월터 스콧의 『롭 로이』가 그리는 역사적 대전환

Abstract

This paper tries to take a closer look at the great historical transfor mation from pre-capitalist traditional society to modern commercial one in Walter Scotts Rob Roy. The novel faithfully describes the plight of Scottish Highlanders under the ruthless logic of capitalist commerce. Scott devotes himself to giving a realistic picture of desperate struggles of Highlanders that Rob Roy and his band represent, but tries little to gloss over the historically inevitable downfall of the Highland clan societies. We can hardly find literary works more vivid and sympathetic than Rob Roy in depicting contemporary Scottish commoners, except those of radical Romantic poets. At the same time, Scott succeeds in forging unheard-of Scottish identity that will address the advent of modernity and also contribute to the British identity to integrate the whole Great Britain since the Union of 1707, a new identity that the love and marriage of Diana Vernon and Frank Osbaldistone symbolizes. This new national identity is far from illusory or deceptive as critics of nationalism often say, though it is obviously an invented one.