The cotter's kailyard

Nash, A. P. (1997) The cotter's kailyard. In: Crawford, R. (ed.) Robert Burns and cultural authority. University of Iowa Press, pp. 180-197. ISBN 9780877455783

Abstract/Summary

An examination of the critical reception of the poetry of Robert Burns from his death in 1796 to the end of the nineteenth century. The essay shows how a selective reading of Burns's poems was used to construct and reinforce moral and political arguments, and argues that the identification of the poet as national Bard influenced ideas about Scottish literature generally in the nineteenth century.