Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 275 pages; 24 cm

Summary

1. Focusing on Ireland and the New World - the two central colonial projects of Elizabethan and Stuart England - this book explores the emergings of a colonialist consciousness in the writings and politics of the English Renaissance. It looks at how the literary production of the period engages England's settlement of colonies in the New World and its colonial designs in Ireland by offering multiple perspectives in constant collision and negotiation: White/Black social relations; the politics of the colonization of Ireland; imagings and figurations of overseas expansionism; and the relationship between culture, theology, and colonial expansion.
2. This book focuses its reading of the poetics and politics of colonial expansion in Renaissance England on the lives and writings of such diverse figures as Sir Walter Ralegh, John Donne, Richard Hakluyt, Samuel Purchas, William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, and John Milton. It studies a wide range of texts, including The Discoverie of Guiana, Virginia's Verger, Othello, The Faerie Queene, A View of the Present State of Ireland, Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regained. It also examines the inscription in these writings of themes, motifs, and tropes frequently found in colonial texts: the land as desiring female body and object of desire; the masculinist gaze responding to the exotic; and the experience of the thrilling sensations of wonder.

Subject

1. Raleigh, Walter, Sir, 1552?-1618
2. Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 > Criticism and interpretation
3. Milton, John, 1608-1674 > Criticism and interpretation
4. Donne, John, 1572-1631 > Criticism and interpretation
5. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
6. Donne, John, 1572-1631
7. Milton, John, 1608-1674
8. Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599
9. Discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful empire of Guiana (Raleigh, Walter, Sir)
10. Othello (Shakespeare, William)
11. 1500-1700
12. English literature > Early modern, 1500-1700 > History and criticism
13. Imperialism in literature
14. Politics and literature > Great Britain > History > 16th century
15. Politics and literature > Great Britain > History > 17th century
16. Colonies in literature
17. Race in literature
18. Politics and literature > Great Britain > History
19. English literature > Early modern
20. Politics and literature
21. Literatur
22. Kolonialismus Motiv
23. Kolonialismus
24. Letterkunde
25. Engels
26. Imperialisme
27. Koloniën
28. Geschichte 1500-1700
29. Geschichte 1547-1688
30. Great Britain
31. Englisch

Genre/Form

1. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
2. History.

Contents

1. 1. "To Seeke New Worlds": Ralegh's The Discoverie of Guiana, Subjectivity, and the Politics of Colonial Expansion -- 2. "Let Us Possess One World": John Donne, Rationalizing Theology, and the Discourse of Virginia -- 3. "More Faire Than Black": Othello and the Discourse of Race Relations in Elizabethan England -- 4. Figuring Justice: Imperial Ideology and the Discourse of Colonialism in Book 5 of The Faerie Queene and A View of the Present State of Ireland -- 5. "Space May Produce New Worlds": Theological Imperialism and the Poetics of Colonialism in Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-270) and index.