Comparative Analysis Within Contemporary Scottish Literature. Building Connections with John Burnside’s Poems Through Two Of His Autobiographies: “A Lie About My Father” And “Waking Up In Toytown”

Abstract

John Burnside is a renowned contemporary Scottish writer who has had a significant impact on ecological and ethical issues. He is a major contributor to the ecopoetics field, and his prose and poetry have explored the 'liminal world' between reality and his concept of 'afterlife' with great imagination. Burnside is a highly acclaimed writer who has won numerous awards and is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of his generation. This dissertation compares two of his autobiographies, "A Lie About My Father" and "Waking Up in Toytown", with his poetic production. The collections of poetry that were analysed include "The Hoop", "Swimming Against The Flood", "The Asylum Dance", "Selected Poems", "The Hunt in The Forest", and "Black Cat Bone". The aim of the analysis is to identify possible connections between the poet's lines and the events described in the two autobiographies. "A Lie About My Father" and "Waking Up in Toytown" are two works that go beyond being simple autobiographies. They also contain the theoretical and seminal conception of the author's writing. The author, who was born in Dunfermline, uses the description of the nature that surrounds him as a means to describe his own feelings and divergent and pragmatic points of view.