130 Years
Scott and the Northern Lights
On Thursday 14th September 2023 we had a talk by Dr Anna Pilz. She was introduced by our Chairperson, Dr. Lucy Wood.
Anna Pilz is a scholar of Irish and Scottish writing from the late eighteenth- to the early twentieth centuries, specialising in environmental and blue humanities research that explores how place-based writing offers us insights into narratives of environmental change across time. Funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (2020-2022), Pilz began work on a project that investigates a rich archive of Romantic-era travel writing on Ireland’s and Scotland’s Atlantic coasts. As part of that project, she co-edited with Penny Fielding a special issue on ‘Scotland’s Coastal Romanticisms’.
Synopsis: In the summer of 1814, Walter Scott accepted an invitation to join the Commissioners of the Northern Lights thanks to his connection with the lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenson. The Commissioners yacht set sail from Leith harbour and journeyed counter-clockwise around the coast, returning via steamship along the Forth of Clyde to Glasgow. As he braced the waves of Scotland’s coastal waters, he kept a diary that offers not only glimpses into a sensory experience but also insights into the realities of coastal life and environmental change. Following a close reading of parts of Scott’s ‘Vacation 1814’, the talk traces the influences of Scott’s coastal voyage to the late nineteenth century in various cultural productions, including Turner’s painting of “Bell Rock Lighthouse”.
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