Living Memory — Nan Shepherd’s Resonance

The multidisciplinary field of memory studies as well as resonance theory are utilised to frame the engagement with mountaineer, literary scholar, teacher and Scottish Literary Renaissance author Nan Shepherd (1893—1981) in this book. Her literary works are re-evaluated and her importance as an author both within and beyond Scottish Modernism is outlined with regards to (national) identities, literary discourses, feminism and nature writing. This dissertation highlights how her modernist and experimental writing challenges established genres and literary conventions by focusing on the joy of being alive. It also shows how resonance as well as identity can be found through nature and community beyond the limitations of the self or gender. It is explored how Shepherd's works can be situated within the context of contemporary environmental and ecocritical as well as ecofeminist concerns. Shepherd's enormous success and influence in the 21st century is discussed and it is shown how literature can bridge the gap between past and present. Nan Shepherd is established as a significant and resonating Scottish author and woman whose memory is as alive as the Cairngorms in The Living Mountain.