Synopsis
Ireland is increasingly recognized as a crucial element in early modern British literary and political history. Christopher Highley's book explores the most serious crisis the Elizabethan regime faced: its attempts to subdue and colonize the native Irish. Through a range of literary representations from Shakespeare and Spenser, and contemporaries like John Hooker, John Derricke, George Peele and Thomas Churchyard he shows how these writers produced a complex discourse about Ireland that cannot be reduced to a simple ethnic opposition. This book challenges traditional views about the impact of Spenser's experience in Ireland on his cultural identity, while also arguing that the interaction between English and Ireland is a powerful and provocative subtext in the work of Shakespeare and his fellow dramatists. Highley argues that the confrontation between an English imperial presence and a Gaelic 'other' was a profound factor in the definition of an English poetic self.

First Sentence
By the late 1590s, Joseph Hall's satirical portrait of the young English gentleman, down on his luck and seeking refuge in Ireland, was something of a commonplace. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
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• Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Literary Studies > 16th to 18th Centuries
• Poetry, Drama & Criticism > Shakespeare, William > Criticism & Study Aids
• Study Books > Undergraduate & Postgraduate > Arts & Humanities > Literature & Drama > Drama > Criticism

Literary studies: 16th to 18th centuries
English
British Isles
16th century
British
Early modern, 1500-1700
English literature
English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
Historical drama, English
Histories
History
History and criticism
Ireland
Knowledge
Literary Criticism
Literature
Literature - Classics / Criticism
Shakespeare, William
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
Spenser, Edmund
Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599


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