The Fin-de-Siècle Scottish Revival: Romance, Decadence and Celtic Identity

by Michael Shaw

As the Irish Revival took shape and the Home Rule debate dominated UK politics, what was happening in Scotland? This book reveals a distinct but comparable concern with cultural defence and revivalism in fin-de-siècle Scotland, evident in the work of a number of writers and artists including Robert Louis Stevenson, Patrick Geddes, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Mona Caird, John Duncan and various contributors to The Evergreen. Situating Scottish literature and art alongside international developments in culture, especially the rise of decadence, symbolism and Celticism, Michael Shaw demonstrates the ways in which dissident fin-de-siècle styles and ideas supported and defined the Scottish Revival.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2019

About the author

Michael Shaw is Lecturer in Scottish Literature at the University of Stirling.

Shaw completed a Ph.D. at the University of Glasgow in 2015. His doctoral research, which examined how the styles and ideas of the 1890s supported a Fin de Siècle Scottish cultural revival, has subsequently been published as The Fin-de-Siècle Scottish Revival: Romance, Decadence and Celtic Identity (2019).