Journal article 553 views
'This Prison Where I Live': Ireland Takes Centre Stage
Cahiers Élisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies, Volume: 88, Issue: 1, Pages: 125 - 138
Swansea University Author:
Nicholas Taylor-Collins
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DOI (Published version): 10.7227/CE.88.1.9
Abstract
Although never visibly staged, Ireland plays a critical role in monarchic succession in Shakespeare's histories. Through two complementary offstage phenomena, the ‘spectral’ and the ‘obscene’, this article reveals how Ireland imprisons England. In '2 Henry VI', Ireland's spectral...
| Published in: | Cahiers Élisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies |
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| ISSN: | 2054-4715 |
| Published: |
2015
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa36111 |
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| Abstract: |
Although never visibly staged, Ireland plays a critical role in monarchic succession in Shakespeare's histories. Through two complementary offstage phenomena, the ‘spectral’ and the ‘obscene’, this article reveals how Ireland imprisons England. In '2 Henry VI', Ireland's spectral presence provides York with the ideal space from which to foment rebellion and challenge Henry VI. In 'Richard II', by contrast, Richard heads to Ireland to quell rebellion; however, Richard's trip leads to his enforced abdication. Richard, imprisoned, is caught between an obscene state of exclusion and the spectral world beyond the prison walls: Ireland, crucially, is shown to imprison England's imagination. |
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| Keywords: |
William Shakespeare, Richard II, 2 Henry VI, spectral, obscene, Ireland, England |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Issue: |
1 |
| Start Page: |
125 |
| End Page: |
138 |