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.

Reviews & endorsements

"The strength of this study is that it foregrounds a very lively and extremely compelling dialectic at the core of early modern British imperialism and shows how this pressure percolates up into literature of the period."
- Peter Kanelos, University of San Diego, Renaissance Quarterly

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Product details

• Date Published: September 2009
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521120142
• length: 248 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 152 x 14 mm
• weight: 0.37kg
• availability: Available