The Scottish Renaissance (; ) was a mainly

literary movement Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide language for comparing ...

of the early to mid-20th century that can be seen as the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

version of

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

. It is sometimes referred to as the Scottish literary renaissance, although its influence went beyond literature into music, visual arts, and politics (among other fields). The writers and artists of the Scottish Renaissance displayed a profound interest in both modern philosophy and technology, as well as incorporating folk influences, and a strong concern for the fate of Scotland's declining languages. It has been seen as a parallel to other movements elsewhere, including the

Irish Literary Revival The Irish Literary Revival (also called the Irish Literary Renaissance, sometimes nicknamed the Celtic Twilight though this has a broader meaning) was a flowering of Irish literary talent in the late 19th and early 20th century. It includes wor ...

, the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...

(in the USA), the

Bengal Renaissance The Bengal Renaissance (), also known as the Bengali Renaissance, was a cultural, social, intellectual, and artistic movement that took place in the Bengal region of the British Raj, from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. Histo ...

(in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

) and the Jindyworobak Movement (in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

), which emphasised indigenous folk traditions.

Beginnings

The term "Scottish Renaissance" was brought into critical prominence by the French

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (, , ; ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately . History ...

poet and scholar Denis Saurat in his article "", which was published in the ' in April 1924. The term had appeared much earlier, however, in the work of the

polymath A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...

Patrick Geddes Sir Patrick Geddes (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, Comtean positivist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban plannin ...

and in a 1922 book review by Christopher Murray Grieve ("Hugh MacDiarmid") for the ''Scottish Chapbook'' that predicted a "Scottish Renascence as swift and irresistible as was the Belgian Revival between 1880 and 1910", involving such figures as Lewis Spence and Marion Angus. These earlier references make clear the connections between the Scottish Renaissance and the

Celtic Twilight The Celtic Revival (also referred to as the Celtic Twilight) is a variety of movements and trends in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that see a renewed interest in aspects of Celtic culture. Artists and writers drew on the traditions of Gael ...

and

Celtic Revival The Celtic Revival (also referred to as the Celtic Twilight) is a variety of movements and trends in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that see a renewed interest in aspects of Celtic culture. Artists and writers drew on the traditions of Gae ...

movements of the late 19th century, which helped reawaken a spirit of cultural

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

among Scots of the modernist generations. Where these earlier movements had been steeped in a sentimental and nostalgic Celticism, however, the modernist-influenced Renaissance would seek a rebirth of Scottish national culture that would both look back to the medieval "

makar A makar () is a term from Scottish literature for a poet or bard, often thought of as a royal court poet. Since the 19th century, the term ''The Makars'' has been specifically used to refer to a number of poets of fifteenth and sixteenth cen ...

" poets,

William Dunbar William Dunbar (1459 or 1460 – by 1530) was a Scottish makar, or court poet, active in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. He was closely associated with the court of King James IV and produced a large body of work in Scots d ...

and

Robert Henryson Robert Henryson (Middle Scots: Robert Henrysoun) was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots language, Scots ''makars'', he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in th ...

, as well as look towards such contemporary influences as

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

, and

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...

, or (more locally) R. B. Cunninghame Graham. The turn of the 20th century saw the first stirrings of a new era in Scottish arts and letters. As writers such as George Douglas Brown railed against the "

Kailyard school The Kailyard school is a proposed literary movement of Scottish literature, Scottish fiction; kailyard works were published and were most popular roughly from 1880–1914. The term originated from literary critics who mostly disparaged the works s ...

" that had come to dominate Scottish letters, producing satiric, realist accounts of Scottish rural life in novels like '' The House with the Green Shutters'' (1901), Scots language poets such as

Violet Jacob Violet Jacob (1 September 1863 – 9 September 1946) was a Scottish writer known especially for her historical novel ''Flemington'' and for her poetry, mainly in Scots. She was described by a fellow Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid as "the most ...

and Marion Angus undertook a quiet revival of regionally inflected poetry in the Lowland vernacular. The aforementioned Patrick Geddes would continue his foundational work in town and regional planning, developing the triad "Place - Work - Folk" as a matrix for new thinking about the relationships between people and their local environments. In the realm of visual arts, John Duncan would refine his Celtic myth inspired

Symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

painting to include an increasing emphasis on

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

and the flatness of the image. In architecture and the decorative arts, the towering figures of

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macd ...

and the Glasgow Four would give Scotland its very own "school" of modern design and help create the "

Glasgow style The Glasgow School was a circle of influential artists and designers that began to coalesce in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to around 1910. Representative groups included The Four (also known as the Spook Schoo ...

