Abstract
A close textual reading of three Scottish Gaelic song-poems (two pro and one contra emigration) composed/written in the 1880s in the Canadian North-West and the province of Mantioba and published as part of the then on-going debate regarding the merits of late-nineteenth-century, post-Clearances, emigration from the Scottish Highlands to the Canadian prairies. By paying especial attention to the use of language and the tropes of immigration/displacement, the author examines the nature of this transposed Gaelic 'flyting, taken on from the tradition of Scots song 'makers' and their acts of polemical, mutual dispargement, and its use in the vibrant debate in the Canadian Gaelic communities regarding emigration. Unlike the Maritime provinces of Canada and their diasporic 'Gaidhealtachd', the Western Canadian prairies and their various Gaelic-speaking communities, including their literary (usually song-poems) productions have not been studied nearly as widely or minutely.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | "What Countrey's This? And Whither Are We Gone" |
| Editors | J. Derrick McClure, Karoline Szatek-Tudor, Rosa E. Penna |
| Place of Publication | Newcastle Upon Tyne |
| Publisher | Cambridge Scholars Publishing |
| Pages | 162-184 |
| ISBN (Print) | (10):1-4438-2484-4 |
| Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - Aug 2010 |
Keywords
- Scottish Gaelic
- pro and contra emigration
- flyting
- Canadian prairies
- Canadian Pacific Railways
- Homestead Act
