'Scattred All to Nought': Feminine Waters, Irish Sources, and Colonialism in Edmund Spenser's River Mulla. (12th September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Druzak, Courtney
• Is Part Of: English. Volume 68:Number 262(2019)
• Page Start: 213
• Page End: 234
• Publication Date: 2019-09-12
• Subjects: English language -- Periodicals; English literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; 820.9
• DOI: 10.1093/english/efz014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-8215

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines Edmund Spenser's use of Irish mythology, particularly in relation to feminized rivers, in order to conceptualize how he constructs English colonialism as necessary for Ireland via the poetically constructed river Mulla. More specifically, it examines 'Colin Clouts Come Home Again' and The Faerie Queen, Book IV, Canto xi through the lenses of ecofeminism and a reading of the medieval Irish text Acallam na Senórach . This article argues for understanding the reappearance of the river Mulla from 'Colin Clouts' to FQ IV.xi as a materialist effort to dominate the place and space of Ireland through writing. It further argues that the Acallam is a potential source text for Spenser's own endeavours with his river Mulla. Specifically, Spenser repurposes place-names and Fenian myths from medieval Ireland in his literature, which acts as another form of colonial domination to subsume Irish identification. It is particularly important that this lens is applied to Irish waterscapes, as the ability to reconstruct Ireland rhetorically and poetically in English literature allowed Spenser to 'map' Ireland and bring even the finicky Irish land- and waterscapes firmly under English control in violently masculine manners, which are enacted via enforced marriages.