Sir Walter Scott's "The Antiquary": Cultures, History, Art and Narrative Alliances

Abstract

One of the least known to Russian readers novels of Sir Walter Scott is under analysis. Russian critical thought of Scott does not speak of the novel as it should since The Antiquary (1816) is the novel which demonstrates the movement of the writer's artistic method towards more complex and realistic depiction of characters and circumstances. The authors of the essay analytically concentrate on the talk of the artistic structure of the novel as a wholeness that is characterized by quite harmonious alliances which eliminate various antinomies and dichotomies. The authors argue that the central role in the artistic wholeness of the novel are played by such antinomies as 'historical fact - imaginative (fictitious) fact', 'man as a private individual - man as a social being', 'past - present', 'historical novel - social novel', 'historical novel - novel of manners', 'socio - psychological novel - romance', 'realism - romanticism', 'realistic - gothic', 'dramatic - comic', 'Scottish - English', 'grassroots culture - high culture', etc.; the movement of the narration towards bright resolution of them is revealed in the essay. The authors of the essay also show the role and specificity of ethnographical peculiarities of the Scottish life in the late 1790s as they were seen and narrated by the writer.

В статье анализируется мало известный роман В. Скотта "Антикварий", без обращения к которому, по мнению большинства историков литературы, трудно представить динамику как жанра исторического романа, так и эстетической мысли В. Скотта на пути от романтизированного мировоспроизведения к реалистическому типу письма.