Abstract
Relates James Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760) and other Ossianic poems to evolving Scottish networks of commerce and communication, especially commercial telegraphy and the postal system, and posits associations also with comments in Adam Smith's Lectures on Jurisprudence and Theory of Moral Sentiments, to suggest that Macpherson's remediation of oral poetry asserted ideas of authorial identity and readership as "relays" in a new imperial network.
Recommended Citation
Gidal, Eric
(2016)
"Ossianic Telegraphy: Bardic Networks and Imperial Relays,"
Studies in Scottish Literature:
Vol. 41:
Iss.
1, 129–142.
Available at:
https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol41/iss1/13