Scott's Seers: Predicting the Future in the Works of Walter Scott

Although predicting the future in Walter Scott’s work is part of his ongoing fascination with the supernatural, it also serves to position the implied reader as a key stakeholder in the narrative-formation process. The first half of the chapter considers the ambivalent presentation of the supernatural in Scott’s ballads, poems, novels, and short stories. It argues that the techniques Scott employs to undermine the power of the supernatural allow the reader to experience different perspectives simultaneously. The second half of the chapter focuses particularly on supernatural predictions as an element and a reflection of the process of reading, showing that for the reader, times collapse onto one another, which, once again, puts the reader at the forefront of written text.