This is a past event
The Department of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh is delighted to host the Twelfth International Walter Scott Conference, welcoming University of Aberdeen Professor Alison Lumsden for a plenary lecture.
In 1971 scholars gathered in Edinburgh to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Walter Scott’s birth and in doing so opened the modern era of Scott criticism. Twenty years later the Scott community again met in Edinburgh at a conference which marked a pivotal moment in Scott studies encapsulating a turn towards theory. As we meet in Edinburgh in 2021 to celebrate Scott’s 250th anniversary this paper will reflect on the ways in which approaches to his work have developed over the past fifty years. It will explore how Scott studies has helped reveal an author who is as relevant today as he was in his own times and will consider the directions in which the field might continue to evolve as literary studies generally and Romantic studies more particularly confront the urgent concerns we face today.
This is the first Jane Millgate Memorial Lecture, dedicated to the memory of the great British-Canadian literary critic and Scott scholar, who died in 2019. We are grateful to the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club for their help in arranging this event.
About the Speaker
Alison Lumsden is Regius Chair of English Literature at the University of Aberdeen, where she also directs the Walter Scott Research Centre. She was a general editor of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels and is now the lead editor of the Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry. She acts as Honorary Librarian for the Faculty of Advocates Abbotsford Collection Trust and is a Trustee for the Abbotsford Trust.
- Speaker
- Professor Alison Lumsden
- Hosted by
- The University of Edinburgh