerns and styles of modern Scottish novels, from John Buchan and Neil Gunn to the more recent flourishing of Scottish writing from A. L. Kennedy, Alasdair Gray, Janice Galloway, James Kelman, Irvine Welsh, Muriel Spark and many others ... a reliable and rewarding study of Scottish fiction, an outstanding contribution to research and understanding of Scottish literary studies. It is, by a very long way, the most important book on the subject to date. This is good gutsy stuff: the sort of thesis that will energise countless seminars. An illuminating study.
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