Sir walter scott (1771-1832)

Junto a otras culturas 
Tarea 
For many critics, defence of Scott subsumes a defence of a national culture against the attacks of 
Englishness.Discuss.
En otros códigos 
Some of Scott's finest works, like Ivanhoe, were inspired by the romance of the Middle Ages, and 
were themselves a key factor in the 19h-century Romantic revival of chivalric ideals.
One of Sir Walter Scott's lesser known literary works is an article on chivalry he wrote for the 
Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1818 (you can still find it there), one year before the publication of 
Ivanhoe. He was regarded as an authority on the subject because of the vast store of antiquarian 
knowledge he had built up from stuying the ancient ballads of Scotland.
During the Age of Enllightenment citizens strove to free themselves from superstition and 
championed the cause of human reason. The ideals of chivalry seemed ridiculous. Historians of 
the time began to study medieval documents with scientific curiosity. However, it was the very 
distance and mystery of the Middle Ages which appealed to the Romantics.
Tarea 
Scott's home, Abbotsford, reflects this love of history and initiated the style called Scots Baronial 
that became all the rage in mid-19th century Scotland. Look in the following Internet Pages, The 
Scottish Book Trust at www.scottishbooktrust.com/ and in Walter Scott Digital Archive at 
Edinburgh University www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/. Trace the characteristics of the style known 
as Scots Baronial. In what sense are these buildings Neo-Gothic? Another Neo-Gothic building is 
Horace Walpole's castle, Strawberry Hill, where he wrote his Castle of Otranto, one of the first a 
most famous Gothic novels. Search internet for information of Walpole and on his castle. Why do 
these buildings become important symbols in Romantic narrative? Remember the Neo-Platonic 
influence and the house as symbol of the body (sometimes considered a prison) dualistically 
separated from the soul.