Образ шотландского горца в творчестве Вальтера Скотта

Abstract

The period of the middle of the 18th century and the early 19th century was notable for the extraordinary development of archaeology, antiquarianism explosion and primitivism domination, which contributed significantly to raising the interest in history and culture of Celtic nations; those were seen as indigenous people of the British Isles and were highly idealized. However, within official colonial discourse of the Crown of England the other side of primitivism was inculcated. Namely, they were stereotypically considered as ‘noble savages', who forewent any opportunity for growth. During this time, The Highlands of Scotland still remained a stronghold of wildness and barbarity. In this study the author made an afford, from one hand, to identify and trace how extrinsic ethos of Highlanders has transformed in the estimation of the public on the basis of visual sources of information. On the other hand, comparison of this notion with Walter Scott's Highlanders characters forms a significant part of the research. In the course of thy study the following conclusions were reached: despite the fact that the writer endorsed some of the stereotypes, that were common among Englishmen, he established a romantic and heroic image of a native of the Highlands of Scotland as a symbol of freedom and the personification of Scottish cultural identity.