Scott Lyall
Scott Lyall

Dr Scott Lyall

Associate Professor

Biography

Scott Lyall is Associate Professor of Modern and Scottish Literature. After completing his PhD at the University of St Andrews, he was postdoctoral researcher in the Centre for Irish–Scottish Studies at Trinity College Dublin. He joined the English group at Edinburgh Napier University in 2009. He is currently the university’s representative on the executive committee of the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities, as well as vice-convenor of the academic committee of Edinburgh Napier’s Doctoral College and convenor of the Doctoral College examination board.

Dr Lyall is a literary and cultural historian whose main research areas are modernism and literary revivals. Much of his work concerns the interwar renaissance in Scottish literature, on which he has published extensively and been interviewed on TV and radio. He is the author of Hugh MacDiarmid's Poetry and Politics of Place, and editor of The Edinburgh Companion to Hugh MacDiarmid, The International Companion to Lewis Grassic Gibbon, and Community in Modern Scottish Literature. A co-edited volume, The Scottish Literary and Cultural Revival, 1880s–1950s, is forthcoming from Edinburgh University Press. Co-editor of Scottish Literary Review, Dr Lyall serves on the publications committee of the Association for Scottish Literature and on the executive committee of the International Association for the Study of Scottish Literatures.

Dr Lyall has supervised several PhD projects and welcomes applications and enquiries from prospective research students, especially in his primary areas of research expertise: modern Scottish literature, small-nation modernism, and movements of cultural revival.

Research Areas

Date


96 results

'A "vigilance society for Scottish culture": The Saltire Society and the Scottish Literary Renaissance'.

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Lyall, S. (2025, March)
'A "vigilance society for Scottish culture": The Saltire Society and the Scottish Literary Renaissance'. Presented at The History of the Saltire Society, The Saltire Society, Edinburgh, UK

Scottish Scene and the ‘Condition of Scotland’ Question

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Lyall, S. (2025, February)
Scottish Scene and the ‘Condition of Scotland’ Question. Presented at 'For I Will Give You The Morning Star': A Celebration of the Life and Work of Lewis Grassic Gibbon, The Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh

“The matter of Scotland”: Gray and MacDiarmid

Book Chapter
Lyall, S. “The matter of Scotland”: Gray and MacDiarmid. In The Edinburgh Companion to Alasdair Gray. Edinburgh University Press

)
Lyall, S. “The matter of Scotland”: Gray and MacDiarmid. In The Edinburgh Companion to Alasdair Gray. Edinburgh University Press
This chapter charts the influence on Alasdair Gray’s work of the poet and propogandist for Scottish Renaissance Hugh MacDiarmid’s writings and cultural politics. It analyses t...

Studies in Scottish Literature - Special Issue: Hugh MacDiarmid at 100: Essays on the anniversary of his first publication

Other
(2024)
Studies in Scottish Literature - Special Issue: Hugh MacDiarmid at 100: Essays on the anniversary of his first publication. [Web and Print]
Special Issue editor

To ‘Irradiate the Common’: Nan Shepherd and the Scottish Literary Renaissance

Book Chapter
Lyall, S. To ‘Irradiate the Common’: Nan Shepherd and the Scottish Literary Renaissance. In Nan Shepherd: New Critical Essays. Edinburgh University Press

)
Lyall, S. To ‘Irradiate the Common’: Nan Shepherd and the Scottish Literary Renaissance. In Nan Shepherd: New Critical Essays. Edinburgh University Press
The Scottish Literary Renaissance is one of the main contexts for understanding Nan Shepherd’s work. As her correspondence shows, Shepherd was friends with many of the renaiss...

Occult Revival: Lewis Spence’s Weird Renaissance

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Lyall, S. (2024, July)
Occult Revival: Lewis Spence’s Weird Renaissance. Paper presented at The World Congress of Scottish Literatures, University of Nottingham, England
This paper suggest that Lewis Spence’s work – or some of it: specifically, some of his poetry in Scots – evokes the sense of 'The Weird' as defined by Mark Fisher; that is, as...

The Health of the Nation: Critical Pathologies of the Long Scottish Revival

Book Chapter
Lyall, S. The Health of the Nation: Critical Pathologies of the Long Scottish Revival. In The Scottish Literary and Cultural Revival, 1880s–1950s. Edinburgh University Press

)
Lyall, S. The Health of the Nation: Critical Pathologies of the Long Scottish Revival. In The Scottish Literary and Cultural Revival, 1880s–1950s. Edinburgh University Press
This chapter examines the way critics of Scottish literary culture have tended historically to read revival as a sign of the cultural health or ill-health of the nation, conse...

Encyclopaedia entry: J. B. Salmond

Book Chapter
Lyall, S. (in press)
Encyclopaedia entry: J. B. Salmond. In Wiley Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Scottish Literature. Wiley

Encyclopaedia entry: Christine Orr

Book Chapter
Lyall, S. (in press)
Encyclopaedia entry: Christine Orr. In Wiley Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Scottish Literature. Wiley

Encyclopaedia entry: William Soutar

Book Chapter
Lyall, S. (in press)
Encyclopaedia entry: William Soutar. In Wiley Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Scottish Literature. Wiley

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellowship: Irish Higher Education Authority-funded postdoctoral research fellowship in English in the Centre for Irish-Scottish Studies, 23,000 Euros, Trinity College Dublin, Oct.2004−Oct. 2005.
  • Research Grant: The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, fully-funded PhD award, £30,000, University of St Andrews, Oct. 2000−Sept. 2003.

Current Post Grad projects

Previous Post Grad projects