Walter Scott on Monarchy: Royal Bodies and the Body Politic

Tara Ghoshal Wallace

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Walter Scott on Monarchy

Royal Bodies and the Body Politic

Tara Ghoshal Wallace

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2025

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About this book

The first focused treatment of Scott’s monarchs in historical context and biopolitical theory

Offers new and comprehensive reading Scott’s representation of monarchs in medieval, early modern, and eighteenth-century contexts
Situates literary criticism in both historical contexts and biopolitical theory
Demonstrates the importance of historiography in Scott’s novelistic practice

This book situates Walter Scott’s novels on monarchy within both their historical contexts and biopolitical theory, particularly regarding the King’s Two Bodies, a notion that, according to Ernst H. Kantorowicz, raises ‘the spectre of an absolutism. . .in an abstract physiological fiction.’ It attends to Scott’s careful calibration of the historical record behind each novel while noting that his reflections on the seismic shifts caused by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era – culminating in The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1827) – informs his representations of monarchy in the novels. While each novel’s consideration of the rights and limitations of royal prerogatives is deeply grounded in its own historical context, Scott’s fiction and the Life demonstrate keen awareness of the nineteenth-century shift to what Michel Foucault calls ‘governmentality’ – that is, the sovereign power’s project to control and protect subjects, often through surveillance, policing, and the strategic exercise of mercy.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	iii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Introduction: The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte: Commencing History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
Part I Crusading Kings
Chapter 1 Ivanhoe: Constructing a National Myth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	27
Chapter 2 The Talisman: The King’s Two Bodies under Stress Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	45
Chapter 3 The Betrothed: Sovereign Power and the Clash of Cultures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	60
Part II Rival Queens
Chapter 4 The Abbot: Romancing the Sovereign Body Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	79
Chapter 5 Kenilworth: Performance and Power in Elizabeth’s England Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	94
Part III Stuart Ways of Ruling
Chapter 6 The Fortunes of Nigel: Ungainly Sovereignty as Saving Grace Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	111
Chapter 7 Peveril of the Peak: Plotting the King’s Two Bodies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	126
Chapter 8 Woodstock: The Once and Future King Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	141
Part IV Hanoverian Mercy
Chapter 9 Waverley: Dynastic Exigencies and Filial Service Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	157
Chapter 10 Redgauntlet: Jacobite Delusions and Hanoverian Hopes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	174
Chapter 11 The Heart of Midlothian: Contesting the Royal Right of Mercy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	189
Conclusion: Anne of Geierstein and the Failure of Royal Ambitions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	206
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	219
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	239

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

February 18, 2025

eBook ISBN:

9781399535830

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

256

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399535830

eBook ISBN: 9781399535830

Keywords for this book

Literary Studies

Audience(s) for this book

For universities and colleges of further and higher education

Walter Scott on Monarchy

Overview

About this book

Topics

Table of contents

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