Hugh MacDiarmid's Poetry and Politics of Place

The only book on Hugh MacDiarmid currently in print, this study gives unique focus to the politics of one of modern Scotland’s major cultural figures. By examining at length for the first time those places in Scotland that inspired MacDiarmid to produce his best poetry, it shows how the poet’s politics evolved from his interaction with the nation, exploring how MacDiarmid discovered a hidden tradition of radical Scottish Republicanism through which he sought to imagine a new Scottish future. Adapting postcolonial theory, this book allows readers a fuller understanding not only of MacDiarmid’s poetry and politics, but also of international modernism, and the social history of Scottish modernism.