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Fiction against History: Scott as Storyteller
Paperback / softback
Main Details
| Title |
Fiction against History: Scott as Storyteller
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| Authors and Contributors |
By (author) James Kerr
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| Physical Properties |
| Format:Paperback / softback | | Pages:156 | | Dimensions(mm): Height 215,Width 138 |
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| Category/Genre | Literary studies - c 1800 to c 1900
Literary studies - fiction, novelists and prose writers |
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| ISBN/Barcode |
9780521033565
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| Classifications | Dewey:823.7 |
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| Audience | | Tertiary Education (US: College) | | Professional & Vocational | |
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| Illustrations |
Worked examples or Exercises
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Publishing Details |
| Publisher |
Cambridge University Press
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| Imprint |
Cambridge University Press
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| Publication Date |
1 February 2007 |
| Publication Country |
United Kingdom
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Description
Walter Scott was acutely conscious of the fictionality of his historical novels. In this 1989 book, James Kerr reads the Waverley novels as a grand fictional project constructed around the relationship between the language of fiction and historical reality. We can see throughout Scott's novels a tension between the romancer, recasting the events of the past in accordance with recognizably literary logics, and the historian, presenting an accurate account of the past. This contradiction, reflected in Scott's generic mixture of romance and realism, remains unresolved, even in the most self-conscious of his works. It is in this interplay of fiction and history that Professor Kerr identifies the rich complexity of the Waverley novels.
Reviews'A complex and original interpretation of the novels ... Kerr conducts some intense and scrupulous reading of Scott's texts, honoring their imaginative richness while exposing their unexpressed ideological commitments. He brings to bear on Scott a sound critical intelligence.' George Levine, Rutgers University
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