The Romance of Italy and the English Imagination - Italy, the English Middle Class and Imaging the Nation in the Nineteenth Century (Hardcover, 1998 ed.)

In blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction, diplomats and travelers, English nation and Italian nation, Maura O'Connor shows us the extent to which imagination, pleasure, and politics were intimately interwoven in her story of the English middle-class fascination with the Italian peninsula from the early 1800s through the 1860s. O’Connor uses a variety of sources, ranging from travel writings and the popular press to diplomatic dispatches and official correspondence, to illustrate how influential the romance of Italy was to the bourgeois, liberal, and above all English social order during a time when class society was undergoing reconfiguration. Her use of the collective imagination as a crucial historical tool, and her emphasis on narrative as a means not only to read texts but also to understand political sources such as diplomatic documents as reflections of culture, make this a groundbreaking book which defies conventional categorization. Also included are the unique assertions that the concepts of Englishness and "England" were conceived in anything but isolation, and that neither high politics nor foreign policy may be viewed as domains separate from the forces of cultural imagination and production. A Political Romance is an innovative and interdisciplinary look at English identity and the role of Italy in its construction.

General

Imprint:	Palgrave Macmillan
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	October 1998
First published:	1998
Authors:	Maura O'Connor
Dimensions:	216 x 140 x 23mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards / With dust jacket
Pages:	246
Edition:	1998 ed.
ISBN-13:	978-0-312-21086-1
Categories:	Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Cultural studies > General Books > Humanities > History > British & Irish history > General Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > General Books > History > British & Irish history > General Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history
LSN:	0-312-21086-8
Barcode:	9780312210861

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