Research Catalog

Title

The arts of empire : the poetics of colonialism from Ralegh to Milton / Walter S.H. Lim.

Author

Lim, Walter S. H., 1959-

Publication

Newark : University of Delaware Press ; London : Associated University Presses, ©1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

275 pages; 24 cm

Summary

• 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.
• 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

• Raleigh, Walter, Sir, 1552?-1618
• Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 > Criticism and interpretation
• Milton, John, 1608-1674 > Criticism and interpretation
• Donne, John, 1572-1631 > Criticism and interpretation
• Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
• Donne, John, 1572-1631
• Milton, John, 1608-1674
• Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599
• Discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful empire of Guiana (Raleigh, Walter, Sir)
• Othello (Shakespeare, William)
• 1500-1700
• English literature > Early modern, 1500-1700 > History and criticism
• Imperialism in literature
• Politics and literature > Great Britain > History > 16th century
• Politics and literature > Great Britain > History > 17th century
• Colonies in literature
• Race in literature
• Politics and literature > Great Britain > History
• English literature > Early modern
• Politics and literature
• Literatur
• Kolonialismus Motiv
• Kolonialismus
• Letterkunde
• Engels
• Imperialisme
• Koloniën
• Geschichte 1500-1700
• Geschichte 1547-1688
• Great Britain
• Englisch

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

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

Contents

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.

ISBN

• 0874136415
• 9780874136418

LCCN

97039171

OCLC

• ocm37902326
• 37902326
• SCSB-14508620

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library