Nigel James Leask (born 1958) is a Scottish academic publishing on Romantic, Scottish, and Anglo-Indian literature, with special interest on British Empire, Orientalism, and Travel writing. He has been Regius Professor of English language and literature at the University of Glasgow, since 2004. [1] [2] [3]
He won the Saltire Society Scottish Research Book of the Year award in 2010 for his book Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late-18th Century Scotland. He is a fellow of Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Centenary Fellow of the English Association. [1]
Nigel Leask | |
|---|---|
| Born | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Occupation(s) | Academic, literary critic, cultural historian |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Edinburgh Academy |
| Alma mater | University of Oxford University of Cambridge |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | University of Cambridge University of Glasgow |
| Main interests | Scottish literature,British Empire,Romanticism,eighteenth-century literature,Anglo-Indian literature,Orientalism |
| Notable works | Robert Burns and Pastoral:Poetry and Improvement in Late-18th Century Scotland (2010) |
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2012) |
He was born in 1958 and grew up in Stirlingshire. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge before taking up a position of Reader in Romantic literature at Cambridge University. He is married and has two daughters. [1] [2]
In 2004, he was appointed to Regius chair of English language and literature at University of Glasgow, and is Head of the School of Critical Studies, currently from 1 August 2010. [3] He also held teaching appointments at the University of Bologna, Italy; University of Dundee, Scotland; and a visiting professorship at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City. He has lectured widely in India, Europe, and Americas. [1]
He published The Politics of Imagination in Coleridge’s Critical Thought, his first book, in 1988; subsequently, British Romantic Writers and the East: Anxieties of Empire in 1992, and many others later. [1]
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2012) |
About the author (2009) - Nigel Leask is Regius Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow.
Robert Burns & Pastoral, Poetry and Improvement in Late Eighteenth-Century Scotland - by Nigel Leask
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Romanticism is an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. In most parts of Europe, it was at its peak from approximately 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of the past and nature, preferring the medieval to the classical. Romanticism was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, and the prevailing ideology of the Age of Enlightenment, especially the scientific rationalization of Nature. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature; it also had a major impact on historiography, education, chess, social sciences, and the natural sciences. It had a significant and complex effect on politics: Romantic thinking influenced conservatism, liberalism, radicalism, and nationalism.
John Nichol, was a Scottish literary academic, and the first Regius Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow.
Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18th century, and lasted approximately from 1800 to 1850. Romantic poets rebelled against the style of poetry from the eighteenth century which was based around epics, odes, satires, elegies, epistles and songs.
David Daiches was a Scottish literary historian and literary critic, scholar and writer. He wrote extensively on English literature, Scottish literature and Scottish culture.
The Regius Chair of English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow was founded in 1861 by Queen Victoria, and is the only Regius Professorship in the Faculty of Arts.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Robert Crawford is a Scottish poet, scholar and critic. He is emeritus Professor of English at the University of St Andrews.
Romanticism in Scotland was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that developed between the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries. It was part of the wider European Romantic movement, which was partly a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment, emphasising individual, national and emotional responses, moving beyond Renaissance and Classicist models, particularly into nostalgia for the Middle Ages. The concept of a separate national Scottish Romanticism was first articulated by the critics Ian Duncan and Murray Pittock in the Scottish Romanticism in World Literatures Conference held at UC Berkeley in 2006 and in the latter's Scottish and Irish Romanticism (2008), which argued for a national Romanticism based on the concepts of a distinct national public sphere and differentiated inflection of literary genres; the use of Scots language; the creation of a heroic national history through an Ossianic or Scottian 'taxonomy of glory' and the performance of a distinct national self in diaspora.
Murray G. H. Pittock MAE FRSE is a Scottish historian, Bradley Professor of Literature at the University of Glasgow and Pro Vice Principal at the University, where he has served in senior roles including Dean and Vice Principal since 2008. He led for the University on the University/City of Glasgow/National Library of Scotland Kelvin Hall development (kelvinhall.org.uk), and has chaired Glasgow's unique early career development programme, which has been highly influential in the sector, since 2016. He has also acted as lead or co-lead for a range of national and International partnerships, including with the Smithsonian Institution, and plays a leading role in the University's engagement with government and the cultural and creative industries (CCIs), organizing the 'Glasgow and Dublin: Creative Cities' summit in the British Embassy in Dublin in 2019, and working with the European network CIVIS on the creation of a European policy document on universities and civic engagement, on which he gave a masterclass for La Sapienza University He also produced a major report on the impact of Robert Burns on the Scottish Economy for the Scottish Government in 2020; a Parliamentary debate was held at Holyrood on the recommendations, which have been cited in policy debate many times since. In 2022, he was declared Scotland's Knowledge Exchange Champion of the year. Outside the University, he served on the Research Excellence Framework (REF) Institutional Environment Pilot Panel in 2018-22, and on the National Trust for Scotland Board (2019-27) and Investment Committee, as well as acting as Co-chair of the Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance (SAHA) and chair of the Governance Board of the Scottish Council on Global Affairs. He also serves as Scottish History Adviser to the NTS and as an adviser to a wide range of other national heritage bodies and the Scottish Parliament; recently he has provided expert advice to both the Scottish and British parliaments on promoting Scotland abroad. He is on the Advisory Board of NISE, the Europe-wide research group bringing together over 40 research centres working on national identities and was President of the Edinburgh Walter Scott Club in 2019-20 and 2021-22. He has given a number of major lectures, most recently the Magnusson, MacCormack and Caledonian lectures
Poetry of Scotland includes all forms of verse written in Brythonic, Latin, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, French, English and Esperanto and any language in which poetry has been written within the boundaries of modern Scotland, or by Scottish people.
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The Hermitage was a folly first built by Captain Robert Riddell of Friars Carse as part of his enthusiasm for antiquities. It is famous for its connection with the bard Robert Burns who through his friendship with Riddell was permitted to use it to compose poetry in this secluded and tranquil sylvan spot. Burns also used his diamond point pen to engrave lines on the window pane at the Hermitage following the premature death of Riddell. The original Hermitage fell into disrepair and was rebuilt in 1874. It was further restored to its former glory more recently (2009).
Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. Scholars regard the publishing of William Wordsworth's and Samuel Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads in 1798 as probably the beginning of the movement, and the crowning of Queen Victoria in 1837 as its end. Romanticism arrived in other parts of the English-speaking world later; in the United States, it arrived around 1820.
Heidi Thomson is a New Zealand academic, a full professor of English at the Victoria University of Wellington.
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Seamus Perry is an English author, academic, a Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College, Oxford and, since 2014, a Professor of English Literature in the English Faculty at the University of Oxford.
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Ronald Dyce Sadler Jack, PhD, D.Litt., FRSE was a scholar of Scottish literature and medieval literature and professor at the University of Edinburgh.
