This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Desire for Perpetuation: Fairy Writing and Re-creation of National Identity in the Narratives of Walter Scott, John Black, James Hogg and Andrew Lang Yuki Yoshino A Thesis Submitted to The University of Edinburgh for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Literature 2013 Abstract This thesis argues that ‘fairy writing’ in the nineteenth-century Scottish literature serves as a peculiar site which accommodates various, often ambiguous and subversive, responses to the processes of constructing new national identities occurring in, and outwith, post-union Scotland. It contends that a pathetic sense of loss, emptiness and absence, together with strong preoccupations with the land, and a desire to perpetuate the nation which has become state-less, commonly underpin the wide variety of fairy writings by Walter Scott, John Black, James Hogg and Andrew Lang. The disappearing fairies and elusive fairy queens who haunt subterranean realms, together with the immaterialised and etherealised homeland, are frequently depicted in the works of fairy writing explored in this study. While they metaphorise the loss of the state, the rightful monarch and the old national identity, they also serve to symbolically, and strategically, immortalise the Scottish nation through mythification and romanticisation within the subliminal textual layers of fairy writing. Choosing four authors in Scottish literature, this thesis explores the spectrum of the wide range of fairy writing created during the long nineteenth century, shedding new light on the contrast, as well as the echoes, between Romantic and Victorian writing. It specifically suggests that fairy narratives by Black and Hogg display ironic self-consciousness of those who were involved in the processes of cultural nation-building in the post-union Britain. This thesis also contends that Scottish fairy writing serves as a problematic site of experimentation where different genres, values and ideas clash and conflict, generating intensified tension, and rarely bringing negotiation without haunting aftertaste. It is contended that genre-mixing is a common methodological feature employed by the four authors, and moreover, that the act of genre-mixing itself is metaphorical of the creation of new and hybrid national identity, which also foregrounds its artificiality, inventedness and internal cracks. This study reassesses a long-forgotten material: The Falls of Clyde (1806) by John Black. It also draws attention to the relatively ‘marginal’ texts by Scott and Hogg, and attempts a radical interpretation of Langian works, arguing that Lang played a significant role in the processes of the diasporic re-imagining of Scottishness which were arguably undertaken outside Scotland by Briticised elites, and are a neglected yet important part of post-Union Scottish nation writing. Drawing on a wide range of texts and paratexts, this study foregrounds a profound complicity in the conceptions of Scotland and national identity inscribed in fairy narratives, perceiving the sub-genre as a site of realism rather than fantasy. Acknowledgement I would sincerely like to thank my supervisor Dr Sarah Dunnigan, whose inspiring supervisions and generosity have enabled me, in many aspects, to continue working on the thesis even through difficult moments. Without her warm encouragements, wide knowledge and insightful advice, this thesis would have remained but an unrealised fantasy. I am deeply grateful to Ms Christianson, whose advice helped me to materialise this project at the earliest stage. Professor Gerard Carruthers, Professor Penny Fielding and Dr Robert Irvine provided illuminating feedbacks during my thesis defence, and helped me deepen the understanding of the poets, novelists and their works explored in the thesis. I wish to express my gratitude towards Professor Ian Campbell for his warm and insightful encouragement. I also appreciate the supports provided by Dr Olga Taxidou and Dr Simon Malpas. Commentaries from Dr William Bell, together with the Edinburgh Book History Seminars, substantially widened my perspective. I was fortunate that I had numerous opportunities to learn from lectures and seminars given by Professor Peter Garside, Professor Harry Dickinson, Dr Emily Lyle and Dr Adam Budd, which were full of intellectual stimuli. I thank the rest of the staff at the