Akademisk avhandling--Engelsk litteratur--Uppsala, 1982. / Bibliogr. p. 135-139. Index.

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em História, 2009. / Submitted by Jaqueline Ferreira de Souza (jaquefs.braz@gmail.com) on 2013-04-16T13:09:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_AndreLemeLopes.pdf: 159751778 bytes, checksum: cf67a7c79ac486bbd758a9d1204f5db6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jaqueline Ferreira de Souza(jaquefs.braz@gmail.com) on 2013-04-16T13:09:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_AndreLemeLopes.pdf: 159751778 bytes, checksum: cf67a7c79ac486bbd758a9d1204f5db6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-04-16T13:09:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_AndreLemeLopes.pdf: 159751778 bytes, checksum: cf67a7c79ac486bbd758a9d1204f5db6 (MD5) / Em meados do século XVIII, o escocês James Macpherson publicou, com extraordinário sucesso, dois volumes de poesia que eram apresentados como traduções de um antigo poeta gaélico, Ossian. Desde a publicação, no entanto, uma acirrada controvérsia sobre sua autenticidade dividiu os intelectuais britânicos e, por fim, Macpherson foi condenado como um falsificador sem escrúpulos e ‘seus’ poemas rejeitados e esquecidos. Qual a verdade? Argumento aqui que um conflito entre as idéias políticas de Macpherson e as concepções setecentistas da ‘História natural do homem’ foi fundamental para o veredicto negativo dado aos poemas de Ossian. ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / By the middle of the eighteenth century, the Scotsman James Macpherson published, with remarkable success, two volumes of poetry attributed to an ancient Gælic poet, Ossian. But an angry dispute over the poems divided the British literati and, in the end, Macpherson was found guilty of forgery and ‘his’ poems were rejected and forgotten. What is the truth? I argue here that a divergence between Macpherson’s political ideas and the concepts of the ‘Natural history of mankind’ practiced by his Scottish sponsors was essential for the verdict given to Ossian’s works. ______________________________________________________________________________ RÉSUMÉ / Vers le milieu du XVIIème, l’écossais James Macpherson publia, avec un succès remarquable, deux volumes de poésie attribués à l’ancien poète gaélique, Ossian. Dès leur publication, cependant, une acerbe controverse sur leur authenticité divisa les inte!ectuels britanniques et, finalement, Macpherson passa dans l’histoire comme un faussaire sans scrupule et « ses » poèmes furent rejetés et oubliés. Qu’en est-il de la vérité? J’argumente ici qu’un conflit entre les idées politiques de Macpherson et les conceptions d’ « histoire nature!e » pratiquées par ses bienfaiteurs écossais fut fondamental pour la caractérisation négative faite des poèmes d’Ossian.

This thesis explores James Macpherson’s The Highlander (1758) in relation to originality, Scottish identity and historiography. It also situates the Ossianic Collections in the context of Macpherson’s earlier poetical and later historical works. There are three parts to it: a biographical sketch of Macpherson’s early life, the annotated edition of The Highlander, and discursive commentary chapters. By examining The Highlander in detail this thesis questions the emphasis of other Macpherson criticism on the Ossianic Collections, and allows us to see him as a writer who is historically minded, very aware of sources, well versed in established forms of poetry and thoroughly, and positively, British. The Highlander stands out among the corpus of his works not because it can give us insights into the Ossianic Collections, which is its usual function in Macpherson criticism, but because it can help us understand what it is that connects Macpherson’s earlier and later works with the Ossianic Collections: history, Britishness, tradition. Macpherson’s poetical works are united by a desire to translate Scotland’s factual past into sentimental British poetry. In the Ossianic Collections he does so without particular faithfulness to his sources, but in The Highlander he converts historical sources directly into neo-classic verse. This is where Macpherson’s originality lies: his ability to adapt history. In different styles and genres, and based on different sources, Macpherson’s works are early examples of Scotland’s great literary achievement: historical fiction. Instead of accusing him of forgery or trying to trace his knowledge of Gaelic ballads, this thesis presents Macpherson as a genuine historian who happened to write in a variety of genres.

Melchiorre Cesarotti (1730-1808) produced a blank verse translation into Italian of the rhythmic prose of James Macpherson's Ossian. On the basis of the numerous amendments to be found the three subsequent Italian editions of the Ossian (Padoa 1763 and 1772, Pisa, 1801), it could never be ascertained which English editions had served as source text for Cesarotti's translations and whether Italian variations could be led back to similar variations in the the English texts, or whether they were rather the independent and unwarranted work of the Italian translator. Our first successful search enabled us to clarify the nature of Cesarotti's role, somewhere between that of a translator and of a deft stylist looking for a new language for Italy's infant Romanticism. The first part of this dissertation is explanatory, critical and historical, it is followed by thorough appendixes, listing variants and cross-references leading back to the English original texts. The whole makes up a philological apparatus which will be put to use in the forthcoming publication of the Italian and English ossianic texts, side by side.

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