Burns the radical
Subtitle: poetry and politics in late eighteenth-century Scotland
By: Liam McIlvanney.
Publisher: Tuckwell
Published: 2002
Place of publication: East Linton, East Lothian, Scotland
Language: eng
Number of pages: 262
Subjects: Burns, Robert, 1759-1796 -- Political and social views.; Politics and literature -- Scotland -- History -- 18th century.; Political poetry, Scottish -- History and criticism.; Radicalism -- Scotland -- History -- 18th century.; Radicalism in literature.; Scotland -- Politics and government -- 18th century.
Description: "In this, the first book-length treatment of Burns's politics, Liam McIlvanney looks behind the trivialising image of the 'heav'n-taught ploughman' to uncover the intellectual context of the poet's political radicalism. McIlvanney reveals Burns as a sophisticated political poet whose work draws on a range of intellectual resources: the democratic, contractarian ideology of Scottish Presbyterianism, the English and Irish 'Real Whig' tradition, and the political theory of the Scottish Enlightenment. Throwing new light on the poet's education and his early reading, McIlvanney provides detailed new readings of Burns's major poems. The book also offers new research on Burns's links with Irish poets and radicals, providing a radical reinterpretation of the man who is coming to be recognised as the poet laureate of the radical Enlightenment."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-254) and index.