Enlarging the Map of Scottish Literary Influence: José Martí and the Cuban Reception

Abstract

This study examines the Scottish component in Cuban literary culture, almost totally unknown in both countries. Specifically, it seeks to trace, document and interpret “Scoto-Cuban” literary transmission across the nineteenth-century. Archival and bibliographic study is complemented by a transmission studies methodology centred on the role of key Cuban intellectuals in receiving, translating, promoting and re-working Scottish literature in the Caribbean. We first establish the historic and literary context that gave rise to Cuba’s reception of Scottish writing, before analysing the specific effect of key figures including Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott, and tracing the “hidden” presence of Scottish influence in canonical Cuban texts. Evidence is presented of the active role of Cuban receptors in promoting Scottish literary production by means of critical works, translations, correspondence and creative writing. Attention is focused on Cuban receptors’ perception of Scottish writers and their work, and the onward transmission of ideas of Scottish nationality and identity in Cuba. José Martí emerges as the most outstanding Scottish-literature receptor in this regard, a Cuban national hero with a special affinity for Scottish writers and cultural iconography. This project remedies a clear oversight in transatlantic literary studies and in the study of Scotland’s international literary heritage. This thesis argues for the inclusion of Cuba on the map of Scotland’s international literary influence, and for the recognition of Scottish writers and Cuban receptors who took part in the Scoto-Cuban literary phenomenon.