". Scotland in the early 20th century was experiencing an efflorescence of creative activity, but there was not yet a sense of a particular shared movement or an overt national inflection to all of this artistic effort.

Literary renaissance

It was not until the literary efforts of Hugh MacDiarmid that the Scottish Renaissance can properly be said to have begun. Starting in 1920, C. M. Grieve (having not yet adopted his nom de plume of Hugh MacDiarmid) began publishing a series of three short anthologies entitled ''Northern Numbers: Being Representative Selections from Certain Living Scottish Poets'' (including works by

John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, British Army officer, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. As a ...

, Neil Munro, and Grieve himself). These anthologies, which appeared one each year from 1920–22, along with his founding and editing of the ''Scottish Chapbook'' review (in the

annus mirabilis ''Annus mirabilis'' (pl. ''anni mirabiles'') is a Latin phrase that means "marvelous year", "wonderful year", or "miraculous year". This term has been used to refer to several years during which events of major importance are remembered, notably ...

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

, 1922), established Grieve/MacDiarmid as the father and central figure of the burgeoning Scottish Renaissance movement that he had prophesied. By about 1925, MacDiarmid had largely abandoned his

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

poetry and began to write in a kind of "synthetic Scots" known as

Lallans Lallans ( , ; a Modern Scots variant of the word ''lawlands'', referring to the lowlands of Scotland), is a term that was traditionally used to refer to the Scots language as a whole. However, more recent interpretations assume it refers to t ...

, that was a hybrid of regional Scots

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s and

lexicographical Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretical lex ...

artifacts exhumed from ''Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language'', often grafted onto a

Standard English In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone codification to the point of being socially perceived as the standard language, associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and off ...

grammatical structure. His poetic works included "

A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle ''A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle'' () is a long poem by Hugh MacDiarmid written in Scots and published in 1926. It is composed as a form of monologue with influences from stream of consciousness genres of writing. A poem of extremes, it rang ...

" (1926). This had an electrifying effect on the

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, ...

landscape of the time. Other writers soon followed in MacDiarmid's footsteps and also wrote in Lallans, including the poets

Edwin Muir Edwin Muir CBE (15 May 1887 – 3 January 1959) was a Scottish poet, novelist and translator. Born on a farm in Deerness, a parish of Orkney, Scotland, he is remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry written in plain language and wit ...

(1887–1959) and

William Soutar William Soutar (28 April 1898 – 15 October 1943) was a Scottish poet and diarist who wrote in English and in Braid Scots. He is known best for his epigrams. Life and works William Soutar was born on 28 April 1898 on South Inch Terrace in P ...

(1898–1943), who pursued an exploration of identity, rejecting nostalgia and parochialism and engaging with social and political issues. Some writers that emerged after the Second World War followed MacDiarmid by writing in Scots, including Robert Garioch (1909–1981) and

Sydney Goodsir Smith Sydney Goodsir Smith (26 October 1915 – 15 January 1975) was a New Zealand-born Scottish poet, artist, dramatist and novelist. He wrote poetry in literary Scots, sometimes referred to as Lallans, and was a major figure of the Scottish Renais ...

(1915–1975). The Glaswegian poet Edwin Morgan (1920–2010) became known for translations of works from a wide range of European languages. He was also the first Scots Makar (the official

national poet A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbol, to be distinguished ...

), appointed by the inaugural Scottish government in 2004. Alexander Gray was an academic and poet, but is chiefly remembered for his translations into Scots from the German and Danish ballad traditions into Scots, including ''Arrows. A Book of German Ballads and Folksongs Attempted in Scots'' (1932) and ''Four-and-Forty. A Selection of Danish Ballads Presented in Scots'' (1954). The Scottish Renaissance increasingly concentrated on the novel, particularly after the 1930s when Hugh MacDiarmid was in isolation in Shetland and its leadership moved to novelist Neil Gunn (1891–1973). Gunn's novels, beginning with ''The Grey Coast'' (1926), and including ''Highland River'' (1937) and '' The Green Isle of the Great Deep'' (1943), were largely written in English and not the Scots preferred by MacDiarmid, focused on the Highlands of his birth and were notable for their narrative experimentation. Other major figures associated with the movement include

George Blake George Blake ( Behar; 11 November 1922 – 26 December 2020) was a Espionage, spy with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union. He became a communist and decided to work for the Minist ...

