Overview

This monograph offers a radical reconceptualization of the relationship between the poetics and practice of Robert Burns and reevaluates the nature of his role in the history of Scots. By drawing on ideas from twenty-first-century sociolinguistic theory, it seeks to transform the debate surrounding Burns’s language. Through a series of readings that explore the way in which Burns used and commented on the styles associated with different places, groups and genres, it demonstrates how languages, places, and the identities associated with both are, in Burns’s writing, subject to continual reinvention. In this respect, the study breaks with existing accounts of the subject, insofar as it presents Scots, English and the other languages used by Burns not as fixed, empirically-observable entities, but as ideas that were revised and remade through the poet’s work. Focusing on Burns’s poems, songs, letters, prefaces, and glossaries, the book pays special attention to the complex ways in which the author engaged with such issues as phonology, grammar, and the naming of languages. The Burns who emerges from this book is not the marginal figure of traditional accounts—an under-educated poet alienated from the philological mainstream—but rather a well-informed thinker who, more than any other contemporary writer, embodies the creative linguistic spirit of the eighteenth century.

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9781611487046

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Reviews

In this fascinating study, Broadhead presents a picture of Burns that is far removed from the rustic self-educated Scottish peasant who used the Scottish dialect in his poetry because he was not sufficiently sophisticated in his use of English...Broadhead takes a 21st-century sociolinguistic approach to show that Burns not only had great command of both English and Scots, but also was a master linguist who manipulated different registers and dialects in his poetry. The author presents his argument in his coherent introduction; in the five chapters that follow, he focuses on different aspects of Burns's use of language in his poetry. Writing primarily for those conversant with literary criticism, the author includes easy-to-understand explanations of the linguistic concepts he uses and a wealth of examples from the poetry itself to illustrate his argument effectively. In taking a linguistic approach, Broadhead reveals another intriguing layer of Burns's sociopolitical and cultural impact...A helpful glossary of Scots words is included. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through faculty. CHOICE For most literary scholars, the value of the book may seem to lie in its detailed comments on particular works or passages, but it also lays out a larger case about the language scene in late 18th century Scotland and about Burns's activity and significance for its continuing development. Studies In Scottish Literature This study makes an outstanding contribution to the on-going reassessment of the function of language in Robert Burns's literary works. Applying ideas and methods from modern sociolinguistics, Broadhead undertakes a perceptive evaluation of Burns's linguistic astuteness, and he challenges the common misconception of the poet as a vernacular writer marginalised by his mixing of English, Scots and local dialects. Instead, Broadhead offers a critically nuanced account of the poet's multilingualism and linguistic experimentalism...Broadhead succeeds both in offering a new perspective on the linguistic complexity of Burns's literary endeavours and in illuminating the centrality of language in the poet's cultural and literary legacies...Broadhead provides an account of a poetical polyglot and verbal artist with a remarkable ear for language and a tremendous capacity for combining different linguistic registers and different styles in his verse. Broadhead's analyses consolidate, extend and refine previous scholarship. His chief contribution in this respect stems from his intensive application of sociolinguistic theory...[B]y thinking through Burns's language and writing about language in these terms, Broadhead increases our appreciation of Burns's linguistic thinking and his stylistic routines. The BARS Review

In this fascinating study, Broadhead presents a picture of Burns that is far removed from the rustic self-educated Scottish peasant who used the Scottish dialect in his poetry because he was not sufficiently sophisticated in his use of English...Broadhead takes a 21st-century sociolinguistic approach to show that Burns not only had great command of both English and Scots, but also was a master linguist who manipulated different registers and dialects in his poetry. The author presents his argument in his coherent introduction; in the five chapters that follow, he focuses on different aspects of Burns's use of language in his poetry. Writing primarily for those conversant with literary criticism, the author includes easy-to-understand explanations of the linguistic concepts he uses and a wealth of examples from the poetry itself to illustrate his argument effectively. In taking a linguistic approach, Broadhead reveals another intriguing layer of Burns's sociopolitical and cultural impact...A helpful glossary of Scots words is included. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through faculty. CHOICE

In this fascinating study, Broadhead presents a picture of Burns that is far removed from the rustic self-educated Scottish peasant who used the Scottish dialect in his poetry because he was not sufficiently sophisticated in his use of English. . . .Broadhead takes a 21st-century sociolinguistic approach to show that Burns not only had great command of both English and Scots, but also was a master linguist who manipulated different registers and dialects in his poetry. The author presents his argument in his coherent introduction; in the five chapters that follow, he focuses on different aspects of Burns's use of language in his poetry. Writing primarily for those conversant with literary criticism, the author includes easy-to-understand explanations of the linguistic concepts he uses and a wealth of examples from the poetry itself to illustrate his argument effectively. In taking a linguistic approach, Broadhead reveals another intriguing layer of Burns's sociopolitical and cultural impact. . . .A helpful glossary of Scots words is included. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through faculty. * CHOICE * For most literary scholars, the value of the book may seem to lie in its detailed comments on particular works or passages, but it also lays out a larger case about the language scene in late 18th century Scotland and about Burns’s activity and significance for its continuing development. * Studies In Scottish Literature * This study makes an outstanding contribution to the on-going reassessment of the function of language in Robert Burns’s literary works. Applying ideas and methods from modern sociolinguistics, Broadhead undertakes a perceptive evaluation of Burns’s linguistic astuteness, and he challenges the common misconception of the poet as a vernacular writer marginalised by his mixing of English, Scots and local dialects. Instead, Broadhead offers a critically nuanced account of the poet’s multilingualism and linguistic experimentalism. . . .Broadhead succeeds both in offering a new perspective on the linguistic complexity of Burns’s literary endeavours and in illuminating the centrality of language in the poet’s cultural and literary legacies. . . .Broadhead provides an account of a poetical polyglot and verbal artist with a remarkable ear for language and a tremendous capacity for combining different linguistic registers and different styles in his verse. Broadhead’s analyses consolidate, extend and refine previous scholarship. His chief contribution in this respect stems from his intensive application of sociolinguistic theory. . . .[B]y thinking through Burns’s language and writing about language in these terms, Broadhead increases our appreciation of Burns’s linguistic thinking and his stylistic routines. * The BARS Review *

Author Information

Alex Broadhead is a University teacher at the University of Liverpool.

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