Emma Dymock (Celtic MA (Hons) (University of Edinburgh), MSc (University of Edinburgh), PhD (University of Edinburgh))
Tutor
Address
- Street
-
50 George Square
Edinburgh - City
- Post code
- EH8 9LH
Background
Dr Emma Dymock is from Bathgate, West Lothian. She gained a First Class Honours in Celtic at the University of Edinburgh in 2003 and went on to complete an MSc in Celtic and Scottish Studies in 2004. She remained at Edinburgh University to undertake her PhD, under the supervision of Prof William Gillies and Dr Anja Gunderloch. She graduated in 2008 and remained in Celtic and Scottish Studies, tutoring and lecturing on a number of courses, including Celtic Civilisation 1A, Celtic Civilisation 1B, Introduction to Gaelic Language and Culture, Celtic Literature 2B, Postgraduate Research and Study Methods and the 20th Century Gaelic Poetry Honours course. She has also lectured in Scottish Literature.
Her primary research interest is modern Scottish Gaelic poetry; her PhD thesis is entitled 'The Quest for Identity in Sorley MacLean’s "An Cuilithionn": Journeying into Politics and Beyond’ and her research has focussed on the work of Sorley MacLean since her PhD. She has worked with the poet and scholar, Christopher Whyte, in preparing the collected poems of Sorley MacLean, published in 2011, and has also furthered the understanding and teaching of Sorley MacLean’s poetry in schools, with her work with the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. Emma Dymock’s research on 20th century Gaelic poetry has led her to explore the field of 20th century Scottish literature more widely, in particular the Scottish Renaissance poets and writers such as Hugh MacDiarmid, Sydney Goodsir Smith and Douglas Young. The intersections and friendships of the Gaelic and Scots literary figures has resulted in her ongoing editing of the Sorley MacLean-Douglas Young Correspondence. She has also attempted to bring the work of Douglas Young more firmly into focus, beginning with the publication of Naething Dauntit: The Collected Poems of Douglas Young, in 2016. This was the first time his collected poetry had been made available and forms the first in a projected series of publications by Emma Dymock, with Young’s Scots plays and his political writings to come in the future.
Emma Dymock’s other research interests include Scottish Gaelic drama and short stories, and 20th Century Irish poetry. She is particularly interested in modern representations of myth, symbolism and socio-political contexts.
Qualifications
MA (Hons) MSc PhD
Responsibilities & affiliations
Trustee of the Saltire Society
Member of the Education Committee, Association for Scottish Literature
Research summary
Books and Edited Books
Bicket, Linden, Emma Dymock, and Alison M. Jack, eds. Scottish Religious Poetry : From the Sixth Century to the Present : An Anthology. Second edition / edited by Linden Bicket, Emma Dymock, Alison Jack. Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 2024. Print.
Dymock, Emma. Naething Dauntit: The Collected Poems of Douglas Young. Edinburgh: Humming Earth. 2016. Print.
MacGill-Eain, Somhairle, C Whyte, and Emma Dymock. Caoir gheal leumraich/ White leaping flame : collected poems in Gaelic with English translation. Edinburgh: Polygon, 2011. Print.
Dymock, Emma. The Poetry of Sorley Maclean. Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2011. Print.
Dymock, Emma, and Wilson McLeod. Lainnir a’ Bhùirn/ The Gleaming Water: Essays on Modern Gaelic Literature. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic, 2011. Print.
Dymock, Emma, Margery Palmer McCulloch, and Association for Scottish Literary Studies. Scottish and International Modernisms: Relationships and Reconfigurations. Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2011. Print.
Book Chapters
Dymock, Emma. “Situating the Gael in Scottish Landscapes: Self-Identity and Change in Twentieth-Century Gaelic Poetry”. Writing Scottishness: Literature and the Shaping of Scottish National Identities, eds. Ian Brown and Clarisse Godard Desmarest. Scottish Literature International. 2023. Print.
