‘An Old Friend in a Foreign Land’: Walter Scott, Götz von Berlichingen , and Drama Between Cultures.

Walter Scott’s translations of German plays are largely seen as expressing his interest in medieval themes and the historical individual, and as linguistically deficient works that aided the young man in his artistic development. But his translation ofGötz von Berlichingenshows that Scott emphasizes the commonalities between German and British culture: in foregrounding the influence of Shakespeare on Goethe and drawing analogies between German and British historical customs, Scott points his readers towards the familiarity of the foreign culture. Following in Lessing’s footsteps, Scott uses cultural similarity in dramatic texts to encourage appreciation for another culture and promote the development of his own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]