eBook

Allegories of Union in Irish and English Writing, 1790–1870

Corbett, Mary Jean

2000

Overview

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.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: 19th century / England / England -- Relations -- Ireland / English fiction / English fiction -- Irish authors -- History and criticism / English literature / English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism / English prose literature / English prose literature -- Irish authors -- History and criticism / Families in literature / Family in literature / Great Britain / History / History and criticism / Imperialism in literature / In literature / Intellectual life / Ireland / Ireland -- In literature / Ireland -- Intellectual life -- 19th century / Ireland -- Relations -- England / Irish authors / Irish in literature / Literature and history / Literature and history -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century / Literature and history -- Ireland -- History -- 19th century / Nationalism in literature / Politics and literature / Politics and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century / Politics and literature -- Ireland -- History -- 19th century / Relations
• ISBN: 9780521661324, 0521120942, 0521661323, 9780521120944