A History of the Scottish Novel by Wang Weixin et al. (review)

A History of the Scottish Novelis the first book produced by the Chinese (including the wider Chinese-speaking world) on the history of Scottish novels. The book, co-written by Wang Weixin, Hu Yijun, Xia Qiong, Shi Meifang, and Wang Quanglin, was published by Beijing Commercial Press in September 2017. In addition to the Introduction and Conclusion, the book comprises main chapters, namely Chapter I: The Rise of Scottish Novels; Chapter II: Novels of Scott's Era; Chapter III: Inside and Outside the Kailyard; Chapter IV: Modern Scottish Novels; and Chapter V: Contemporary Scottish Novels. Descriptions of the lives and works of a selection of thirty-five major Scottish writers from the early eighteenth century to the present day are covered in the book. The course of the development of Scottish novel is also clearly explained to its readers. In addition, the historical, political and ideological background of Scottish literature is also included, thus providing sufficient information to readers who would wish to equip themselves with a good knowledge of the field. A History of the Scottish Novelcan be seen as an introductory volume, but it also offers easy access to those who only want to acquire some knowledge of a specific period and its writers.

From the viewpoint of a researcher on Scottish literature, the book offers us a means to understand Chinese academia's grasp on the canon of Scottish literature. Indeed, the writers of the book do not offer a perspective that is different from Western scholars' approaches to the study of the Scottish novel, and have followed closely the steps of the West in researching Scottish literature. For instance, the First and Second World Congresses of Scottish Literatures (organised in 2014 and 2017 respectively) are both listed in the chronology of the major events relating to the development of Scottish literature. This contemporary focus highlights the authors' active participation in obtaining knowledge of the literature and its trends of development. Moreover, the materials the authors have consulted or referred to are the most recent and relevant works published in the West, although a small number of representative research findings by the Chinese are also included. What might be of some interest to Western scholars is that the book offers a glimpse of the ways in which Scottish literature was understood and received by the Chinese academic circles. For example, it may surprise the reader to learn that, to the Chinese, the most popular contemporary Scottish novelist is Muriel Spark and the most well-known modern Scottish poet is Hugh MacDiarmid.

The development of Chinese academia in the twentieth century was affected by a number of unfortunate historical events, such as the 1967–77 Cultural Revolution. Therefore, it was only in the 1980s that the first Chinese academic gained a PhD in English literature. It is perhaps this comparatively late entry into the field that has resulted in the country having to wait for nearly twenty years in order to have a sufficient number of scholars who were equipped with professional knowledge to carry out serious research on Western literature. Although the total number of people working on Western literature has grown in the past decades, the percentage of Chinese scholars working on Scottish literature has remained relatively small when compared to those working on English literature. Most of the currently available research papers on Scottish literature were produced after 2010.

Although there were Chinese scholars who began to introduce Scottish literature to the Chinese as early as the 1980s (for example, the Beijing Foreign Studies University's academic journal, Foreign Literature, published a special issue on Scottish literature in 1984), contributors to A History of the Scottish Novel, strictly speaking, can finally represent the first generation of Chinese scholars who are active in researching and disseminating Scottish literature. The emergence of this book signifies the formal beginning of researches on Scottish literature in China (although the study of Scottish poetry has as...