Possible Scotlands
Walter Scott and the Story of Tomorrow
Seiten
2005
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-516967-6 (ISBN)
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-516967-6 (ISBN)
Is Walter Scott to blame for the limitations of modern Scotland? In Possible Scotlands, Caroline McCracken-Flesher argues that Scott used his position as popular author to negotiate a national identity for his homeland. The variety of Scott's tales suggest not a Scotland receding into the past, but one energetically alive in the past and future of its telling.
No thanks to Walter Scott, Scotland has at last regained its parliament. If this statement sounds extreme, it echoes the tone that criticism of Scott and his culture has taken through the twentieth century. Scott is supposed to have provided stories of the past that allowed his country no future--that pushed it "out of history." Scotland has become a place so absorbed in nostalgia that it could not construct a politics for a changing world.
Possible Scotlands disagrees. It argues that the tales Scott told, however romanticized, also provided for a national future. They do not tell the story of a Scotland lost in time and lacking value. Instead they open up a narrative space where the nation is always imaginable. This book reads across Scott's complex characters and plots, his many personae, his interventions in his nation's nineteenth-century politics, to reveal the author as an energetic producer of literary and national culture working to prevent a simple or singular message. Indeed, Scott invites readers into his texts to develop multiple and forward-looking interpretations of a Scotland always in formation. Scott's texts and his nation are alive in their constant retelling. Scott was an author for Scotland's new times
No thanks to Walter Scott, Scotland has at last regained its parliament. If this statement sounds extreme, it echoes the tone that criticism of Scott and his culture has taken through the twentieth century. Scott is supposed to have provided stories of the past that allowed his country no future--that pushed it "out of history." Scotland has become a place so absorbed in nostalgia that it could not construct a politics for a changing world.
Possible Scotlands disagrees. It argues that the tales Scott told, however romanticized, also provided for a national future. They do not tell the story of a Scotland lost in time and lacking value. Instead they open up a narrative space where the nation is always imaginable. This book reads across Scott's complex characters and plots, his many personae, his interventions in his nation's nineteenth-century politics, to reveal the author as an energetic producer of literary and national culture working to prevent a simple or singular message. Indeed, Scott invites readers into his texts to develop multiple and forward-looking interpretations of a Scotland always in formation. Scott's texts and his nation are alive in their constant retelling. Scott was an author for Scotland's new times
Caroline McCracken-Flesher is Professor of English at the University of Wyoming.
1. Introduction: The Problem of Walter Scott Waverly and Guy Mannering ; 2. Circulating Scotlands The Antiquary, The Tale of Old Morality, The Heart of Midlothian ; 3. Chancing Scotland The Fortunes of Nigel and the King's visit ; 4. Performing Other/Wise the Talisman and Woodstock ; 5. Telling Over alachi Malagrowther and Chrystal Chroftangry ; 6. Conclusion: Making Meaning Beyond the Ending Castle Dangerous and Scott's Last Words
Erscheint lt. Verlag | 20.10.2005 |
---|---|
Verlagsort | New York |
Sprache | englisch |
Maße | 161 x 244 mm |
Gewicht | 494 g |
Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik |
Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturgeschichte | |
Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft | |
ISBN-10 | 0-19-516967-0 / 0195169670 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-516967-6 / 9780195169676 |
Zustand | Neuware |
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