Robert Burns in Global Culture

One of the extraordinary things about Burns is that while his books were sold globally, while he remains the second most translated Scottish author of all time, and when even the USSR issued a stamp in his honor, the postwar academic world turned away from a poet whom it had previously recognized as a major figure. Burns disappeared from accounts of Romanticism, and such meager helpings of critical attention as he received were often directed towards his supposed status as a laboring class or dialect poet, a status which is completely at odds with Burns' sophisticated control of register. Robert Burns in Global Culture is an ambitious book. Drawing on the work of leading experts from Scotland, England, North America, France, Germany and Spain, it analyses the reasons for Burns' critical decline, examines the phenomenon of Burns' global influence on areas from Italian politics to American identity, and places Burns' influence, reputation and unique qualities as a poet within a framework of reference which blends rigorous intellectual inquiry into the poet and his poetry with analyses of popular culture.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Global Burns Chapter 2 Chapter 1: "A Long Farewell to All My Greatness": The History of the Reputation of Robert Burns Chapter 3 Chapter 2: Robert Burns and the Mind of Europe Chapter 4 Chapter 3: Burns and European Identities Chapter 5 Chapter 4: "Nature's Poet" and Socialist Model: The Reception of Robert Burns in Germany Chapter 6 Chapter 5: Burns in Italy: Giuseppe Chiarini's "Roberto Burns" Chapter 7 Chapter 6: The Aestheticization of Robert Burns in Nineteenth-Century French Literature Chapter 8 Chapter 7: Enlightened Religion and Enlightened Sex: Robert Burns and his French Contemporaries Chapter 9 Chapter 8: "If ever there was a man who felt, it was Burns": Burns and Desire Chapter 10 Chapter 9: Translating Burns: The Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives Chapter 11 Chapter 10: "Their Groves o' Sweet Myrtles": Robert Burns and the Scottish Colonial Experience Chapter 12 Chapter 11: Vehement Celebrations: The Global Celebration of the Burns Supper since 1801 Chapter 13 Chapter 12: Robert Burns, Memorialization, and the "Heart-beatings" of Victorian Scotland Chapter 14 Chapter 13: "Rules of Art": The Life of Burns on Page and Stage, 1800-1954