(2012) Hospitality, Nation and Empire in Walter Scott's Waverley Novels
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Chiu, Kang-Yen (2012) Hospitality, nation and empire in Walter Scott’s Waverley novels. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3729/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author 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 Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Hospitality, Nation and Empire in Walter Scott’s Waverley Novels Kang-yen Chiu Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Literature School of Critical Studies College of Arts University of Glasgow November 2012 2 Abstract This research is a study of the notion of hospitality in the novels of Sir Walter Scott from a postcolonial perspective. Through the analysis of various acts of hospitality in the Waverley Novels, this thesis intends to examine how the notion of hospitality is represented as one of the most significant, ancient Scottish traditions defended and performed by people who have less power in society, but is abused by those (often the ruling class) who intend to use it as a mechanism to increase their existing power. Therefore, through the analysis of power relations between various host and guest characters, this thesis attempts to demonstrate the ways in which those groups who are under the rule of hegemonic power are constructed as the subaltern, a postcolonial term derived from the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci’s usage in the Prison Notebooks. However, in contrast to the accepted view of subaltern muteness and passivity, this thesis argues that in his novels, Scott not only represents subalterns as individuals but also gives them agency to initiate action in engaging or resisting colonizing power. The subaltern groups of particular interest to this investigation include the Jacobites, the Covenanters, the Scottish Highlanders, socially-underprivileged classes, and the Orientals. This thesis ultimately seeks to demonstrate that, because of their serious concern over the underprivileged, subdued, or alienated identities in history, the Waverley Novels render Scott in this dimension a postcolonial novelist. 3 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Acknowledgements 4 Abbreviations & Author’s Declaration 5 Introduction & Literature Review 6 Chapter One: Theorising Hospitality and the Subaltern in the Waverley Novels 33 Chapter Two: (Re)covering the Self: the Jacobites, the Discourse of Disguise and Hospitality in 68 Redgauntlet Chapter Three: Preserving the Self in the Highlands: Hospitality, Colonialism and Empire in Rob 102 Roy Chapter Four: Fanaticism, Hospitality and Forgiveness in The Tale of Old Mortality and The 147 Heart of Mid-Lothian Chapter Five: Vagrants, Modernization and Hospitality in Guy Mannering and The Antiquary 183 Chapter Six: Orientalism, Hospitality and Empire in The Talisman and ‘The Surgeon’s 228 Daughter’ Conclusion 269 Bibliography 271 4 Acknowledgements I would like to give my first and special thanks to my PhD supervisors, Professor Murray Pittock and Dr Alex Bechimol. They are great in making Walter Scott’s novels such an interesting topic to research. Their careful and effective supervision is significant to the completion of my PhD. I would also like to express my warmest thanks to Coinneach and Jo. Without their most generous support and hospitality, it would be much more difficult for me to finish my study at this stage. Our friendship developed through our mutual interests in Scott and Scotland will be lifelong. Thanks also to Margaret for her kindness to me. Her highland flat was my best ever retreat in Scotland. I will always remember how happy I was in that small village. I have been really lucky to have met and acquainted with so many lovely academics and friends in the past four years through various talks, seminars, reading groups and conferences. I have learned so much from their innovative and groundbreaking researches. The staff of both the School of Critical Studies and the College of Arts of the University of Glasgow are really excellent in providing help to students. They are really nice people. My final thanks must be to my most loving and supportive family. My Scottish grandparents, Bert and Stella, are the beginning of my enduring relationship with Scotland, and they are my reason to choose to come here. Most important of all, they are the embodiment of the time-honoured Scottish virtue, hospitality. This thesis is particularly dedicated to my father, mother, my uncle and sister with thanks and love. Without their unconditional support, this thesis would not have been completed, and I would not have enjoyed so much of my research. 5 Abbreviations & Author’s Declaration Chronicles Chronicles of the Canongate (1827), ed. by Claire Lamont (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001) The Heart The Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818), ed. by David Hewitt and Alison Lumsden (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004) Journal The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, ed. by W. E. K. Anderson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972) Letters The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, ed. by H. J. C. Grierson and others, 12 vols (London: Constable, 1932-37) Old Mortality The Tale of Old Mortality (1816), ed. by Douglas Mack (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993) Poetical Works The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., 12 vols (Edinburgh: Robert Cadell, 1834) Prose Works The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., 28 vols (Edinburgh: Robert Cadell, 1834-36) This thesis follows the latest MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) style (2008), and its spelling is based on the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (2005) as suggested by MHRA Style Guide.1 1 MHRA Style Guide: A Handbook for Authors, Editors, and Writers of Theses, 2nd edn (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2008); New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors: The Essential A-Z Guide to the Written Word (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). 6 Introduction & Literature Review I have the gratification to think I fully supported the hospitality of my country—I walkd them to death—I talkd them to death—I showd them landscapes which the driving rain hardly permitted them to see and told them of feuds about which they cared as little as I do about their next-door news in Piccadilly. Yea I even playd at cards and as I had Charlotte for a partner so ran no risque of being scolded I got on pretty well.1 This quotation, from Walter Scott’s letter to his friend John B. S. Morritt (1772-1843) in 1816, is one of the most illustrative examples depicting Scott’s warm and unreserved hospitality extended to his wife’s old friends, Miss Dumergue and Mrs Sara Nicolson. These words of Scott serve as an opening to the subject of this research—a study of the notion, practice and culture of hospitality in the novels of Walter Scott. Before entering into the discussion of hospitality illustrated in Scott’s writing, it would perhaps be rewarding to look again in more detail at Scott’s own practice of this virtue in his personal life as it would enable us to see more clearly the relationship between Scott and this ancient Scottish tradition. Scott was widely recognized by his contemporaries as a generous and gracious host. The American novelist Washington Irving (1783-1859), who visited Scott in 1816, was deeply touched by the hospitality he was offered, and well remembered the warm reception given by the host: ‘No time was reserved for himself; he seemed as if his only occupation was to entertain me; and yet I was almost an entire stranger to him, one of whom he knew nothing; but an idle book I had written, and which, some years before, had amused him.’2 Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849), the Irish writer who paid a visit to Scott in 1823, noted that the host’s hospitality was given to his ‘guests of all ranks—Prussian princes, Swiss barons, lords and ladies and gentlemen, artists, mechanics, antiquarians, authors—who came 1 Scott to John B. S. Morritt in Letters, IV, 268 (21 August 1816). 2 Washington Irving, Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1835), pp. 88-89. 7 endlessly to his house’. She was greatly surprised by the amount of time Scott spent on the reception of his guests, and curiously asked ‘“WHEN has he time to write”?’ Edgar Johnson, the author of Walter Scott: The Great Unknown (1970), also pointed out that in the same year when Edgeworth visited Scott ‘a stream of visitors that all that summer had been coming to make Scott’s home, as Lady Scott said, a hotel in all but name and pay’.3 John Buchan (1875-1940), who had also produced a famous biography of Scott, similarly noted that Scott’s wife ‘used to accuse him of overwalking, overtalking and overfeeding his guests, and no doubt some who were more used to Mayfair than to the hills may have found their days too strenuous’. 4 Buchan’s words adequately reflect Scott’s own description of his warm reception of his guests that I cited earlier and may well therefore have had much wider currency. Scott’s hospitality was not only extended to his acquaintances but also to those who were complete strangers to him. His generous treatment of Tom Purdie (1767-1829), who first came to Scott’s attention as a poacher but later became his shepherd, may well exemplify Scott’s hospitable nature.5 Because of his enormous hospitality extended to the public, Scott’s private domain was often disturbed by unexpected visitors.