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Abstract
This article identifies the book of spells as a key figure in Scottish Romanticism that links Walter Scott's early poetry to the politics of reading. Tracing the trope of the book as both discursive text and magical object through protests against military conscription, the trial of Thomas Muir for sedition, and Scott's narrative poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel, I situate the text between the political violence of the 1790s and the establishing of a new literary culture in early nineteenth-century Edinburgh. Scott's poem both enters and resists this new republic of letters, allowing it to be invaded by forms of radical reading from the previous decade. The magic book of the poem, with its inherent power and mysterious circulation, recalls the function of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man in the prosecution of Muir, and the use of books as political symbols in the militia protests.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 197-223 |
Journal | ELH: English Literary History |
Volume | 81 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 10 Mar 2014 |
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Dive into the research topics of 'Black books: Sedition, circulation, and The Lay of the Last Minstrel'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Activities
- 1 Public Engagement – Festival/Exhibition
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Edinburgh Spy Week
Penny Fielding (Organiser)
6 Apr 2014 → 11 Apr 2014Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Public Engagement – Festival/Exhibition
Profiles
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Penny Fielding
- School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures - Grierson Chair of English Literature
Person: Academic: Research Active