In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • The Year’s Publications for 2014: A Selected List

fourteenth to seventeenth century

Cox, Elizabeth, Liz McAvoy, and Roberta Magnani, eds (2015). Gender, Time and Memory in the Middle Ages, Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 9781843844037

Examining the significance of memory and memory training to medieval culture, Cox et al. augment previous studies, for example Mary Carruthers’s The Book of Memory (1990), by focusing on the effect of gender on library texts and its connections with memory and time and the ideology behind them.

Flood, John, ed. (2014). The Works of Walter Quin, an Irishman at the Stuart courts, Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 9781846825040

The Dubliner Walter Quin rose to prominence in the court of James VI and was a supporter of James’s succession to the English throne. After relocating to London with James’s court, Quin produced verse in praise of patrons and captured aspects of courtly life. Quin’s connections to the Stuart court make him a source of interest and study for Irish, Scottish and English literature. This is the first edition of Quin’s work including translations of non-English work.

Hepburn, William (2014). ‘William Dunbar and the courtmen: poetry as a source for the court of James IV’, Innes Review 65 (2), pp. 95–112.

Hepburn argues that the poems of William Dunbar offer a window into the court of James IV. Dunbar’s ‘Schir, ye haue mony seruitouris’, in particular, provides a nuanced view of the court and focuses on its servants and craftsmen. Hepburn argues that Dunbar essentially advises the court to depend on specialist servants such as him. [End Page 145]

Perkins, Nicholas, ed. (2015). Medieval Romance and Material Culture, Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 9781843843900
Postlewate, Laurie, Kathryn Duys and Elizabeth Emery, eds (2015). Telling the story in the Middle Ages: essays in Honour of Evelyn Birge Vitz, Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 9781843843917

In the middle ages storytelling was more than just entertainment, it was crucial to religion, ritual, teaching and religion. The essays in this volume examine strategies, contexts and narrative features of medieval storytelling.

Tracy, Larissa (2015). Torture and Brutality in Medieval Literature: Negotiations of National Identity Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 9781843843931
Walker, Greg (2014). ‘The Popular Voice in Sir David Lyndsay’s Satire of the Thrie Estaitis’, Studies in Scottish Literature 40 (1), pp. 39–54.

Walker examines Lyndsay’s representation of the common people through the figure of the Pauper or Poor Man in the initial version (1540) and the character of John of the Commonwealth in the two later versions (1552; 1554). The essay reassesses Lyndsay’s commoners with similar characters in plays by John Bale and Nicholas Udall.

Items providing useful historical context

Ditchburn, David & Catriona Macdonald, eds (2014). ‘Bannockburn, World War I and the Referendum’, Scottish Historical Review 93 (2), pp. 161–70.
Foster, Sally M. (2014). Picts, Gaels and Scots: Early Historic Scotland, New edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn. ISBN 9781780271910
Kane, Brendan & Valerie McGowan-Doyle, eds (2014). Elizabeth I and Ireland, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781107040878
Mann, J. Alastair (2014). James VII: Duke and King of Scots, 1633–1701, Edinburgh: Birlinn. ISBN 9781904607908

One of the least studied, and primarily from an English perspective, Mann’s revaluation of James VII and II provides the most detailed history of the Scottish monarch and challenges presumptions regarding his extreme catholic views and incompetence. [End Page 146]

McGladdery, Christine (2015). James II, Edinburgh, Birlinn. ISBN 9781904607892 146

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Pollock, M. A. (2015). Scotland, England and France after the Loss of Normandy, 1204–1296, ‘Auld Amitie’, Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 9781843839927

Christopher McMillan, University of Glasgow

Robert Burns

Carruthers, Gerard & Pauline Mackay (2013). ‘Re-Reading James Currie: Robert Burns’s First Editor’, John Clare Society Journal 32, pp. 73–84.

An examination of the issues which Burns’s first editor contended with, put in context of some original criticism that Burns received, as well as Curry’s own tendencies as an editor in light of his personality and work more generally.

Dawson, Bill (2014). ‘The First Publication of Burns’s “Tam o’ Shanter”’, Studies in Scottish Literature 40 (1), pp. 105–15.

Examines the early publication history of...

pdf

Share