Scottish Universities' International Summer School Reading List
The following books constitute the core texts, which form the basis of the academic work of the 2013 School. Students are strongly advised to read as many of the texts as possible before arriving in Edinburgh as time will be limited once the program is underway.
Notes: Students need not purchase copies of the volumes of poetry - poems will be distributed by tutors in seminars.
This list reflects the 2013 SUISS curriculum. Reading lists are subject to change from year to year.
Students may take any course below, or may elect to take the following combination of courses:
- Option 1: Modernism and Scottish Literature
- Option 2: Modernism, Scottish Literature and Contemporary Literature
- Option 3: Scottish Literature and Contemporary Literature
- Option 4: Modernism and Creative Literature
top
Term I: Modernism (2.5 credits)
- John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps
- Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
- T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland
- E. M. Forster, A Passage to India
- Aldous Huxley, A Brave New World
- James Joyce, Dubliners
- George Orwell, 1984
- Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight
- Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
- W. B. Yeats, Purgatory and selected poetry; suggested edition W. B. Yeats: The Major Works [Edward Larrisy, ed.])
top
Term II: Scottish Literature (2.5 credits)
- Gregory Burke, Black Watch
- Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song
- Alasdair Gray, Poor Things
- James Kelman, Greyhound for Breakfast
- A.L. Kennedy, What Becomes
- Liz Lochhead, Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off
- Hugh MacDiarmid, Selected Poetry
- John McGrath, The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil
- Edwin Morgan, New Selected Poetry
- Donny O’Rourke [Ed.], Dream State: The New Scottish Poets
- Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Driver's Seat
- James Robertson, The Testament of Gideon Mack
- Alan Warner, Morvern Callar
top
Term III: Contemporary Literature (2.5 credits)
- Samuel Beckett, Endgame and selected works
- Angela Carter, Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
- Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
- Sarah Kane, Blasted
- Jackie Kay, Trumpet
- Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia
- Don Paterson and Charles Simic [Eds.], New British Poetry
- Ali Smith, There But For The
- Colm Tóibín, The Blackwater Lightship
- Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry 2002-2011
top
Creative Writing (3 credits)
Students attending the Creative Writing course are strongly recommended to read as many of the Contemporary Literature texts are possible, in particular the novels, before coming to Edinburgh, as they will also be attending Contemporary Literature lectures. While this preparatory reading is essential, Creative Writing students are not required to bring these texts with them to Scotland.
top