Objects of English Colonial Discourse: The Irish and Native Americans

TY - JOUR

T1 - Objects of English Colonial Discourse: The Irish and Native Americans

AU - Harding, David

PY - 2005

Y1 - 2005

N2 - Upon embarking on the colonial project of the First British Empire, it was necessary to develop a discourse of empire. This discourse served the purpose of legitimizing imperial conquest by demonizing peoples targeted for colonization. The demonization was accomplished by caricaturing colonized peoples as uncivilized and pagan. Through this, a veneer of morality could be put on the process of colonization. It is argued in the paper that the discourse that English employed when colonizing Native America had first been established in Ireland during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.

AB - Upon embarking on the colonial project of the First British Empire, it was necessary to develop a discourse of empire. This discourse served the purpose of legitimizing imperial conquest by demonizing peoples targeted for colonization. The demonization was accomplished by caricaturing colonized peoples as uncivilized and pagan. Through this, a veneer of morality could be put on the process of colonization. It is argued in the paper that the discourse that English employed when colonizing Native America had first been established in Ireland during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1602-124X

VL - 4

SP - 37

EP - 60

JO - Nordic Irish Studies

JF - Nordic Irish Studies

ER -