司各特《蓋伊‧曼爾寧》與高地清地運動: 從吉普賽人的遭遇對照蘇格蘭高地人的苦難哀歌

Many Walter Scott's works are historical novels. However, Guy Mannering, the focus of this paper, is among the few of Scott's novels that deal with contemporary social issues. A main episode of the novel concerns the expulsion of gypsies whose leader is Meg Merrilies. The novel reflects on the widespread displacement of the agricultural poor particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the name of improvement. In the Highlands of Scotland those events are now well remembered as the ＂Highland Clearances.＂ This process was viewed as the inexorable progress of the society, which not only altered traditional social structures but also threatened the perceived core values of Scottish society. It is this paper's intention to reveal the significance of Meg Merrilies, who gives voice to those who are subject to the hegemony of the ruling classes. Embodying the subaltern in society, Merrilies' story is highly suggestive of colonial deeds at home and abroad although she is often regarded as having a mere subordinate role in this novel. Guy Mannering records the trauma that rural Scotland suffered from agricultural improvement. This history is an essential and pertinent episode to those who intend to study the modern history and literature of Scotland.