Transnational Articulations in James Macpherson’s Poems of Ossian and The History and Management of the East-India Company

Abstract

This essay brings a transnational approach to bear on the work of one of the most influential—and controversial—figures of eighteenth-century British literature: the Scottish writer, James Macpherson. Although he is known primarily for his eclectic and influential “translations” from the Gaelic, Macpherson in fact went on to publish numerous histories and political works, many of which provided commentary on British imperial projects ranging from the American colonies to the East India Company. A transnational reading of Macpherson requires, among other things, reintegrating the various parts of his oeuvre, examining the post-Ossianic productions centered on British imperial locations in relation to the earlier poetry whose focus was on the British Isles. This essay begins that by putting The Poems of Ossian into dialogue with a later work, The History and Management of the East India Company. Using these two texts, the essay demonstrates the way in which the relationship between Scotland and Britain represented in Macpherson’s work is inflected by global events, and conversely, it considers how his representation of global events is colored by his awareness of the peculiar role of Scotland within the consolidating British nation-state.