William Motherwell's Cultural Politics

Mary Ellen Brown

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2014
• Topic: History
• Print ISBN:
  9780813121888
• Subtopic: British History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780813157696
• Index: History

William Motherwell (1797-1835), journalist, poet, man-of-letters, wit, civil servant, and outspoken conservative, published his anthology of ballads, Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern, in 1827. His views on authenticity, editorial practice, the nature of oral transmission, and the importance of sung performance—acquired through field collecting—anticipate much later scholarly discourse.

Published after the death of Burns and the publication of Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, ballads such as those Motherwell collected were one focus of a loose-knit movement that might be designated, cultural nationalism. This interest in preserving relics that suggested a distinctly Scottish culture and nation was one response to the union of the Scottish and English Parliaments in 1707. Mary Ellen Brown's study provides a model for historical ethnography, focusing on an individual and illustrating the multiple ways he was richly embedded in his time and place.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Toward a Biographical Social History
• Chapter 1: Gulielmus Motherwell, Willyan Moderwell, William Motherwell
• Chapter 2: Politics
• Chapter 3: The Poet
• Chapter 4: The Ballad Errantry
• Chapter 5: The Death of Literature
• Chapter 6: Les Bons Mots
• Chapter 7: Play
• Chapter 8: But Who Was William Motherwell?
• Appendix 1: Informants and Items
• Appendix 2: Drafts on Variation
• Appendix 3: Memoirs of a Paisley Bail
• Appendix 4: Motherwell's Affiliations and Associates
• Appendix 5: Annotations Relating to Motherwell's Associates
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index