Walter Scott et l’Écosse Pittoresque, sublime et grotesque, des modes esthétiques pour une politique de l'Union

Through his novels, Walter Scott made a significant contribution to the consolidation of the British nation. But the Waverley novels embrace both a sizable period between the end of the fourteenth and the end of the eighteenth century and a diversity in language use and customs that characterizes the region of Scotland; can one consequently speak of a unified representation of Scotland? The task of these stories is therefore to help the reader become sensitive to a clash of civilizations and prepare him or her to accept the changes brought about by the inevitable advent of modernity.