The following thesis represents the first extensive critical study of the bawdy song and verse of the Scottish national bard, Robert Burns (1759-1796). An examination of Burns’s correspondence explores the poet’s lifetime reception, the dissemination and the production of his bawdy verse, and considers the received critical wisdom surrounding the emergence of some of these key productions in the 1799 publication of 'The Merry Muses of Caledonia'. By charting shifts in culture and legislation surrounding the publication of sexually explicit literature from the eighteenth century to the present day, this thesis explains the influence of ‘official culture’ upon the gradual appearance of Robert Burns’s ‘unofficial’ body of work in the public domain, and the eventual inclusion of originally suppressed works, such as those included in 'The Merry Muses of Caledonia', as part of Robert Burns’s canon. Through a thematic critical examination of Robert Burns’s bawdy song and verse, it is argued that Burns employs bawdry as a means of scrutinising and subverting eighteenth-century religious, domestic and political culture. Further to this, it is contended that Burns’s bawdry and writing about explicit sexuality needs to be brought out into the light of the early twenty-first century, not because of the preoccupations of this particular century, but because of Burns’s crucial cultural interest and engagement with sexuality in the eighteenth century. Ultimately this thesis posits that Burns’s sexually explicit writing forms a significant part of poet’s canon insofar as it represents a crucial part of his artistic, cultural and historical context, and contributes to a more thorough and accurate understanding of Scotland’s most iconic literary figure as both man and poet.

Bibliography: leaves [581]-591 / xi, 591 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 1985

Mary Robinson’s perceived entrapment within masculine discourse has led to a somewhat distorted portrayal of this author as ‘victim’: critical focus on how she and eighteenth-century society may have constructed her authorial identity, reflecting her primarily as a historical and cultural product, has contributed indirectly to diminish due recognition of the level of autonomy she attained within her own writing. However, recent political interpretations of Robinson’s work have largely challenged these views, acknowledging her considerable influence within the public realm of the ‘masculine’ Romantic. In this dissertation, I aim to build upon, and argue beyond, those readings which have explored Robinson’s political uses of victimisation, as well as those which have studied her promotion of female authorship. I will argue that, by exploring Robinson’s own portrayal of the female philosopher and author, as well as her manipulation of victimisation within sensibility literature, we may be able to better interrogate modern feminist thinking around the concept of the eighteenth-century female philosopher, and thus begin to situate the value of Robinson’s work within a firmer literary compass. I will focus upon the following novels: Walsingham (2003 b), The False Friend (1799), and The Natural Daughter (2003 a). While I will root my arguments in the abovementioned approach, I will avoid contributing further discussion to Robinson’s use of radical politics and defence or fostering of female authorship. First because these are relatively well explored issues around her writing, and secondly because it is wise to be cautious when affirming Robinson’s radical politics, as ultimately this impulse ties into a modern yearning to portray her as a radical feminist. Robinson certainly adopted a radical political stance in some of her novels; yet, I will argue, we cannot value her writing primarily in terms of its political bent, however tempting this approach may be. / English Studies / M.A. (English Studies)