Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Corbett explores fictional and nonfictional representations of Ireland's relationship with England throughout the nineteenth century. She considers the uses of familial and domestic metaphors in structuring narratives that enact the "union" of England and Ireland. Corbett situates her readings of novels by Edgeworth, Gaskell, and Trollope, and writings by Burke, Engels, and Mill, within the varying historical contexts that shape them. She revises the critical orthodoxies surrounding colonial discourse that currently prevail in Irish and English studies, and offers a fresh perspective on important aspects of Victorian culture.
Download Description
In this book, Mary Jean Corbett explores fictional and non-fictional representations of Ireland's relationship with England throughout the nineteenth century. Through postcolonial and feminist theory, she considers how cross-cultural contact is negotiated through tropes of marriage and family, and demonstrates how familial rhetoric sometimes works to sustain, sometimes to contest the structures of colonial inequality. Analyzing novels by Edgeworth, Owenson, Gaskell, Kingsley, and Trollope, as well as writings by Burke, Carlyle, Engels, Arnold, and Mill, Corbett argues that the colonizing imperative for 'reforming' the Irish in an age of imperial expansion constitutes a largely unrecognized but crucial element in the rhetorical project of English nation-formation. By situating her readings within the varying historical and rhetorical contexts that shape them, she revises the critical orthodoxies surrounding colonial discourse that currently prevail in Irish and English studies, and offers a fresh perspective on important aspects of Victorian culture.
--This text refers to the
Digital
edition.
Allegories of Union in Irish and English Writing, 1790-1870: Politics, History, and the Family from Edgeworth to Arnold,Mary Jean Corbett,Cambridge University Press,0521661323,19th century,English fiction,English prose literature,English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh,General,History,History and criticism,Ireland,Irish Literature,Irish authors,Literary Criticism,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Literature: Classics,Politics and literature,Special Subjects In Literature,British Isles,English,English fiction--Irish authors--History and criticism,Literary Criticism & Collections / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh,Literary studies: 19th century,Novels, other prose & writers: 19th century
Books Info:
Recommended Books