Language and Conquest in Early Modern Ireland
Language and Conquest in Early Modern Ireland
The Elizabethan conquest of Ireland sparked off two linguistic events of enduring importance. It initiated the language shift from Irish to English, which constitutes the great drama of Irish cultural history, and it marked the beginnings of English linguistic expansion. In Language and Conquest in Early Modern Ireland, Patricia Palmer explores the part which language played in shaping colonial ideology and English national identity. The book is an ambitious, comparative study which will interest literary and political historians.
- This is first book of its kind to explore the origins of English linguistic colonisation in Ireland
- The book shows how the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland set a pattern of linguistic colonisation that shaped the future direction of English imperial language policy
- The book offers a comparative perspective, by setting English linguistic colonisation in the context of Spanish expansion in the New World
Reviews & endorsements
"A significant contribution to literary history and to the history of imperialism." Bibliotheque d'Humanisme & Renaissance
"Palmer has hit upon a massively important set of analogies and makes a most persuasive argument for Ireland being the forge in which English expansion was first hammered out." Studies in English Literature
"Impressive." Renaissance Quarterly
"A uniformly interesting book..." History
Product details
October 2009Paperback
9780521120333
268 pages
229 × 152 × 15 mm
0.4kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1. Conquest, colonial ideologies and the consequences for language
- 2. 'A bad dream with no sound': the representation of Irish in the text of the Elizabethan conquest
- 3. 'Wilde speech': Elizabethan evaluations of Irish
- 4. 'Translating this kingdom of the new': English linguistic nationalism and Anglicization policy in Ireland
- 5. New world, new incomprehension: patterns of change and continuity in the English encounter with native languages from Munster to Manoa
- 6. The clamorous silence
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- Bibliography.
