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Article: Scott and the scene of explanation: framing contextuality in 'The Bride of Lammermoor.' (Sir Walter Scott) (The Romantic Novel)
- Article from:
- Studies in the Novel
- Article date:
- June 22, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 University of North Texas. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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No issue in the field of Romanticism over the last fifteen years or so, the period of the so-called rehistoricization of literary studies, has been more exercised than the question of contextuality. The most heated debates have had to do with poetry, foremost among other genres, and the working assumption has been that Romantic poems have provided insufficiently powerful, subtle, or relevant means for contextualizing themselves. The case needs some revision even in this form, since a complex and compelling account of a relation to historical circumstances is more explicitly on offer in some poetic texts than we have allowed. It is especially hard to maintain such a view, ...