University of Edinburgh, and in particular Ms Kate Marshall, Ms Anne Mason and Ms Louise Wilson for their helpful assistance. My gratitude extends toward the late Professor Julia Briggs and the late Professor Susan Manning. I am profoundly indebted to Professor Kazuhisa Takahashi at the University of Tokyo, whose insightful advice and encouragement supported my longest exploration of the rhetoric of fairies. It was in his classes and researches that I first encountered the inexplicable enchantment of literary studies and the richness of Scottish literature. I also wish to express my deep gratitude towards Professors Stephen Clark and George Hughes, for their generous supports and enlightening feedbacks. I am deeply grateful to Professors Hiroshi Ebine, Yoshiyuki Fujikawa, Takaki Hiraishi, Noriko Imanishi, Yoichi Ohashi, Motoyuki Shibata, Masahiko Abe and Nahoko Alvey-Miyamoto for the intellectual stimuli and encouragement they provided me. My sincere thanks also go to Professors Akira Noda, Takashi Akaiwa, Atsuko Oda, Toshihiro Inoue, Noriko Hattori, Seiki Ayano, Etsuko Yoshida, Koji Sugisaki, Osamu Sawada and the staff at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Humanities, Mie University, whose diverse academic pursuits widened my perspective at the final stage of the project. Thanks are also due to Rotary Foundation which provided financial support for the first year of the project. Ms Christina Orr kindly encouraged me throughout my stay in Edinburgh. Rotary Clubs in Galashiels, Selkirk, Linlithgow and Portbello provided opportunities to visit several sites related to this project including Eildon Hills. I also thank the staff of the University of Edinburgh Library, the National Library of Scotland, the City of Edinburgh Library, the British Library, the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the University of Tokyo Library and Mie University Library, for their expert assistance. Finally, my gratitude goes to my parents Yoshihiro and Kazuko Yoshino, and the rest of my family. This thesis is dedicated to my family. Declaration I hereby declare that the thesis has been composed by myself, that the work contained herein is my own except where explicitly stated otherwise in the text, and that the work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Table of Contents Abstract …………………………………………………….…….………………..........ii Acknowledgment……………………………………………….……...……………………..…iii Declaration……………………………………………….……...……………………………..…v List of Abbreviations ….…..……………………………………………………….........1 Volume I Introduction …………………………………………………………………………….4 Part I: The Romantic Period……………………………….………………………...19 Chapter One: Walter Scott ……………………………………….………….………21 1.1 Introduction 1.1.1 Fairies in Scott’s Writing in the Context of Romantic Cultural Nationalism ….21 1.1.2 Reception of Scott’s Elfin Writing beyond Scotland …………………………. 27 1.1.3 ‘My Native Country’ and ‘Our Immortal Shakespeare’: Contradicting National Identities …………………………………………........32 1.1.4 Previous Studies of Fairies in Scott’s Writing …………………………………34 1.1.5 Poet versus Folklorist: the Problem of Authenticity……………………………38 1.2 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802) 1.2.1 Ballad, Antiquarianism and the Literary Invention of Tradition……………….45 1.2.2. Genealogy of Fairies and National Culture: ‘Introduction to the Tale of Tamlane: on the Fairies of Popular Superstition’ ...54 1.2.3. Invention of an Epical Ballad: ‘Thomas the Rhymer’………………………....62 1.3. ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel’ (1805) 1.3.1 Vernacular and Hybrid Epics …………………………………………………..68 1.3.2 Enchanted Landscape and Nationalised Spirits ………………………………..77 1.3.3 Changeling, Transformations and the Sense of Loss: Magical Beings and Problematised National Identity …………………………83 1.3.4 Glamour and Grammarye: Illusions and Disillusions ……………………..…100 1.4 The Monastery (1820): Exorcism of the Fairy as a National Soul 1.4.1 Background, Setting and Sources of Inspiration ………….………………….104 1.4.2 The White Lady ………………………………………………………………114 1.5 Conclusion ………………………………...…………………………………...124 Chapter Two: John Black ………………………………...………………………126 2.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………….126 2.2 The Falls of Clyde as a War of Genres …………………………………………128 2.3 Imagined Beings: Fairies Disenchanted ………………………………………..131 2.4 Changeling, Heir and Transformation: Anxiety of Existence, Problematized