Kelly, Jim (2007) The oral tradition and literature in Ireland and Scotland: Popular culture in Robert Burns and Charles Maturin. Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, 1 (1). pp. 61-72.

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Abstract

In a much recounted anecdote, the writer James Hogg recalled a meeting between Sir Walter Scott and Hogg’s mother. Responding to Scott’s interest in whether a particular song she had sung had ever been printed, Mrs Hogg scolded Scott’s interest in printing what were orally transmitted ballads: [There] war never ane o’ my sangs prentit till ye prentit them yoursel’, an’ ye have spoilt them awthegither. They were made for singin’ an’ no for readin’; but ye hae broken the charm noo, an’ they’ll never sung mair. The anecdote serves perfectly to show the uneasy relationship between the enthusiastic antiquarian, eager to ‘preserve’ remnants of an oral culture, and an actual practitioner of that culture, suspicious of someone who transposes, and thereby destroys, songs from an oral culture into a textual one.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Ireland and Scotland; Robert Burns; Charles Maturin;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > School of English, Media & Theatre Studies
Item ID:	1961
Depositing User:	Dr. Jim Kelly
Date Deposited:	27 May 2010 13:40
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies
Publisher:	Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/contentsJISS...
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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