Required Materials
Tobias Smollett, The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker (Penguin Classics)
Sir Walter Scott, Waverley
Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Oxford World Classics)
Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting
The Poetry of Scotland (Edinburgh UP)

Course Description
Over the course of the semester, we will be covering a long period of Scottish literature, from the time of the Union of Parliaments in 1707 to the time of a renewed autonomy for Scotland in the 1990s. Reading the literature of three different languages, Gaelic, English, and Scots, we will be looking back at the larger questions of what defines the "Scottish" in Scottish literature. Since Scotland ceased to be an independent nation way back in 1707, how have the Scots still defined themselves as a nation? How do the diverse cultures of Scotland overlap? How do they remain distinct? How have Scottish writers concerned themselves with these questions in their writing? Though we will be focusing on the literature, I will provide a few materials in class from time to time to help with the historical context. These include handouts, recent newspaper clippings, ballad recordings, artworks, and internet website content. Throughout the course we will be focusing on themes of communal belonging and isolation, pride and self-loathing, and joy and frustration in the literature of a nation that continues to define itself, even today.

Course Goals
Since this course is not simply an upper-division literary course but a seminar course, I will be asking you to develop your ideas about the literature we read through informed and thoughtful discussions during class, and in formal written papers, presentations, and proposals. The final goal of this semester's study is to allow you to begin thinking about the final product of next semester--an extensively thought out, researched, and reworked thesis--what I hope you will consider your best work, the culmination of your scholarly thinking as an English major at Eastern.

Course Requirements

Response Papers 50%
Literature Response Papers
Response One
Response Two
Response Three
Response Four

Criticism Response Paper(pick one assignment)
Response One
Response Two
Response Three

Group Presentation 15%

Written Proposal 20%

Proposal Presentation 5%

Participation 10%

Literature Response Papers
There are four Literature Response Papers, one due about every fourth week. Every four  weeks you will receive a response question assignment with questions taken from the upcoming reading assignments. You are to respond to any one day’s questions from the list. Response questions must be typed, double-spaced and turned in on the day that you have selected. For example, answers to questions from February 14th’s reading must be turned in on that day.

Criticism  Response Paper
There will also be one theory response paper, in which you are to respond to a specific reading in the packet.

Papers are due in class on the assigned date. Late papers will be subject to a reduction in grade. If you feel you have a good reason for requiring an extension, please come talk to me about it beforehand. However, after-due date extensions, except in the case of emergencies, will be difficult to obtain.

Avoid plagiarism (stealing the exact words or ideas of another) like the plague. In this class acts of plagiarism incur a zero and could also result in course failure.

Presentation
At some point early in the semester I will divide the class up into four groups.  Each group will then be given the task of putting together an oral presentation, due at several-week intervals throughout the semester.  Each presentation will be devoted on a specific topic.  (See the Calendar for specific topics)  Each presentation should last no more than 12 minutes and must include at least one handout to be given to the class as a whole.  Beyond the handout, the materials and format of the presentations are only limited by the group's imagination and may include use of a variety of media.

Written Proposal
The written proposal includes a 5-7  page discussion and outline of your working thesis and an annotated bibliography of your research.

Proposal Presentation
In lieu of a final exam, I ask you to give a 5-minute in-class oral presentation of your thesis project, which includes an outline and a brief summary of the secondary works you have found most helpful or illuminating for you topic.

Participation
Regular attendance of classes is absolutely expected for this course. Two or more unexcused absences will lower your participation grade significantly.

Calendar

January 24: Introduction.  Samuel Johnson Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland; James Boswell's London Journal; Robert Fergusson "To the Principal and Professors of the University of St. Andrews"

Week 2

January 31:Tobias Smollett:  The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker

Week 3

February 7: The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker

Week 4

February 14: Criticism Response # 1 Due.  Benedict Anderson, from Imagined Communities.
Poetry of the '45
Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair "In Praise of the Ancient Gaelic Language," "Oran Luiadh no Fucaidh (A Waulking Song)," "Am Breacan Uallach (The Proud Plaid)"; Iain Mhic Fhearcahir "Oran Mu'n Eideadh Ghaidhealach (Song to the Highland Dress)"; Duncan Ban Macintyre "Oran nam Balgairean (Song to the Foxes)";  Uilleam Ros "Oran do Mharcus nan Greumach agus do'n Eideadh Ghaidhealach (A Song to the Marquis of Graham and to the Highland Dress)"

