‘Scotland Small? Our Multiform, Our Infinite Scotland Small?’ Scotland’s Literary Contribution to the Modern World
‘Scotland Small? Our Multiform, Our Infinite Scotland Small?’ Scotland’s Literary Contribution to the Modern World

Summary/Abstract: Hugh MacDiarmid’s poem ‘Scotland Small?’ (1943) questions the widespread opinion at the time that Scotland was only a small country geographically with ‘nothing but heather!’, showing how ‘marvellously descriptive’ this may be, but also totally ‘incomplete’. The issue addressed in this article is how Scottish letters, starting with the outstanding and multiform writings of the same Hugh MacDiarmid (Christopher Murray Grieve [1892-1978]) and ending with observations of the international significance of such contemporary Scottish poets as Carol Ann Duffy (b. 1955), the first female to become British Poet Laureate, have contributed to the development and diversity of literature far beyond the borders of Scotland. It is also in looking at the achievements of such diverse writers as Muriel Spark, James Kelman and Ian Rankin as well as poets Ian Hamilton Finlay, Edwin Morgan, Jackie Kay, or the present Scottish Poet Laureate Liz Lochhead, among others, that we can see how significant their literary oeuvre is for a better understanding of the modern world. Emphasis is also placed on the fact that although Scotland is undoubtedly a small country geographically, we can never – in reference to the title of this volume – say it is minor.

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