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Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) was once a household name, but is now largely forgotten. This book explores how Scott's work became an all-pervasive point of reference for cultural memory and collective identity in the nineteenth century, and why it no longer has this role. Ann Rigney breaks new ground in memory studies and the study of literary reception by examining the dynamics of cultural memory and the 'social life' of literary texts across several generations and multiple media. She pays attention to the remediation of the Waverley novels as they travelled into painting, the theatre, and material culture, as well as to the role of 'Scott' as a memory site in the public sphere for a century after his death. Using a wide range of examples and supported by many illustrations, Rigney demonstrates how remembering Scott's work helped shape national and transnational identities up to World War I, and contributed to the emergence of the idea of an English-speaking world encompassing Scotland, the British Empire, and the United States. Scott's work forged a potent alliance between memory, literature, and identity that was eminently suited to modernization. His legacy continues in the widespread belief that engaging with the past is a condition for transcending it.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1: Portable Monuments
- 2: Procreativity: Remediation and Rob Roy
- 3: Re-scripting Ivanhoe
- 4: Re-enacting Ivanhoe
- 5: Locating Memory: Abbotsford
- 6: Commemorating Scott: 'That Imperial Man'
- 7: How Long Was Immortality?
- Epilogue: Cultural Memory, Cultural Amnesia
- Notes
- References
- Index
About the author
Ann Rigney was born in Dublin, educated at University College Dublin and the University of Toronto, and is currently professor of Comparative Literature at Utrecht University. She was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences in 2005. She has published widely in the field of cultural memory, philosophy of history, and nineteenth-century historiography. Her books include The Rhetoric of Historical Representation: Three Narrative Histories of the French Revolution (Cambridge UP, 1990) and Imperfect Histories: The Elusive Past and the Legacy of Romantic Historicism (Cornell UP, 2011).
Summary
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), once an immensely popular writer, is now largely forgotten. This book explores how works like Waverley, Ivanhoe, and Rob Roy percolated into all aspects of cultural and social life in the nineteenth century, and how his work continues to resonate into the present day even if Scott is no longer widely read.
Additional text
This is an outstanding book which deftly shows the limitations of insistent disciplinary overreliance on text at the expense of considering its mediations. ... Rigney's book is full of complex concepts, sharp phrases and original approaches.
Report
[This book shows] that scholarly interest in Scottish literature of this period is both alive and of a very high standard, illustrated by the quality of the writing itself, by the careful, extensive and well-documented notes, and the comprehensive bibliographies. Andrew Monnickendam, European Romantic Review
