Between Spenser and Swift
Subtitle: English writing in seventeenth-century Ireland
By: Deana Rankin.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 294
Subjects: English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism; English literature -- Irish authors -- History and criticism; British -- Ireland -- History -- 17th century; Ireland -- Intellectual life -- 17th century; Ireland -- In literature
Description: "While recent studies of Edmund Spenser and Jonathan Swift have firmly relocated both writers in their Irish as well as their English context, English writing in Ireland between these monolithic figures has largely been neglected. This study is the first to explore in detail the literary territory between Spenser and Swift. Examining a range of texts, from fragments to sophisticated publications such as economic improvement manuals, histories, plays, romances and poems, Deana Rankin demonstrates how writers in Ireland articulated the transition from soldier to settler across this century of war and political turmoil.

She illuminates both centre and periphery by revealing for the first time the richness of English writing in Ireland during the period and its sustained engagement with canonical English literature, including the work of Shakespeare, Sidney and Milton. Historians and literary scholars will find much to discover in this significant new contribution to early modern British studies."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.