Abstract
As Humberto Lopes once wrote, "(…) as far as cultural identities are concerned,
frontiers can hardly said to be unsurpassable obstacles." (2003: 21; my translation) This idea is, I believe, a fruitful one when applied to Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), whose début as a novelist we commemorated in 2014; if only because, as David Daiches put it, "Scott was two men: (…) both the prudent Briton and the passionate Scot." (1968: 36). We can only speculate on how he would balance today, were he alive, these two halves of his political citizenship
and view, or react to, the long-standing claims for independence espoused and voiced by the Scottish National Party; claims tested in the September 2014 referendum, two hundred years since the publication of Waverley (1814)
Hardly a coincidence, surely; but that lies beyond the scope and purpose of the present paper. I will simply seek to show how social, political and cultural messages may have filtered into Ivanhoe (1819), Scott’s first published historical novel on the Middle Ages and on a specifically English theme.
frontiers can hardly said to be unsurpassable obstacles." (2003: 21; my translation) This idea is, I believe, a fruitful one when applied to Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), whose début as a novelist we commemorated in 2014; if only because, as David Daiches put it, "Scott was two men: (…) both the prudent Briton and the passionate Scot." (1968: 36). We can only speculate on how he would balance today, were he alive, these two halves of his political citizenship
and view, or react to, the long-standing claims for independence espoused and voiced by the Scottish National Party; claims tested in the September 2014 referendum, two hundred years since the publication of Waverley (1814)
Hardly a coincidence, surely; but that lies beyond the scope and purpose of the present paper. I will simply seek to show how social, political and cultural messages may have filtered into Ivanhoe (1819), Scott’s first published historical novel on the Middle Ages and on a specifically English theme.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 102-120 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Gaudium Sciendi |
Issue number | 10 |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |