Description
Book SynopsisThis book reinterprets early seventeenth-century texts by situating them within the context of Jacobean writing on Britain and Britishness. Central to its argument are ideas about nationhood, identity and community that were occasioned by the accession of a Scottish king to England's throne, contested during the Anglo-Scottish Union debates.
Trade Review'... An absorbing and timely book.'
Early Modern Literary Studies
‘… With its scrupulous close readings of an array of literary and political texts, including some that are little-known and others that have rarely been considered in this context, The Subject of Britain sheds powerful new light on what Britishness meant or could mean in the early years of the seventeenth century.’
The seventeenth century
'A lively, intelligent work that demonstrates how much more work needs to be done on ideas of Britain and Britishness.'
Andrew Hadfield, Journal of British Studies
'Christopher Ivic’s monograph is a very readable study and a timely corrective to received critical thinking inherited down the generations (and endlessly recycled) concerning Jacobean succession literature.'
Modern Language Review
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Table of ContentsIntroduction: accession, union, nationhood
1 ‘Englands King is comming to be Croun’d’: English responses to the accession of King James VI and I
2 ‘This mighty worke of vnion’: imagining union in early Jacobean panegyric
3 ‘But when this island shall be made Britain’: Hume, Bacon, Britain and Britishness
4 ‘Our downfall Birthdome’: reimagining nationhood in Macbeth
5 Conclusion: the Jacobean writing of Britain
Bibliography
Index