(1893–1961),

A. J. Cronin Archibald Joseph Cronin (Cronogue) (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981) was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel is ''The Citadel (novel), The Citadel'' (1937), about a Scottish physician who serves in a Welsh coal mining, minin ...

(1896–1981),

Eric Linklater Eric Robert Russell Linklater CBE (8 March 1899 – 7 November 1974) was a Welsh-born Scottish poet, fiction writer, military historian, and travel writer. For '' The Wind on the Moon'', a children's fantasy novel, he won the 1944 Carnegie Med ...

(1899–1974) and Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1901–35). There were also a large number of female authors associated with the movement, who demonstrated a growing feminine consciousness. They included Catherine Carswell (1879–1946),

Willa Muir Willa Muir (née Anderson; 13 March 1890 – 22 May 1970), also known as Agnes Neill Scott, was a Scottish novelist, essayist and translator.Beth Dickson, '' British women writers : a critical reference guide'' edited by Janet Todd. New York : ...

(1890–1970), Nan Shepherd (1893–1981) and most prolifically

Naomi Mitchison Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, Baroness Mitchison (; 1 November 1897 – 11 January 1999) was a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and poet. Often called a doyenne of Scottish literature, she wrote more than 90 books of historical an ...

(1897–1999). All were born within a fifteen-year period and, although they cannot be described as members of a single school, they all pursued an exploration of identity, rejecting nostalgia and parochialism and engaging with social and political issues. Physician A. J. Cronin is now often seen as sentimental, but his early work, particularly his first novel '' Hatter's Castle'' (1931) and his most successful ''

The Citadel The Citadel Military College of South Carolina (simply known as The Citadel) is a public senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Established in 1842, it is the third oldest of the six senior military colleges ...

'' (1937) were a deliberate reaction against the Kailyard tradition, exposing the hardships and vicissitudes of the lives of ordinary people,R. Crawford, ''Scotland's Books: a History of Scottish Literature'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), , p. 587. He was the most translated Scottish author in the twentieth century. George Blake pioneered the exploration of the experiences of the working class in his major works such as ''The Shipbuilders'' (1935). Eric Linklater produced comedies of the absurd including ''Juan in America'' (1931) dealing with

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

America, and a critique of modern war in '' Private Angelo'' (1946). Lewis Grassic Gibbon, the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell, produced one of the most important realisations of the ideas of the Scottish Renaissance in his trilogy '' A Scots Quair'' ('' Sunset Song'', 1932, ''Cloud Howe'', 1933 and ''Grey Granite'', 1934), which mixed different Scots dialects with the narrative voice.C. Craig, "Culture: modern times (1914-): the novel", in M. Lynch, ed., ''The Oxford Companion to Scottish History'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), , pp. 157-9. Other works that investigated the working class included James Barke's (1905–58), ''Major Operation'' (1936) and ''The Land of the Leal'' (1939) and J. F. Hendry's (1912–86) ''Fernie Brae'' (1947). The parallel revitalisation of Gaelic poetry, known as the

Scottish Gaelic Renaissance The Scottish Gaelic Renaissance () is a continuing movement concerning the revival of the Scottish Gaelic language and its literature. Although the Scottish Gaelic language had been facing gradual decline in the number of speakers since the late ...

, was largely due to the work of Sorley Maclean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain, 1911–96). A native of Skye and a native Gaelic speaker, he abandoned the stylistic conventions of the tradition and opened up new possibilities for composition with his poem (''Poems to Eimhir'', 1943). His work inspired a new generation to take up (the new poetry). These included George Campbell Hay (, 1915–1984), Lewis-born poets

Derick Thomson Derick Smith Thomson (Scottish Gaelic: ''Ruaraidh MacThòmais''; 5 August 1921, Stornoway – 21 March 2012, Glasgow) was a Scottish poet, publisher, lexicographer, academic and writer. He was originally from Lewis, but spent much of his life ...

(, 1921–2012) and

Iain Crichton Smith Iain Crichton Smith, (Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic: ''Iain Mac a' Ghobhainn''; 1 January 1928 – 15 October 1998) was a Scottish people, Scottish poet and novelist, who wrote in both English and Gaelic. He was born in Glasgow, but moved to the Isl ...

(, 1928–98). They all focused on the issues of exile, the fate of the Gaelic language and bi-culturalism.J. MacDonald, "Gaelic literature" in M. Lynch, ed., ''The Oxford Companion to Scottish History'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), , pp. 255-7.

