Language and Conquest in Early Modern Ireland: English Renaissance Literature and Elizabethan Imperial Expansion

by Patricia Palmer

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521793186
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/20/2001
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.79(d)
Lexile:	1380L (what's this?)

About the Author

Patricia Palmer is a lecturer in the Renaissance School in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York.

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.

Editorial Reviews

"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

From the Publisher