Scottish Romanticism and the Making of Collective Memory in the British Atlantic

Charts the transatlantic movements of Scottish literature in the Age of Revolution

This book provides an in-depth examination of Scottish Romantic literary ideas on memory and their influence among various cultures in the British Atlantic, broken down into distinct writing modes such as memoirs, slave narratives and emigrant fiction, and contexts including pre- and post-Revolution America and French-Canadian cultural nationalism.

Scots, who were at the vanguard of British colonial expansion in North America in the Romantic period, believed that their own nation had undergone an unprecedented transformation in only a short span of time. Scottish writers became preoccupied with collective memory, its powerful role in shaping group identity as well as its delicate fragility. McNeil reveals why we must add collective memory to the list of significant contributions Scots made to a culture of modernity.

Kenneth McNeil is Professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University.