Law and Empire in English Renaissance Literature
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:24th Sep '09
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
A study of the role literature played in the formation of the legal justification for imperialism.
Early modern literature played a key role in the formation of the legal justification for imperialism. In this insightful and ambitious study, Brian Lockey analyses how such authors as Shakespeare, Spenser and Sidney helped develop new legal discourses, and uncovers new contexts for the genre of romance.Early modern literature played a key role in the formation of the legal justification for imperialism. As the English colonial enterprise developed, the existing legal tradition of common law no longer solved the moral dilemmas of the new world order, in which England had become, instead of a victim of Catholic enemies, an aggressive force with its own overseas territories. Writers of romance fiction employed narrative strategies in order to resolve this difficulty and, in the process, provided a legal basis for English imperialism. Brian Lockey analyses works by such authors as Shakespeare, Spenser and Sidney in the light of these legal discourses, and uncovers new contexts for the genre of romance. Scholars of early modern literature, as well as those interested in the history of law as the British Empire emerged, will learn much from this insightful and ambitious study.
Review of the hardback: 'Lockey's book remains a rich and emphatic advertisement for the accompanying benefits of taking an expansive view of romance that looks beyond purely literary questions to consider national politics and attitudes to laws and regimes.' Dalhousie Review
ISBN: 9780521120142
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 14mm
Weight: 370g
248 pages