The subject of Britain: 1603-25

Ivic, C (2020) The subject of Britain: 1603-25. Manchester University Press, Manchester. ISBN 9780719088704

(Request more information)
Official URL: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719088...

Abstract

The subject of Britain analyses key seventeenth-century texts by Bacon, Jonson and Shakespeare within the context of the English reign of King James VI and I, whose desire to create a united Britain prompted serious reflection on questions of nationhood. This book traces writing on Britain and Britishness in succession literature, panegyric, Union tracts and treatises, play-texts and atlases. Focusing on texts printed in London and Edinburgh, as well as manuscript material that circulated within and across Britain and Ireland, this book sheds valuable light on texts in relation to the wider geopolitical context that informed their production. Combining literary criticism with political analysis and book history, The subject of Britain offers a fresh approach to a significant moment in British history, and will appeal to postgraduates and undergraduates of early modern British literary history.

Item Type: Book
Note:

Author summary - "How did King James VI and I’s subjects imagine their place within the composite monarchy brought into being by his accession to the English throne? In response to this question, this book reinterprets Jacobean literary and non-literary texts within the context of early seventeenth-century ideas on Britain and Britishness. Central to my project are ideas about nation, state, kingdom, identity, memory and place that were spawned by the dynastic union of 1603, contested during the union debates of 1604-08 and explored in much of the literature of the early seventeenth century."

Keywords: Britain, Britishness, memory, nation, race, cartography, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Divisions: School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities
UoA: English Literature & Language
Date Deposited: 29 Apr 2019 09:25
Last Modified: 01 Apr 2022 15:32
URI / Page ID: https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/12067
Request a change to this item or report an issue Request a change to this item or report an issue
Update item (repository staff only) Update item (repository staff only)