Title: The arts of empire
First published: 1998
Description: 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.
Subjects: Politics and literature, Criticism and interpretation, Political and social views, History, English literature, History and criticism, Race in literature, Colonies in literature, Imperialism in literature, Imperialisme, Koloniën, Discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful empire of Guiana (Raleigh, Walter, Sir), Kolonialismus, Literatur, Colonies dans la littérature, Impérialisme dans la littérature, Othello (Shakespeare, William), Geschichte 1500-1700, Race dans la littérature, Letterkunde, Early modern, Histoire, Histoire et critique, Engels, Politique et littérature, Geschichte 1547-1688, Pensée politique et sociale, Littérature anglaise, Spenser, edmund, 1552?-1599, Raleigh, walter, sir, 1552?-1618, Donne, john, 1572-1631, Shakespeare, william, 1564-1616, English literature, history and criticism, early modern, 1500-1700
Places: Great Britain
People: Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599), John Donne (1572-1631), John Milton (1608-1674), William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Walter Raleigh Sir (1552?-1618)
Time periods: Early modern, 1500-1700, 17th century, 16th century