Dymock , Emma. “Skail Winds and Scattered Personalities: The Formation of Identity in Sydney Goodsir Smith’s Early Poetry.” Sydney Goodsir Smith, Poet: Essays on his Life and Work, ed. Richie McCaffery. Leiden: Brill/Rodopi. 2020. 31-45. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “The hidden part of every story: Interpreting Myth in Angus Peter Campbell’s Aibisidh.” Litreachas, Eachdraidh & Cànan: Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 7, eds. Sheila M. Kidd, Thomas Owen Clancy, Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. 2020. 118-132. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “The Sorley MacLean-Douglas Young Correspondence: New Approaches to the Archive.” Ainmeil Thar Cheudan: Presentations to the 2011 Sorley MacLean Conference, eds. Ronald W. Renton and Ian MacDonald. Slèite: Clò Ostaig. 2016. 54-66. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “Speaking for Oneself and Others: Real and Imagined Communities in Gaelic Poetry from the Nineteenth Century to the Present.” Community in Modern Scottish Literature, ed. Scott Lyall. vol. 25. N.p., 2016. 61–81. Print.
Dymock, Emma, Scott Lyall. “The Poetry of Modernity (1870-1950). The International Companion to Scottish Poetry, ed. Carla Sassi. Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literature. 2015. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “Chualas iolach air na sléibhtean: ‘An Cuilithionn’ anns an Roinn Eórpa.”. Sùil air an t-Saoghal: Buaidhean eadar-nàiseanta air sgrìobhadh sa Ghàidhlig, eds. Pàdraig MacAoidh agus Niall O’ Gallagher. Slèite: Clò Ostaig, 2013. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “‘That Cry Alone Will Last’: Scottish and European Perspectives in Sorley MacLean’s An Cuilithionn.” Scottish and International Modernisms: Relationships and Reconfigurations, eds. Emma Dymock and Margery Palmer McCulloch. Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies. 2011. 116-131. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “‘Cas agam anns a’ bhoglaich agus cas air a’ Chuilithionn’: unstable borders in the poetry of Sorley MacLean.” Lainnir a’ Bhùirn – The Gleaming Water eds. Emma Dymock and Wilson McLeod. Edinburgh: Dunedin. 2011. 87-101. Print.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Dymock, Emma. “‘The most exhausting of all ways to make a living’: School teaching and Education in the Life and Work of Sorley MacLean and Iain Crichton Smith.” The Bottle Imp 32 (2023). Web.
Dymock, Emma. “Sorley MacLean and Douglas Young: Poetry and Translations.” Scottish language 37 (2018): 1. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “The Cuillin Rising out of the Wasteland: The Tradition of Quotation in the Poetry of T.S. Eliot, Hugh MacDiarmid and Sorley MacLean.” Litteraria Pragensia: Studies in Literature and Culture. Vol 27. 2017. 4-22. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Code-Switching and Hybridisation in Kevin MacNeil’s The Callanish Stoned.” Scottish language 33 (2014): 51. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “A Gaelic Antisyzygy? Philosophical Idealism and Materialism in the Poetry of Sorley MacLean.” Anglistik: International Journal of Scottish Studies. Vol 23 Issue 2 2012. 61-71.
Dymock, Emma. “Interpreting the Symbol of the Cuillin: The Relationship between Sorley MacLean’s ‘An Cuilithionn’ and his ‘Cuillin praise poem’.” Scottish Gaelic Studies. Vol XXV. University of Aberdeen. 2009. 143-180. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “Sorley MacLean’s ‘Overture’: A Study of Douglas Young’s introduction to ‘An Cuilithionn’.” Aiste: Rannsachadh air Litreachas Gàidhlig. No. 2. 2008. 30-42. Print.
Editor (Scottish Gaelic): This Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies (2018-present, with Kate Mathis).
Reviews
Dymock, Emma. “An Ubhal as Àirde / The Highest Apple: An Anthology of Scottish Gaelic Literature Ed. by Wilson McLeod and Michael Newton (Review).” Scottish literary review 12.2 (2020): 182–184. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “An Leabhar Liath/The Light Blue Book, desaichte le Pàdraig MacAoidh agus Iain S. Mac a’ Phearsain (Review)” Steall 3 (2017): 65-69. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “Gaelic Scotland in the Colonial Imagination: Anglophone Writing from 1600 to 1900 by Silke Stroh (Review).” Scottish literary review 9.2 (2017): 168–170. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “Gu Leòr le Pàdraig MacAoidh (Review)” Steall 1 (2016): 103-105. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “Gael and Lowlander in Scottish Literature: Cross-Currents in Scottish Writing in the Nineteenth Century Ed. by Christopher MacLachlan and Ronald W. Renton (Review).” Scottish literary review 7.2 (2015): 157–159. Print.
Dymock, Emma. “An Introduction to Gaelic Fiction.” (Review) Scottish literary review 2012: 211. Print.