@inbook{ce3dbee56fde4157af1095f2dd3b56da,
title = "From A Drunk Man to Cencrastus: Escaping MacDiarmid{\textquoteright}s Paradox",
abstract = "This chapter offers an innovative solution to the so-called “Scottish paradox” at work Hugh MacDiarmid{\textquoteright}s epic poetry. By providing a fresh philosophical reading of A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926) and To Circumjack Cencrastus (1930), the analysis attributes MacDiarmid{\textquoteright}s intellectual struggle to his dialectical grounding in various strands of German and Russian idealism—a set of influences which the present piece proceeds to criticise. Drawing on contemporary French materialist theory, such a critical approach concludes with a more positive resolution to “Scotland{\textquoteright}s paradox”, charting fresh possibilities for the nation{\textquoteright}s future development, away from MacDiarmid{\textquoteright}s dialectical entrapment.",
keywords = "Hugh MacDiarmid, Scottish Literature, Caledonian Antisyzygy, Scottish nationalism, Russian philosophy, Modernism",
author = "Paul Malgrati",
year = "2026",
month = sep,
day = "17",
doi = "10.1163/9789004762466-008",
language = "English",
isbn = "978-90-04-76245-9",
series = "SCROLL: Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature",
publisher = "Brill",
pages = "121--151",
booktitle = "Hugh MacDiarmid 1923-2023",
address = "Netherlands",
}