Robert Burns in Global Culture is a collection which breaks new ground in treating Burns' poetry and influence in an international context. Widely recognized as poet of global significance in the nineteenth century, Burns' reputation has suffered from the critical turns in Romanticism since 1945 and is only now beginning to be seen in its proper context. Following on from the celebrations across the world to mark Burns' 250th anniversary in 2009, this collection asks questions concerning the nature of Burns' global influence in the United States, Europe and the Commonwealth, examines the extraordinary ways in which his writing combines a distinctively progressive agenda with deceptively traditional styles, and emplaces his reputation at the heart of questions of American exceptionalism, European democracy, British imperial identities, Italian politics, French literary history, questions of desire and sexuality, the Burns Supper and the extraordinary cult of Burns statues. 'Robert Burns in Global Culture' combines literary criticism, history, cultural theory and comparative literature to create a set of powerful, new and unique directions in the study of this major Romantic poet.

Robert Burns has been a key figure in Scottish identity globally since his death in 1796. But he has always been much more than that. In America, his admirers have included Emerson, President Lincoln, Maya Angelou and many others, for Burns was long held to be a friend to the American way of life, an opponent of kings and tyranny, and someone who proved that the values that built the United States were not extinct in Europe. In Europe itself, Burns was seen as both an authentic voice of the people-a representative of their way of life-and a progressive, informed and radical writer. In the British Empire and later the Commonwealth, he was a symbol of Scottish nationality and sociability abroad. In more recent times he has been seen as a poet of universal brotherhood and sisterhood. It takes a great poet to be all things to all people, and to be interpreted so variously worldwide. One of the extraordinary things about Burns is that while his books were sold globally, while he remains the second most translated Scottish author of all time, and when even the USSR issued a stamp in his honour, the postwar academic world turned away from a poet whom it had previously recognized as a major figure. Burns disappeared from accounts of Romanticism, and such meagre helpings of critical attention as he received were often directed towards his supposed status as a labouring class or dialect poet, a status which is completely at odds with Burns' sophisticated control of register. Robert Burns in Global Culture is an ambitious book. Drawing on the work of leading experts from Scotland, England, North America, France, Germany and Spain, it analyses the reasons for Burns' critical decline, examines the phenomenon of Burns' global influence on areas from Italian politics to American identity, and places Burns' influence, reputation and unique qualites as a poet within a framework of reference which blends rigorous intellectual enquiry into the poet and his poetry with analyses of popular culture, from Burns Suppers to Burns statues. Robert Burns is a writer who incorporates magnificent and memorable poetry with widespread popular recognition at thousands of annual events held in his memory. Such a writer is rare and deserves our full consideration. Popular remembrance and academic amnesia has been the fate of Burns since 1945. If we want to make the humanities relevant-to make the Arts part of every question-we cannot afford academic detachment and neglect from a writer still so relevant to the world outside the academy and to us all, not least in a world where still 'Man's inhumanity to man/Makes countless thousands mourn'. Robert Burns is the great poet of humanity against inhumanity, sympathy against power, love against control. He is Robert Burns in Global Culture.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Global Burns
Chapter 2 Chapter 1: "A Long Farewell to All My Greatness": The History of the Reputation of Robert Burns
Chapter 3 Chapter 2: Robert Burns and the Mind of Europe
Chapter 4 Chapter 3: Burns and European Identities
Chapter 5 Chapter 4: "Nature's Poet" and Socialist Model: The Reception of Robert Burns in Germany
Chapter 6 Chapter 5: Burns in Italy: Giuseppe Chiarini's "Roberto Burns"
Chapter 7 Chapter 6: The Aestheticization of Robert Burns in Nineteenth-Century French Literature
Chapter 8 Chapter 7: Enlightened Religion and Enlightened Sex: Robert Burns and his French Contemporaries
Chapter 9 Chapter 8: "If ever there was a man who felt, it was Burns": Burns and Desire
Chapter 10 Chapter 9: Translating Burns: The Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives
Chapter 11 Chapter 10: "Their Groves o' Sweet Myrtles": Robert Burns and the Scottish Colonial Experience
Chapter 12 Chapter 11: Vehement Celebrations: The Global Celebration of the Burns Supper since 1801
Chapter 13 Chapter 12: Robert Burns, Memorialization, and the "Heart-beatings" of Victorian Scotland
Chapter 14 Chapter 13: "Rules of Art": The Life of Burns on Page and Stage, 1800-1954