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Law and empire in English Renaissance literature / Brian C. Lockey.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Lockey, Brian, 1968- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- English literature--Early modern, 1500-1700--History and criticism.
- English literature.
- Law in literature.
- Renaissance--England.
- Renaissance.
- Imperialism in literature.
- Law and literature--History--16th century.
- Law and literature.
- Law and literature--History--17th century.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (ix, 236 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
- Other Title:
- Law & Empire in English Renaissance Literature
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2006.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- 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.
- Contents:
- Introduction : romance and the ethics of expansion
- Transnational justice and the genre of romance
- Natural law and charitable intervention in Sir Philip Sidney's Old Arcadia
- Natural law and corrupt lawyers : Riche, Roberts, Johnson, and Warner
- Spenser's legalization of the Irish Conquest
- Historical contexts : common law, natural law, civil law
- Roman Conquest and English legal identity in Cymbeline
- Love's justice and the freedom of Brittany in Lady Mary Wroth's Urania, part I
- Conclusion : English law and the early modern romance.
- Notes:
- Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 1-107-16705-1
- 1-280-70348-2
- 0-511-24613-7
- 0-511-24682-X
- 0-511-24467-3
- 0-511-31852-9
- 0-511-48368-6
- 0-511-24542-4
- OCLC:
- 252530503
- Publisher Number:
- 9780521858618
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