Manchester University Press
1 Scottish revenants
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Abstract
Thomas Percy’s The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, first published in 1765, was a seminal text in English literature. A comprehensive three-volume set of British ballads, it was one of the most significant collections of the century, and its influence was felt on British editors and writers for generations afterwards. The backdrop for this literary endeavour was a culture war in English and Scottish literature which emanated from the Glorious Revolution period in the late seventeenth century and found expression in a variety of texts. At the core of this battle was a struggle for cultural superiority between Scotland and England. Through The Reliques, Percy posited a conception of British literary history which maintained that the English were cultural inheritors of the Goths, a racial grouping which he believed was superior and different to Scotland’s antecedents, the Celts. By advancing this idea, Percy was aiming to defend and consolidate a cultural position that favoured an interpretation of English predominance over other constituent members of the United Kingdom. He also anticipates Gothic literary approaches in his treatment of Scotland as practically a suicidal nation.
Abstract
Thomas Percy’s The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, first published in 1765, was a seminal text in English literature. A comprehensive three-volume set of British ballads, it was one of the most significant collections of the century, and its influence was felt on British editors and writers for generations afterwards. The backdrop for this literary endeavour was a culture war in English and Scottish literature which emanated from the Glorious Revolution period in the late seventeenth century and found expression in a variety of texts. At the core of this battle was a struggle for cultural superiority between Scotland and England. Through The Reliques, Percy posited a conception of British literary history which maintained that the English were cultural inheritors of the Goths, a racial grouping which he believed was superior and different to Scotland’s antecedents, the Celts. By advancing this idea, Percy was aiming to defend and consolidate a cultural position that favoured an interpretation of English predominance over other constituent members of the United Kingdom. He also anticipates Gothic literary approaches in his treatment of Scotland as practically a suicidal nation.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- List of illustrations ix
- Notes on contributors xi
- Series editor’s preface xiv
- Acknowledgements xvi
- Introduction 1
- 1 Scottish revenants 18
- 2 Male and female Werthers 36
- 3 ‘The supposed incipiency of mental disease’ 52
- 4 ‘The body of a self-destroyer’ 66
- 5 ‘To be mistress of her own fate’ 81
- 6 Suicide as justice? 96
- 7 Gothic influences 110
- 8 Better not to have been 124
- 9 Vampire suicide 139
- 10 Under the dying sun 160
- 11 ‘I will abandon this body and take to the air’ 176
- Index 189
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- List of illustrations ix
- Notes on contributors xi
- Series editor’s preface xiv
- Acknowledgements xvi
- Introduction 1
- 1 Scottish revenants 18
- 2 Male and female Werthers 36
- 3 ‘The supposed incipiency of mental disease’ 52
- 4 ‘The body of a self-destroyer’ 66
- 5 ‘To be mistress of her own fate’ 81
- 6 Suicide as justice? 96
- 7 Gothic influences 110
- 8 Better not to have been 124
- 9 Vampire suicide 139
- 10 Under the dying sun 160
- 11 ‘I will abandon this body and take to the air’ 176
- Index 189
