Cultures of improvement in Scottish romanticism, 1707-1840 / / edited by Alex Benchimol and Gerard Lee McKeever.

• TeilnehmendeR: Benchimol, Alex,; McKeever, Gerard Lee,
• Place / Publishing House: New York : : Routledge,, 2018.
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: The enlightenment world ; 32
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (262 pages)

"The first applied research volume in Scottish Romanticism, this collection foregrounds the concept of progress as 'improvement' as a constitutive theme of Scottish writing during the long eighteenth century. It explores improvement as the animating principle behind Scotlands post-1707 project of modernization, a narrative both shaped and reflected in the literary sphere. It represents a vital moment in Romantic studies, as a 'four-nations' interrogation of the British context reaches maturity. Equally, the volume contributes to a central concern in the study of Scottish culture, amplifying a critical synthesis of Romanticism and Enlightenment. The conceptual motif of improvement allows an illumination of the boundaries (and beyond) of conventional notions of Romanticism, tracing its long, evolving imbrication with Enlightenment in Scotland. Exploring the holistic treatment of improvement in Scottish literature, chapter-studies include work on agricultural improvement and processes of commercialization, polite cultural renewal and the cotton trade, an expanding print culture and spirituality in death rituals. Taken as a whole, this amounts to an interdisciplinary re-consideration of the central role of improvement in Scottish cultural history of the long eighteenth century, of interest to a wide range of scholars, reflecting the vitality of the exchange between Enlightenment and Romanticism in Scotland."--Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

part, I Print, Progress and Politeness -- chapter Introduction -- Mapping Cultures of Improvement in Scottish Romanticism / Alex Benchimol Gerard Lee McKeever -- chapter 1 Andrew Millar’s ‘Good Vouchers’ -- The Malt Tax Crisis and Trade in Controversy / Adam Budd -- chapter 2 Let Scotland Flourish by the Printing of the Word -- Commerce, Civic Enlightenment and National Improvement in the Glasgow Advertiser, 1783–1800 / Alex Benchimol -- chapter 3 ‘Simplicity, Rightly Understood’ -- Improvement in the Collaboration of Robert Burns and George Thomson / Gerard Lee McKeever -- part, II Literature, Land and Commerce -- chapter 4 Thomas Pennant, National Description and the Project of Improvement / Nigel Leask -- chapter 5 The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Improvement -- David Dale, Robert Owen and New Lanark Cotton / Michael Morris -- chapter 6 Pastoral Optimism at Improvement’s Frontier -- James Hogg’s Highland Journeys / Alex Deans -- chapter 7 ‘Earth and Stone’ -- Improvement, Entailment and Geographical Futures in the Novel of the 1820s / Penny Fielding -- part, III Death, Legacy and Medicine -- chapter 8 Reading John Anderson’s Will -- Improving Human Nature, Science and Scotland in a Commercial Society / Tom Furniss -- chapter 9 Medicine and Improvement in the Scots Magazine; and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany (1804–17) / Megan Coyer -- chapter 10 A Death in the Cottage -- Spiritual and Economic Improvement in Romantic-Era Scottish Death Narratives / Sarah Sharp -- chapter 11 Postscript -- Varieties of Cultural Improvement in the Long Eighteenth Century / Gerard Carruthers.