Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture

The fourteen essays included in Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture re-orient scholarly understanding of Robert Burns by focusing on the reception and representation of the Scottish poet and songwriter in the Americas. Divided into five sections, the volume explores: transatlantic concerns in Burns''s own work; Burns''s early publication in North America; Burns''s reception in the Americas; Burns''s creation as a site of cultural memory; and extra-literary remediations of Burns, including contemporary digital representations.

While recent scholarship has usefully positioned Burns within the context of British Romanticism as a spokesperson of Scottish national identity, Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture considers Burns''s impact in the United States, Canada, and South America, where he has served variously as a site of cultural memory and of creative negotiation. Ambitious in its scope, the volume is divided into five sections that explore: transatlantic concerns in Burns''s own work, Burns''s early publication in North America, Burns''s reception in the Americas, Burns''s creation as a site of cultural memory, and extra-literary remediations of Burns, including contemporary digital representations. By tracing the transatlantic modulations of the poet and songwriter and his works, Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture sheds new light on the circuits connecting Scotland and Britain with the evolving cultures of the Americas from the late eighteenth century to the present.