Shakespeare and England's Empire, 1780-1800.

This thesis is a study of Shakespeare and imperialism in England between 1780 and 1800. Chapters investigate landscape art and empire in the Boydell gallery, death and imperial subjectivity, gender and form in appropriations of Shakespeare by women artists and writers, caricatures that reference Shakespeare during these years, the use made of Shakespeare by prominent individuals to formulate their identities in the context of empire and the debates on the Quebec Bill in London’s parliament in May 1791. The thesis is primarily concerned to explore how gothic forms and representations were integrated into the history of Britain’s relationship to its empire; to assess the use of Shakespeare in academy painting and in forms such as engraving, graphic satire, relief sculpture and in writing. The study also emphasises affect: fear of imperial identities, the danger of overseas life, terror, nostalgia, affection in connection to the nation and its spaces, the increasingly imperial reach of relations with revolutionary France during these years, and pleasurable diversion in reappropriations of the plays in varying arenas.