Daniel Defoe and the Representation of Personal Identity

by Christopher Borsing

2016 · Taylor & Francis

The concept of a personal identity was a contentious issue in the early eighteenth century. John Locke’s philosophical discussion of personal identity in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding fostered a public debate upon the status of an immortal Christian soul. This book argues that Defoe, like many of this age, had religious difficulties with Locke’s empiricist analysis of human identity. In particular, it examines how Defoe explores competitive individualism as a social threat while also demonstrating the literary and psychological fiction of any concept of a separated, lone identity. This foreshadows Michel Foucault’s assertion that the idea of man is ‘a recent invention, a figure not yet two centuries old, a new wrinkle in our knowledge’. The monograph’s engagement with Defoe’s destabilization of any definition or image of personal identity across a wide range of genres – including satire, political propaganda, history, conduct literature, travel narrative, spiritual autobiography, piracy and history, economic and scientific literature, rogue biography, scandalous and secret history, dystopian documentary, science fiction and apparition narrative - is an important and original contribution to the literary and cultural understanding of the early eighteenth century as it interrogates and challenges modern presumptions of individual identity.

Catholics Writing the Nation in Early Modern Britain and Ireland

by Christopher Highley

2008 · Oxford University Press

After the accession of the Protestant Elizabeth, the Catholic imagining of England was mainly the project of the exiles who had left their homeland in search of religious toleration and foreign assistance."--BOOK JACKET.

Defend the Realm

by Christopher Andrew

2009 · Vintage

For over 100 years, the agents of MI5 have defended Britain against enemy subversion. Their work has remained shrouded in secrecy—until now. This first-ever authorized account reveals the British Security Service as never before: its inner workings, its clandestine operations, its failures and its triumphs.

Shakespeare, Spenser, and the Crisis in Ireland

by Christopher Highley

1997 · Cambridge University Press

Ireland is increasingly recognized as a crucial element in early modern British literary and political history. Christopher Highley's book explores the most serious crisis the Elizabethan regime faced: its attempts to subdue and colonize the native Irish. Through a range of literary representations from Shakespeare and Spenser, and contemporaries like John Hooker, John Derricke, George Peele and Thomas Churchyard he shows how these writers produced a complex discourse about Ireland that cannot be reduced to a simple ethnic opposition. This book challenges traditional views about the impact of Spenser's experience in Ireland on his cultural identity, while also arguing that the interaction between English and Ireland is a powerful and provocative subtext in the work of Shakespeare and his fellow dramatists. Highley argues that the confrontation between an English imperial presence and a Gaelic 'other' was a profound factor in the definition of an English poetic self.

Twenty Three Plus Seven Equals Thirty

by Christopher J. Thorpe

2013 · Xlibris Corporation

William is an inquisitive man who by mistake came across an internet site which exposes him to a whole new world he never knew existed. You will follow his amazing journey and with imagination he hopes may even make you feel like you are with him taking the journey yourself. His three experiences he will tell you about, well William thinks anyway, represent true life but may shock and surprise you and have certainly changed him forever there is no doubt about that. It opened his mind and imagination and changed his views but at times it's been challenging, worrying and did bring him many sleepless nights.