Walter Scott is confined by his literary and political reputations. He is considered foundational to the novel, but categorized under history or romance, and thus set aside. In Scotland, on the grounds that he purveys a romanticized past, he is thought to have put the nation “outside of history.” This book applies postcolonial and nation theories, ideas of symbolic economies, and the economics of semiotics, to show Scott as an author who deconstructs the categories he invokes to allow for an activist literature. Scott tells not one tale of Scotland, but many; these are located in the past, but ... More

Walter Scott is confined by his literary and political reputations. He is considered foundational to the novel, but categorized under history or romance, and thus set aside. In Scotland, on the grounds that he purveys a romanticized past, he is thought to have put the nation “outside of history.” This book applies postcolonial and nation theories, ideas of symbolic economies, and the economics of semiotics, to show Scott as an author who deconstructs the categories he invokes to allow for an activist literature. Scott tells not one tale of Scotland, but many; these are located in the past, but clash to open a space for the future. Indeed, Scott critiques the ideas of the national tale, teller, and mode of telling to show that national narrative may allow creative and strategic differential play within the nation's idea of itself. The book tracks Scott's developing strategies across the range of his works: novels, poems, letters, pamphlets, prefaces. Major figures include Thomas the Rhymer; texts include Waverley, Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, The Tale of Old Mortality, The Heart of Midlothian, The Fortunes of Nigel, The Talisman, Woodstock, and Castle Dangerous; cultural moments include the banking crisis (Malachi Malagrowther), and King George IV's visit to Edinburgh. Scott privileges ideas of anxiety, contingency, and change in the literary construction of the nation. For this reason, he disturbs Scotland even today as the nation ponders its identity formation through the new Scottish Parliament. Scott's demonstration of how literature can support, reflect, and produce political change makes him relevant in discussions of ongoing identity formation in Scotland and elsewhere.