The Byron Journal

Abstract

Building on research recently undertaken as part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Beyond Text project titled 'Robert Burns: Inventing Tradition and Securing Memory, 1796–1909', this essay demonstrates the role played by material culture in preserving and creating the reputation and cultural memory of Burns, then undertakes a comparative study of the role played by a selection of memorabilia in the cultural afterlife of Byron, signalling the way in which this kind of research can be implemented well beyond the study of Burnsiana. Arguing that the evidence points to a provisional contrast between the afterlives of these two particular poets – namely that Burns projected a nation to the world while Byron projected the world to a nation – the essay suggests that much is to be gained more widely from an understanding of the way in which a variety of materials 'beyond text' create and preserve the cultural memory of poets and their works.