"A Fitting Offering to the Gaelic Thalia or Melpomene": Ruaraidh Erskine of Mar and Drama in Scottish Gaelic
Abstrakt
This article focuses on Ruaraidh Erskine of Mar (1869-1960), a Scottish Gaelic activist, publisher, critic, and author, and his contributions to Gaelic drama - a genre that has been constantly called for by revivalists, but has so far not gained prominence in Gaelic literature. The chief concern is a series of four articles on the subject that Erskine published in his journal Guth na Bliadhna in the 1910s.
These intriguing texts sum up his opinions on future Gaelic drama and present guidelines for playwrights. A mixture of cosmopolitan open-mindedness, elitism, essentialist views of nationality and culture, organizational practicality and economic shrewdness - expressed in a highly polished, witty style - they present a revealing insight into Erskine's thought and the Gaelic movement in the 1910s, and offer several points of continuing relevance.