Art

The ideas of a distinctive modern Scottish art were expressed in the inter-war period by figures including Stanley Cursiter (1887–1976), William McCance (1894–1970), William Johnstone (1897–1981) and J. D. Fergusson (1874–1961). Stanley Cursiter was influenced by the Celtic revival, post-impressionism and

Futurism Futurism ( ) was an Art movement, artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the ...

, as can be seen in his ''Rain on Princes Street'' (1913) and ''Regatta'' (1913). He went on to be a major painter of the coastline of his native Orkney, director of the National Gallery of Scotland and proposed the creation of a National Gallery of Modern Art in 1930. Fergusson was one of the few British artists who could claim to have played a part in the creation of modernism and probably played a major part in the formulation of MacDiarmid's thought. His interest in machine imagery can be seen in paintings like ''Damaged Destroyer'' (1918). He co-operated with MacDiarmid on the journal ''Scottish Art and Letters'' and MacDiarmid quoted extensively from his work. William McCance's early work was in a bold post-impressionist style. After World War I he moved to London with his wife, fellow student Agnes Miller Parker (1895-1980), where he joined the same circles as Fergusson, vorticist

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...

(1882-1957) and nationalist composer Francis George Scott. Under these influences his work became increasingly abstract and influenced by vorticism, as can be seen in ''Women on an Elevator'' (1925) and ''The Engineer and his Wife'' (1925). William Johnstone (1897–1981) was a cousin of F. G. Scott and met MacDiarmid while a student at Edinburgh. He studied cubism, surrealism and was introduced to new American art by his wife the sculptor Flora Macdonald. He moved towards

abstraction Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" ...

, attempting to utilise aspects of landscape, poetry and Celtic art. His most significant work, ''A Point in Time'' (1929–38), has been described by art historian Duncan Macmillan as "one of the most important Scottish pictures of the century and one of the most remarkable pictures by any British painter in the period".M. Gardiner, ''Modern Scottish Culture'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), , p. 173. Other artists strongly influenced by modernism included James McIntosh Patrick (1907–98) and Edward Baird (1904–49). Both trained in Glasgow, but spent most of their careers in and around their respective native cities of Dundee and Montrose. Both were influenced by surrealism and the work of Bruegel and focused on landscape, as can be seen in McIntosh Patrick's ''Traquair House'' (1938) and more overtly Baird's ''The Birth of Venus'' (1934). Before his success in painting, McIntosh Patrick gained a reputation as an etcher. Leading figures in the field in the inter-war period included William Wilson (1905–72) and Ian Fleming (1906-94).

Drama

Playwrights associated with the Scottish Renaissance include

Robert McLellan Robert McLellan OBE (1907–1985) was a Scottish Renaissance dramatist, writer and poet and a leading figure in the twentieth century movement to recover Scotland’s distinctive theatrical traditions. He found popular success with plays and ...

, Robert Kemp and Alexander Reid. Much of McLellan's early work was first produced by the

Curtain Theatre The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Hewett Street, Shoreditch (within the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1624. The Curtain was b ...

in Glasgow. His first success came in 1936 with Curtain's production of his comedy, ''Toom Byres'', set at the time of the

Border reivers Border Reivers were Cattle raiding, raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border. They included both Scotland, Scottish and England, English people, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their victims' nationality.Hay, D. "E ...

. This was followed in 1937 by ''

Jamie the Saxt ''Jamie the Saxt'' is a four act play in Scots by the Scottish dramatist Robert McLellan. The play was first produced by Curtain Theatre in Glasgow in 1937 with the actor Duncan Macrae in the title role. The historical subject of the comedy is t ...

'', featuring

James VI James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

in his prime. This latter production, with Duncan Macrae in the title role, is generally regarded as the one which confirmed McLellan's reputation as a comic dramatist of substance in Scots.Smith, Donald, "The Mid-Century Dramatists"', in Brown, Ian (ed.) (2011), ''The Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Drama'',

Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh ...

