British literature

British literature is literature from the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The largest part of this literature is written in the English language, but there are also separate literatures in the Welsh language, Scottish Gaelic, Scots and other languages. Northern Ireland is the only part of Ireland still part of the United Kingdom and it possesses literature in English, Ulster Scots and Irish. Irish writers have also played an important part in the development of English-language literature.

Non English language literatures since 1900

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Welsh literature began to reflect the way the Welsh language was increasingly becoming a political symbol. Two important literary nationalists were Saunders Lewis and Kate Roberts.

Related Topics:
Nationalists - Saunders Lewis - Kate Roberts

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In the early 20th century in Scotland, a renaissance in the use of Lowland Scots occurred, its most vocal figure being Hugh MacDiarmid. Other contemporaries were Douglas Young, Sidney Goodsir Smith, Robert Garioch and Robert McLellan. However, the revival was largely limited to verse and other literature.

Related Topics:
Renaissance in the use of Lowland Scots - Hugh MacDiarmid - Douglas Young - Sidney Goodsir Smith - Robert Garioch - Robert McLellan

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The end of the First World War saw a decline in the quantity of poetry published in Jèrriais and Dgèrnésiais in favour of short-story-like newspaper columns in prose, some being collected in book or booklet form - this being a common genre in the Norman mainland. The imported eisteddfod tradition in the Channel Islands encouraged recitation and performance, a tradition that continues today. The German military occupation of the Channel Islands 1940-1945 encouraged increased use of the vernacular languages among those who remained, but the German censorship permitted little original writing to be published. Within the restrictions, Les Chroniques de Jersey, the only surviving French language newspaper in the Islands, republished considerable quantities of older Jèrriais literature for purposes of morale and the assertion of identity. The post-Liberation social changes meant, however, that vernacular literature has never regained the situation it had enjoyed previously.

Related Topics:
Recitation - French language

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Sorley MacLean's work in Scottish Gaelic in the 1930s gave new value to modern literature in that language.

Related Topics:
Sorley MacLean - Scottish Gaelic

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Highly anglicised Lowland Scots is often used in contemporary Scottish fiction, for example, the Edinburgh dialect of Lowland Scots in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. Edwin Morgan is the current Makar (Scottish national poet) and also produces translations of world literature.

Related Topics:
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh - Edwin Morgan - Makar

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Translations are an important feature of the literatures of the regional languages of the islands, for example: Contoyryssyn Ealish ayns Cheer ny Yindyssyn a Manx translation of Alice in Wonderland by Brian Stowell, published in 1990, or the 2004 Scots version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Rab Wilson. Alexander Hutchison has translated the poetry of Catullus into Scots, and in the 1980s Liz Lochhead produced a Scots translation of Tartuffe by Molière. Original literature continues to be promoted by organisations and institutions such as the Eisteddfod or the Mod.

Related Topics:
Regional language - Alice in Wonderland - 1990 - 2004 - Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - Catullus - 1980s - Liz Lochhead - Tartuffe - Molière - Eisteddfod - Mod

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With the recent revival of Cornish there have been newer works written in the language. The bard Pol Hodge is an example of a poet writing in Cornish.

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• Modern literature in Irish