Scott, World Literature and the Prospect of Scotland
Thursday 8th September 2016
Summary of the Talk:
Professor Alan Riach delivered a richly layered and intellectually provocative talk on Walter Scott, exploring the national and international dimensions of Scott’s work. He emphasised Scott’s key role in shaping the idea of world literature while remaining deeply rooted in the Scottish landscape, history, and identity.
Riach opened with a personal anecdote shared by Peter Garside, who introduced the lecture. Garside recalled receiving a poem written by Alan Riach as part of an ASLS fellowship award ceremony. The poem, vivid and affirming, changed his sceptical attitude toward such honours. It made him reflect on the real value of archival and scholarly labour—something that can often feel obsessive or thankless but is, in fact, deeply worthwhile.
The main argument of the lecture was that Scott’s fiction engages in a double vision: it both delineates the limits of Scotland (geographical, political, and cultural) and projects outward into a global literary consciousness. Drawing on Ian Duncan’s recent scholarship, Riach discussed how Scott’s novels, particularly Waverley, Rob Roy, Redgauntlet, and The Heart of Midlothian, present a tension between national specificity and universal human experience.
A recurring theme was the juxtaposition of Scott’s internal landscapes (loyalty, identity, moral dilemma) with external terrains (Highland wilderness, legal systems, borderlands). Riach drew attention to how this dialectic contributes to Scott’s enduring complexity, even when misunderstood or simplified in the 20th century.
The lecture also considered Hugh MacDiarmid as a paradoxical heir to Scott—both a critic of Scott and, Riach argues, a literary descendent in terms of vision, ambition, and breadth.
In conclusion, Riach urged a reappraisal of Scott’s legacy, particularly in the context of world literature, and warned against dismissing him due to caricatured ideas of romantic Highlandism or outdated nationalist critique.
Interesting Points You Might Enjoy:
- Scott’s Vision of “The Ends of the Earth”
Riach lingered on Jeanie Deans’ dramatic appeal to Queen Caroline and how it symbolised the extent—both literal and metaphorical—of Scotland’s reach in Scott’s imagination. He highlighted how Scott stretches the notion of national boundaries until they blend into universal concerns, such as justice, sacrifice, and belonging. - Scott as a Proto-World Literature Author
Drawing from Goethe and Herder, Riach made the case that Scott helped shape the notion of “Weltliteratur” (world literature), through a distinctly Scottish lens. His use of vernacular, ballads, and folk traditions gave Scotland a powerful literary voice that resonated far beyond its borders. - Rehabilitation of Scott’s Reputation
The talk addressed how modernism, literary critics like F.R. Leavis, and the Scottish Renaissance (especially MacDiarmid) unfairly discredited Scott, portraying him as kitsch or politically compromised. Riach argued these dismissals often misunderstood Scott’s subtlety and the depth of his cultural critique. - His Indian Experience
Riach shared his teaching experiences in India, where postgraduate students enthusiastically studied Waverley, Kidnapped, and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. He emphasised how literature rooted in one place (like Scott’s in Scotland) can still have universal resonance—especially in postcolonial contexts. - Rob Roy as a Structural Triumph
He spoke compellingly about how Rob Roy mimics a river’s journey: slow at the start, rapidly picking up pace, and ending in a rush of action. The elusive presence of Rob Roy, who only fully appears late in the narrative, adds mystery and energy. Riach praised the novel’s strong female characters—especially Helen MacGregor—as being unusually forceful and independent. - Literary Comedy & Satire in Scott
A highlight was Riach’s fondness for Dugald Dalgetty in A Legend of Montrose, a comic mercenary who shifts allegiances with military pragmatism. Dalgetty was likened to Flashman—honourable in his own absurd way—and Riach clearly delighted in reading him aloud.
Introduction by Prof. Peter Garside:
I believe I have met Alan Riach twice before. Once when giving a talk at Glasgow, where we had a meal afterwards along with Douglas Gifford (a past President of ours), at which I recall being treated very nicely while perhaps teased a little for holding Anglocentric views. Then we met again at an award of ASLS [Association for Scottish Literary Studies] Fellowships held at the National Library in 2013. Ronnie Renton was there too helping hand out the certificates rolled up in tubes, and in which also was placed a poem for the occasion by Alan. I must admit to having been pretty much ‘agin’ such awards until actually getting one; and Alan’s poem helped make that adjustment, conveying vividly how all the deep-digging, sometimes seemingly futile work that goes into archival scholarship might after all have real value. I must thank him again for providing that encouragement.
Now already two main factors have been given away about Alan—that he works at Glasgow University, and is a poet as well as a scholar. To flesh these out a bit:
He is currently Professor of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University; was born in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, in 1957; took his first degree from Cambridge in 1979; completed a PhD in Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow in 1986; and worked in New Zealand as an academic from 1986-2000. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Representing Scotland in Literature, Popular Culture and Iconography (2005) and Arts of Independence: The Cultural Argument and Why It Matters Most (2014). He is the general editor of Hugh MacDiarmid’s collected works and co-editor of The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century Scottish Literature (2009). His past books of poems extend from This Folding Map (1990) to Homecoming (2009). Among other activities he has published highly-praised English-language versions of the great Gaelic poems of the 18th century. The Winter Book, his latest collection of poems, is scheduled for publication in 2017.
His talk today, ‘Scott, World Literature and the Prospect of Scotland’, promises a wide-sweeping assessment of Scott’s cultural significance. Unlike with several Scott scholars, whose approach I think I could predict fairly confidently, Alan is a bit more of unknown quantity, at least with regard to Scott, and I’m not by any means entirely sure what he’s going to say, so doubly look forward to what’s in store for us this evening.