, pp. 118 - 129, The production of another historical Scots comedy, ''The Bogle'', was delayed by the Second World War, eventually being staged as ''Torwatletie'' by Glasgow Unity Theatre in 1946. A radio production of his verse play ''The Carlin Moth'' was broadcast in the same year. McLellan had written ''The Flouers o' Edinburgh'' (1947) in the expectation that it would be produced by the

Citizens Theatre The Citizens Theatre, in what was the Royal Princess's Theatre, is the creation of James Bridie and playwright in residence Paul Vincent Carroll is based in Glasgow, Scotland, as a principal producing theatre. The theatre includes a 500-seat ...

in Glasgow but the play was rejected by

James Bridie James Bridie (3 January 1888 in Glasgow – 29 January 1951 in Edinburgh) was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor.Daniel Leary (1982) ''Dictionary of Literary Biography: ...

, who was concerned about its overtly nationalist reading of Scottish history. It was given its first production by the Unity Players and a radio production was broadcast in 1951. It was produced by the Gateway Theatre Company in its 1954-55 season, and again in August 1957 as its

Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially european classical music, classical music) and ...

production.Edinburgh Gateway Company (1965), The Twelve Seasons of the Edinburgh Gateway Company, 1953 - 1965, St. Giles Press, Edinburgh, pp. 43 - 56 Robert Kemp pioneered the translation of existing dramatic works into Scots. His ''Let Wives Tak Tent'', a rendering into Scots of

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

's '' L'Ecole des femmes'', was first produced at the Gateway Theatre in 1948, with Duncan Macrae in the lead role. In the same year, his adaptation of David Lyndsay's '' Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis'' was staged at the Church of Scotland's Assembly Hall as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. Together with Lennox Milne and Tom Fleming, Kemp founded the Gateway Theatre Company in 1953, taking on the roles of Chairman and resident playwright. ''The Laird o' Grippy'', his adaptation of John Galt's novel ''The Entail'' was staged at the Gateway in 1955, with

John Laurie John Paton Laurie (25 March 1897 – 23 June 1980) was a Scottish stage, film, and television actor. He appeared in scores of feature films with directors including Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Michael Powell and Laurence Olivier, generally p ...

in the title role.Edinburgh Gateway Company (1965), The Twelve Seasons of the Edinburgh Gateway Company, 1953 - 1965, St. Giles Press, Edinburgh, pp. 43 - 56 While McLellan's most successful plays were set in the distant historic past, Alexander Reid preferred a half-mythic milieu. His two best-known plays are ''The Lass wi' the Muckle Mou'' (1950), which drew on the legend of

Thomas the Rhymer Sir Thomas de Ercildoun, better remembered as Thomas the Rhymer (fl. c. 1220 – 1298), also known as Thomas Learmont or True Thomas, was a Scottish laird and reputed prophet from Earlston (then called "Erceldoune") in the Borders. Tho ...

, and ''The Warld's Wonder'' (1953), about the mathematician and reputed magician

Michael Scot Michael Scot (Latin: Michael Scotus; 1175 – ) was a Scottish mathematician and scholar in the Middle Ages. He was educated at University of Oxford, Oxford and University of Paris, Paris, and worked in Bologna and Toledo, Spain, Toledo, where ...

. The Lass wi' the Muckle Mou was first staged at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre in November 1950. It was adapted as a television drama, first broadcast by the BBC on Tuesday 6 October 1953. ''The Warld's Wonder'' was produced at the Gateway in the autumn of 1958. Victor Carin, who became director of productions at the Gateway in 1963, contributed to the expansion of Scottish theatre's repertoire of works in translation. ''The Hypochonriack'', his translation into Scots of Molière's ''

The Imaginary Invalid ''The Imaginary Invalid'', ''The Hypochondriac'', or ''The Would-Be Invalid'' ( French title ''Le Malade imaginaire'', ) is a three- act ''comédie-ballet'' by the French playwright Molière with dance sequences and musical interludes ( H.495, H ...

'', was performed by the Gateway Company during his first season in that role. His second translation, ''The Servant o' Twa Maisters'', translated from

Carlo Goldoni Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (, also , ; 25 February 1707 – 6 February 1793) was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays ...

's '' The Servant of Two Masters'' was the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company's debut production in 1965. Sydney Goodsir Smith's most successful contribution to the drama of the Scottish Renaissance was ''The Wallace''. Initially broadcast on radio in a BBC production by Finlay J. MacDonald on 30 November 1959, it was first staged at the

Kirk Kirk is a Scottish and former Northern English word meaning 'church'. The term ''the Kirk'' is often used informally to refer specifically to the Church of Scotland, the Scottish national church that developed from the 16th-century Reformation ...

