The Poetics of English Nationhood, 1590–1612
(Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture, Series Number 13)
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The Poetics of English Nationhood is a study of the formation of English national identity during the early modern period. Claire McEachern shows how the representation of faith, fatherland and crown in Tudor texts continually personified English political institutions. Those texts we traditionally label literary, she argues, already encode and personify power relations, thereby reinforcing the idea of the nation as an imaginary force. McEachern's study revises our understanding of the term "literary" through an examination of Spenser, Shakespeare and Drayton, tracing the means by which an English national identity was inscribed as part of an enduring social order.
"McEachern's Nationhood offers tightly focused analyses and contextual discussions...." -—Arthur Williamson, 16th Century Jrnl
"...fascinating study of the intersections of history and literature.... The poetics of English nationhood, 1590-1612 is an important book. Its readings, bold and imaginative, are informed by an impressive scholarly breadth and by a layering of historical material daunting in its depth. It is...likely to be read by...the most advanced students of the early modern period...." —James C. Bulman, Shakespeare Quarterly
"The Poetics of English Nationhood is a valuable contribution to our as yet rather limited understanding of the complexities of early modern national identity and nationalism....this is an important book..." —Andrew Hadfield, Modern Philology