Against „others‟ feet‟: Reassessing Nationalism in Sidney and Spenser

The critical tradition positions Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser among the pioneers of the nationalisticmovement in Early Modern England. From a historical point of view, this has been the result of the promotion ofBritishness by 19th and 20th century literary critics through their construction of national poets in the literarycanon. Yet, the idea of nation in the Early Modern Period was a multi-layered phenomenon in which religion,sectarianism, race, geography, and social rank were of significance. International and intranational relationshipscould be felt on a daily basis on the streets of the relatively cosmopolitan London that was populated by theEnglish, the Dutch, and the French, which were further divided into Protestants, Catholics, Puritans, and manymore groups in the 16th century. What is more, intellectual discussions about the promotion of the Englishtongue on literary and non-literary levels were far from the homogeny which our present understanding of nationalismimplies. Rather, literary and non-literary intellectual discussions were the result of the negotiations ofimitation, translation, appropriation, and experimentation. Hence, nationalism should be re-historicised from its19th and 20th century concepts to the 16th century to understand to what extent Sidney and Spenser were proudof and promoted their national identities in their works. Accordingly, this article will attempt to discuss nationalismin Sidney and Spenser‟s works with a primary focus on their poetry.