Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border as focus for Literary, Musical, Historical, Critical and Cultural Analysis

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Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border is a complex work which not only presents about a hundred poems and songs but which also elaborates the background to the ballad narratives in extended essays on history and fairy tradition, popular literature and the modus operandi of contemporary authors who contributed ballad imitations.This diversity offers a challenge which can be satisfactorily met only by mounting a full - scale re-examination of the Minstrelsy and its context. The editor, Sigrid Rieuwerts, and her associates, will aim to bring the results of recent ballad scholarship and current insights on literacy, morality and cultural memory to bear on the contents of the work, and also to illuminate the cultural milieu in which the "ballads in print" and "ballads as sung" had their life. This edition will therefore include ballad tunes wherever possible and evaluate both parts of a double tradition - the literary and antiquarian ferment that surrounded Scott's creative genius and the cultural memory that transmitted the ballads from generation to generation. Special consideration will be given to the impact of the Minstrelsy in Germany through the study of its reception and translation during Scott's lifetime. We also aim to create a user-friendly website, containing visual images, audio files of ballad performances, contextual discussion and commentary. Our 21st-century approach to Scott's Minstrelsy will not only secure the first historical critical edition of one of the key texts in Scottish literature but will also lay the foundation for future use in media and education.