Adventurous Scots - Late Victorian Writers of Empire

Overview

What you will study

Scottish writers in the Victorian period faced a dilemma. Through industrialisation and the Act of Union, Scotland had been fully assimilated into the United Kingdom and the British Empire. Scots wanting to get ahead were wise to move to London or head out into the far-flung reaches of the British Empire to make a name for themselves. In following this path, Scottish writers abandoned Scotland as a subject and invented a new genre of imperial adventure through which indirectly reflected on their experience of Scotland.

R.L Stevenson set stories in Edinburgh, San Francisco and Samoa, but Treasure Island finds him turning Scotland into a land of adventure which is both realistic and fantastic. Meanwhile, Arthur Conan Doyle transplanted his Edinburgh experiences to London and created Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective, whose clients come from all over the globe. In the Adventurous Scots - Late Victorian Writers of Empire course offered by University of Oxford , their writing will be placed in the context of the crisis of the British Empire and the question of Scottish identity.