Scottish Women's Fiction (20th Century)

This course examines a range of fiction texts by Scottish women writers from across the twentieth century, focusing on their literary strategies and their engagement with themes of nationalism, class, gender and sexuality. Scottish women's fiction in the twentieth century presents us with a field of enquiry which both parallels and challenges dominant conceptions and readings of Scottish cultural tradition. In every era women writers have foregrounded literary innovation and formal experimentation in their engagement with the social and political questions of their time and location and beyond, emphasising their special perspective on crucial issues of identity concerning nationalism, gender, sexuality and the politics of emancipation. This course will explore the development of Scottish women's fiction from the twenties to the nineties and consider their work in relation to the literary strategies associated with realism, modernism and the Scottish Renaissance, and postmodernism. Alongside the fiction we will engage with contextualising theoretical approaches including feminism, nationalism and other perspectives informing contemporary Scottish studies, and the fiction texts will be read alongside key theoretical texts. Credit Level: 10 Year taken: Year 4 Undergraduate

Not running in 2025/26