« Le royaume voisin d’Angleterre » : l’Angleterre, l’Écosse et la Seconde Guerre mondiale dans l’œuvre politique et poétique de Douglas Young (1913-1973)

Abstract

Douglas Young was one of the key figures of the “second wave” of Hugh MacDiarmid’s “Scottish Literary Renaissance”, yet he is one of the most overlooked. Now, work is under way to collect Young’s poems and translations into a definitive edition. The themes of Scottish independence and self-government were pursued throughout Young’s life and work. During World War Two, he turned his refusal of military and industrial conscription into a platform for expressing nationalist arguments in favor of an independent Scotland.This paper looks at Young’s vision of a post-war independent Scotland as articulated in his poetry, and with reference to his letters and pamphlets of the era. The aim of looking at these poems is to explore Young’s relationship with the “adjacent kingdom of England” as an entity of malevolent otherness used to further his nationalist commitment for independence. Young’s vision was not without its problems, and this article looks at what Gavin Bowd has called Scottish nationalism’s willingness to “downplay the threat of fascism” in confronting the “auld enemy” of England.