Bridging cultures and languages: towards the creation of a hybrid identity in Walter Scott's "Waverley"

• Autores: Montserrat Martínez García
• Localización: Proceedings of the 30th International AEDEAN Conference: [electronic resource] / María Losada Friend (ed. lit.), Pilar Ron Vaz (ed. lit.), Sonia Hernández Santano (ed. lit.), Jorge Casanova García (ed. lit.), 2007, ISBN 978-84-96826-31-1
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The ideology derived from the French revolution forged throughout Europe an alliance among historical, national and literary discourses, pursuing the formation of a homeland identity. The historical novel became the leading means in linking such disciplines and in imagining a fixed identity. However, there is a contradiction between the creed put forward by nineteenth century political institutions, literary history and criticism, responsible for mainstreaming a biased reading of the historical narrative and for reading the nation as a unity, and the reality depicted in Walter Scott´s texts. This paper will show that Waverley constitutes an anthropological research of identity, viewed from a pluricultural and plurilingual angle. With the rising of 1745 as a background, a critical period in the consolidation of an invariable national consciousness, and the journey as a device for intercultural encounters, Scott creates a hybrid identity, challenging the prevailing principles: those of a monocultural and monolingual nation.