First published in 1983, Hugh MacDiarmid: The Terrible Crystal is a detailed introduction to the poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid. Hugh MacDiarmid’s poetry shows a persistent search for a consistent intellectual vision that reveals, in all its facets, the source of creativity recognised by the poet as ‘the terrible crystal’. This introduction to his poetry shows that MacDiarmid’s great achievement was a poetry of evolutionary idealism, that draws attention to itself by a series of culture shocks. It places MacDiarmid as a nationalist poet in an international context: a man whose unique concept of creative unity enabled him to combine the Scottish tradition with the linguistic experimentation of Joyce and Pound. Hugh MacDiarmid: The Terrible Crystal is ideal for those with an interest in the poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid, Scottish poetry, and poetry and criticism more broadly.

Christopher Grieve, writing under the name of Hugh MacDiarmid, was a major modern poet and founder of the Scottish literary Renaissance. In this study of his poetry, John Baglow eliminates what has been a stumbling block for most MacDiarmid scholars by showing the very real thematic and psycological consistency which underlines MacDiarmid's work. He demonstrates the extent to which the work was dominated by a desire to find a faith that could justify his desire to write poetry, a desire continually thwarted by a critical intellect which destroyed whatever faith he was able to construct. This constant search without a successful conclusion is at the heart of the work of many major modernist writers; MacDiarmid's poetry can be seen as embracing this tradition and making it explicit.

By examining at length for the first time those places in Scotland that inspired MacDiarmid to produce his best poetry, Scott Lyall shows how the poet's politics evolved from his interaction with the nation, exploring how MacDiarmid discovered a hidden tradition of radical Scottish Republicanism through which he sought to imagine a new Scottish future. Adapting postcolonial theory, this book allows readers a fuller understanding not only of MacDiarmid's poetry and politics, but also of international modernism, and the social history of Scottish modernism.

A collection of Hugh McDiarmid's poetry

The only full-length companion available to this distinctive and challenging Scottish poet By using previously uncollected creative and discursive writings, this international group of contributors presents a vital updating of MacDiarmid scholarship. They bring fresh insights to major poems such as A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, To Circumjack Cencrastus and In Memoriam James Joyce, and offer new political, ecological and science-based readings in relation to MacDiarmid's work from the 1930s. They also discuss his experimental short fiction in Annals of the Five Senses, the autobiographical Lucky Poet, and a representative selection of his essays and journalism. They assess MacDiarmid's legacy and reputation in Scotland and beyond, placing his poetry within the context of international modernism.

For more than a century, the word 'Kailyard' has been a focal point of Scottish literary and cultural debate. Originally a term of literary criticism, it has come to be used, often pejoratively, across a whole range of academic and popular discourse. Historians, politicians and critics of Scottish film and media have joined literary scholars in using the term to set out a diagnosis of Scottish culture. This is the first comprehensive study of the subject. Andrew Nash traces the origins of the Kailyard diagnosis in the nineteenth century and considers the critical concerns that gave rise to it. He then provides a full reassessment of the literature most commonly associated with the term - the fiction of J.M. Barrie, S.R. Crockett and Ian Maclaren. Placing this work in more appropriate contexts, he considers the literary, social and religious imperatives that underpinned it and discusses the impact of these writers in the publishing world. These chapters are succeeded by detailed analysis of the various ways in which the term has been used in wider discussions of Scottish literature and culture. Discussing literary criticism, film studies, and political and sociological analyses of Scotland, Nash shows how Kailyard, as a critical term, helps expose some of the key issues in Scottish cultural debate in the twentieth century, including discussions over national representation, popular culture and the parochialism of Scottish culture.

Over 800 entries examine the facts, evidence, and leading theories of a variety of unsolved murders, robberies, kidnappings, serial killings, disappearances, and other crimes.

Science and Applications of Conducting Polymers emphasizes potential industrial applications of conducting polymers. The papers presented discuss the basic physics and chemistry of conducting polymers, followed by an in-depth examination of applications. The book is ideal for researchers in polymer physics, electronics, optics, and semiconductor physics.

This book presents a comparative literary study of the works of four writers working in European minority languages - Frisian, Welsh, Scots and Breton. The author examines the different strategies employed by the four writers to create distinctive literary fields for their languages in the interwar era when self-determination had been promised to national minorities, finding that each had to make some degree of a step backwards into the past to enable them to make a leap forward. The book also discusses the problems resulting from this oscillation between traditionalism and modernism, drawing on concepts such as Pascale Casanova's 'littératures combatives' to make sense of these minority languages and communities within the wider European context. This study will be of interest to students and scholars of minority languages - particularly the four explored here - as well as twentieth-century and comparative literature, multilingualism, and language policy.

The Mainstream Companion to Scottish Literature is the most comprehensive reference guide to Scotland's literature, covering a period from the earliest times to the early 1990s. It includes over 600 essays on the lives and works of the principal poets, novelists, dramatists critics and men and women of letters who have written in English, Scots or Gaelic. Thus, as well as such major writers as Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Gavin Douglas, Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns, Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and Hugh MacDiarmid, the Companion also lists many minor writers whose work might otherwise have been overlooked in any survey of Scottish literature. Also included here are entries on the lives of other more peripheral writers such as historians, philosophers, diarists and divines whose work has made a contribution to Scottish letters. Other essays range over such general subjects as the principal work of major writers, literary movements, historical events, the world of printing and publishing, folklore, journalism, drama and Gaelic. A feature of the book is the inclusion of the bibliography of each writer and reference to the major critical works. This comprehensive guide is an essential tool for the serious student of Scottish literature as well as being an ideal guide and companion for the general reader.