Student Response 1: Anderson's Imagined Communities

Student Response 2: Anderson's Imagined Communities

Student Response: Poetry of the '45

Week 5

February 21:  Robert  Burns: "It Was a' for Our Rightfu King," "To a Haggis," "Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation," "Scots, Wha Hae," "Scotch Drink," "On the Late Captain Grose's Perigrinations Thro' Scotland," "O'er the Water to Charlie," "Does Haughty Gaul Invasion Threat?"
Ann Campbell "Alein Duinn, Shiubhlainn Leat (Brown-Haired Allen, I Would Go with You)"
Oral Presentation: The Jacobite Rebellion
 

Contemporary Voices:  Some Eighteenth-Century Attitudes About the Scots
Short biography of Bonnie Prince Charlie

Week 7

March 7: Waverley (read to 337, Chapter 47)
Oral Presentation: The Image of the Romantic Highlands

Week 8

March 14: Waverley (read to end). Criticism Response # 2 Due. Read from The Invention of Tradition

 Student Response: The Highlands in Sir Walter Scott's Waverley

Week 9

March 21: Poetry of the Clearances:
Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair  "Brosnachadh nan Gaidheal (An Incitement for the Gaels)"; Mairi Nic a Phearsain "Brosnachadh nan Gaidheal (An Incitement for the Gaels)," "Soraidh leis an Nollaig uir (Farewell to the New Christmas)," "Nuair bha mi og (When I Was Young)"Uilleam MacDhunleibhe "Fios thun a Bhaird (A Message to the Bard)"; Iain MacGhillEathain  "Am Bard an Canada (The Poet in Canada)"
Oral Presentation: The Highland Clearances

Week 10

Spring Break

Week 11
April 4:  Robert Louis Stevenson:
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Week 12

April 11: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Robert Garioch "The Big Music"; Norman MacCaig,  "Aunt Julia,"  "Return to Scalpay";

Contemporary Voices:  The Highland Clearances
History of the Highland Clearances:  A Timeline

April 18: Class held in Library Rm 263
Proposal Conferences

Week 14

April 25: Edwin Muir "Scotland 1941," "Scotland's Winter"; Hugh MacDairmid,  "The Glass of Pure Water," "From the Scots Anthology; Sorley MacLean "Ard-Mhusaeum na h-Eireann (The National Museum of Ireland)," "Curaidhean (Heroes)"; Derick Thomson "Sheep," "Princess Diana"
Tom Leonard "(3)," from "Ghostie Men," "Dripping with Nostalgia," "hangup"; Jackie Kay, selections. Criticism Response # 3 Due.  Read "Representing Scotland" by David McCrone
Oral Presentation: Contemporary Scottish Nationalism

Week 15

May 2: Proposal Presentations.

Week 16
May 9: Written Proposal Due.

Contemporary Voices:  Irvine Welsh on Trainspotting

A Bibliography on Scottish Literature and Nationalism

Some Useful Links
Literature:
Slainte's Gateway to Scottish Authors
Rampant Scotland's Literature
Scottish Poetry Library

History:
Scottish History Timeline (detailed)
The Jacobite Rebellion
The Highland Clearances

Language:
A Guide to Gaelic Scotland
The Scuil Wab
Scots Online
 

Politics:
Scottish Politics Pages
The Scot Online
The Scottish Parliament Website

Scottish Nationalism
The Nationalist Project Scottish Page
The Scottish Nationalist Party
Scottish Separatist Group and Scottish National Liberation Army
Scots for Independence
"The Development of Scottish Nationalism"
The Declaration of Arbroath

General:
The Nationalism Project
Scotland Photo Gallery
Waulking and Waulking Songs

Illustration: Needlework Map of Scotland 1797 (Source: Map Library, The National Library of Scotland)