Assembly Hall An assembly hall is a hall to hold public meetings or meetings of an organization such as a school, church, or deliberative assembly. An example of the last case is the Assembly Hall (Washington, Mississippi) where the general assembly of the s ...

in a production by Peter Potter as part of the 1960 Edinburgh International Festival. The play was revived by the Scottish Theatre Company in 1985.

Music and dance

The ideas of the Scottish Renaissance were brought to classical music by Francis George Scott (1880–1958), MacDiarmid's former teacher, who set to music several of the poet's works.M. P. McCulloch, ''Scottish Modernism and Its Contexts 1918-1959: Literature, National Identity and Cultural Exchange'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), , p. 37.

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

-born

Ronald Stevenson Ronald James Stevenson (6 March 1928 – 28 March 2015) was a Scottish composer, pianist, and music scholar. Biography The son of a Scottish father and Welsh mother, Stevenson was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, in 1928. He studied at the Roya ...

(b. 1938) collaborated with Scott and both wrote in

twelve-tone technique The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition. The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale ...

. Stevenson developed a musical idiom derived from Scottish music, creating settings of folk songs including concertos for his instrument, the piano (1966 and 1972). He also adapted work by Scottish Renaissance poets such as MacDiarmid, Sorley Maclean and

. The influence of

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostak ...

(1906–1975) was evident in the initials used in his large-scale piano work ''

Passacaglia on DSCH The ''Passacaglia on DSCH'' is a large-scale composition for solo piano by the British composer Ronald Stevenson. It was composed between 24 December 1960 and 18 May 1962, except for two sections added on the day of the first performance on 10 De ...

'' (1963).M. Gardiner, ''Modern Scottish Culture'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), , pp. 193-8. Robin Orr (1909–2006) and

Cedric Thorpe Davie Cedric Thorpe Davie OBE (30 May 1913 – 18 January 1983) was a musician and composer, most notably of film scores such as '' The Green Man'' in 1956. A high proportion of his film and documentary music and his concert pieces have a Scottish the ...

(1913–1983) were influenced by

and Scottish musical cadences. The influence of modernism can also be heard in the work of Erik Chisholm (1904–1965) in his ''Pibroch Piano Concerto'' (1930) and the ''Straloch suite for Orchestra'' (1933) and the sonata ''An Riobhan Dearg'' (1939). In 1928 he founded the Scottish Ballet Society (later the Celtic Ballet) with choreographer Margaret Morris, the long term partner of J. D. Fergusson. Together they created several ballets, including ''The Forsaken Mermaid'' (1940). He was also instrumental in the foundation of the Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music, for which he brought leading composers to Glasgow to perform their work.

Decline and influence

Although many of the participants were to live until the 1970s and later, the truly revolutionary aspect of the Scottish Renaissance can be said to have been over by the 1960s, when it became eclipsed by various other movements, often international in nature. The most famous clash was at the 1962 Edinburgh Writers Festival, where Hugh MacDiarmid denounced

Alexander Trocchi Alexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi ( ; 30 July 1925 – 15 April 1984) was a Scottish novelist. Early life and career Trocchi was born in Glasgow to Alfred (formerly Alfredo) Trocchi, a music-hall performer of Italian parentage, and Annie ...

, a younger Scottish writer, as "cosmopolitan scum", and Trocchi claimed "sodomy" as a basis for his own writing. This is often seen as a clash of the generations, although it is rarely reported that the two writers corresponded with each other later, and became friends. Both were controversialists of sorts. The Scottish Renaissance also had a profound effect on the Scottish independence movement, and the roots of the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

may be said to be firmly in it. The revival in both of Scotland's indigenous languages is partly drawn from the renaissance.

Major figures

Other people connected with the Scottish renaissance, not mentioned previously, are listed below. Note: These figures were not all contemporaries of the first generation of Scottish Renaissance writers and artists who emerged in the 1920s and 1930s. However, most did become involved with the movement in some form through interactions with figures such as Gunn or MacDiarmid, even if at a slightly later date. People generally considered to be post-renaissance but strongly influenced by it: *

John Cairney John Cairney (16 February 1930 – 6 September 2023) was a Scottish stage, film and television actor who found fame through his one-man shows on Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Service, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and William McGo ...

* Duncan Glen * John Herdman * Tom Hubbard * William Neill (poet) * David Purves * James Robertson (novelist and poet) *

[] (poet, novelist)

References

External links

Cultural Profile of Scotland
{{Twentieth-century Scotland Scottish literary movements Literary modernism Modern history of Scotland 20th century in Scotland 20th-century British literature Theatre in Scotland