Former Lecturer Willie Donaldson has published a new article in the Studies in Scottish Literature, “Thomas Blackwell and the Foundation of Modern Literary History.” This article charts the leading Enlightenment figure’s (previously neglected) role as one of the founders of the modern approach to literary scholarship.
Abstract: Thomas Blackwell (1701–1757), a major, although inadequately recognised, writer, was professor of classics, later Principal, of Marischal College in Aberdeen, and author of three remarkable works: An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer (1735), Letters Concerning Mythology (1748), and Memoirs of the Court of Augustus (1753–1763). Blackwell taught several leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, including Principal George Campbell, Alexander Gerard, and James Beattie, and he was an important influence on James Burnett (Lord Monboddo) and James Macpherson. The article considers his influence on the formal study of literature in the academy.
Willie is now working on the opening stretches of a large study of the Scottish song tradition. The classic corpus of Scottish song has been central to the construction of the Scottish literary tradition beginning in the early eighteenth century and continuing through Robert Burns and many others down to the present day. His work is currently in research of two of the great Victorian collectors and commentators, Andrew Lang (1844-1912) and Gavin Greig (1856-1914), and planning to fan out in both directions from these historical figures.