British Identities and English Renaissance Literature

Though British history and identity in the early modern period are intensively researched areas, to date, the role of literature in the construction of ‘Britishness’ is under-examined. In the past, English history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries often overlooked the contribution of Ireland, Scotland and Wales to the formation of the British state. Historians now describe ‘Britain’ as a multiple kingdom, with a long history of conflict. In this volume, a team of leading Renaissance literary critics read a broad range of texts from the period, including plays of Shakespeare, in light of the new British history. Prominent historians respond to the issues raised by the volume. This collection opens up a new kind of literary history and has pressing relevance for discussions of ‘Britishness’ today.

• A first class collection with contributions from established scholars • Covers a highly topical and enduring subject matter • Will interest historians as well as literature scholars

Introduction David Baker and Willy Maley; Part I: 1. Opening the field: British history and \'The British history’: The same old story? Philip Schwyzer; 2. An uncertain union David Baker and Willy Maley; 3. Revising criticism: Ireland and the British model Andrew Murphy; Part II. Contested Peripheries: 4. ‘The lost British lamb’: English Catholic exiles and the problem of Britain Christopher Highley; 5. ‘Making history’: Holinshed’s Irish chronicles, 1577 and 1587 Richard A. McCabe; Part III. British Shakespeare: 6. Henry IV: metatheatrical Britain Matthew Greenfield; 7. Uncertain unions: Welsh leeks in Henry V Patricia Parker; 8. Delving to the root: Cymbeline, Scotland, and the English race Mary Floyd-Wilson; Part IV. Union Questions: 9. Reinventing the matter of Britain: undermining the state in Jacobean masques Jayne Elisabeth Archer and Philippa Berry; 10. Mapping British identities: Speed’s Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine Christopher Ivic; Part V. Britain’s Brave New World: 11. Bruited abroad: John White and Thomas Harriot’s Colonial Representations of Ancient Britain Andrew Hadfield; 12. The Commonwealth of the Word: New England, Old England, and the Praying Indians Linda Gregerson; Part VI. Restoring Britain: 13. Orrery’s Ireland and the British problem, 1641–1679 John Kerrigan; 14. Jacobite literature and national Identities Murray Pittock; Part VII: 15. Historians respond: literature and the new British and Irish histories Jane Ohlmeyer; 16. Text, time, and the pursuit of ‘British Identities’ Derek Hirst.