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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository English Language and Literature ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 11-13-2017 Devilish Leaders, Demonic Parliaments, and Diabolical Rebels: The olitP ical Devil and Nationalistic Rhetoric from Malmesbury to Milton Karra HK Shimabukuro University of New Mexico Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Shimabukuro, Karra HK. "Devilish Leaders, Demonic Parliaments, and Diabolical Rebels: The oP litical Devil and Nationalistic Rhetoric from Malmesbury to Milton." (2017). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/215 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Language and Literature ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Shimabukuro i Karra Shimabukuro Candidate English Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Anita Obermeier, Chairperson Carmen Nocentelli Yulia Ryzhik Jeffrey Shoulson (outside reader) Shimabukuro ii Devilish Leaders, Demonic Parliaments, and Diabolical Rebels: The Political Devil and Nationalistic Rhetoric from Malmesbury to Milton by Karra Shimabukuro B.F.A. Theatre Arts, East Carolina University M.S. Ed. Adolescent Education- English, The College of Staten Island of the City University of New York M.A. English Literature, Middlebury College DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy English The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December 2017 Shimabukuro iii Dedication For Mom. Always. Shimabukuro iv Acknowledgements I am infinitely grateful for my committee’s kindness and support. Dr. Anita Obermeier for crafting many of my ideas and approaches to studying medieval literature. She always had faith in me and knew exactly how to get me where I needed to go. Dr. Carmen Nocentelli’s ideas about globalization and how to read the untold stories in the early modern period forever changed how I viewed this period and the texts in it. She helped me find my voice and audience for this project. Dr. Yulia Ryzhik assisted me in distinguishing a key argument in the text, the difference between Englishness and Britishness, and how defining both was key to understanding the devil in these works. A special thanks to Dr. Shoulson who saw this project from beginning to end. I am grateful to the support I have received throughout this process including Dr. Will Banks’s initial belief that I could do this at all, my writing group, my online support network, specifically #medievaltwitter, and my fellow grad students who reached out and buoyed me up when needed. Specifically, @jenandjanstwits @lauravarnam @AbsP @LaraDodds @joshua_r_eyler @b_hawk @raulpacheco @SGUYBRAY @JonathanHsy @thanatos_kalos @Lady_Historian @divafancypants @JulianDarius @kelly_j_baker @TheTattooedProf @MedievalPhDemon @TheMedievalDrK @ndiscenza1 @RobertaDMagnani @SLevelt Thanks also need to go to Dana Och, Wickham Clayton, Ross Garner, Robin Gray Nicks, and Linda J. Holland-Toll for introducing me to the academic world early on and supporting me throughout. Shimabukuro v I would not have made it through this process without my mother’s voice in my head, the daily support of Nehi, and regular tattoo visits with Matt. Shimabukuro vi Devilish Leaders, Demonic Parliaments, and Diabolical Rebels: The Political Devil and Nationalistic Rhetoric from Malmesbury to Milton by Karra Shimabukuro B.F.A., Theatre Arts, East Carolina University, 1998 M.S. Ed., Adolescent Education- English, The College of Staten Island of the City University of New York, 2004 M.A., English Literature, Middlebury College, 2010 Ph.D., English, University of New Mexico, 2017 Abstract Throughout its history, England and its writers have created its national identity out of thin air. Some writers such as William of Malmesbury and John Milton have consciously constructed their imagined Englands, while other authors during the medieval and early modern periods are subtler, but whose works reflect the historical and cultural moment, the fears, desires, and anxieties about kingship, tyranny, heirs, and stability, that existed during that time. Little scholarship has focused on the devil’s role in these constructions, his political nature, and how this nature is used in constructing nationalistic arguments. This devil can lead kings, nobles, and clergymen astray, resulting in devilish leadership, as seen in Malmesbury’s Gesta regum Anglorum but devils can be humans who act as devilish leaders, as seen William Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV and Macbeth. Part of the danger of human devils is that they reflect fears that the threat, the devil, could be anyone. Þe Deulis Parlementand Paradise Lostboth feature actual devils, who counter the authority of God and his structures, tempt others with their demonic speech, attempt to create their own demonic structures, and incite rebellion. It is worth noting that while Chapter One focuses on threats to the nation, as does Chapter Four, Shimabukuro vii Chapters Two and Three construct the demonic as the people and structures who counter the power structure and authority of the monarchy, not the collective of the people. Shimabukuro viii Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Abstract .............................................................................................................................. vi Introduction: England’s Political Devil .............................................................................. 1 The Political Devil ....................................................................................................................... 2 Past scholarship .......................................................................................................................... 11 Defining England’s Nationalism ................................................................................................ 16 Methodology and Scope ............................................................................................................ 21 Chapter One: Devilish Leaders and Inspirational Role Models in the Imagined England of William of Malmesbury’s Gesta regum Anglorum .......................................................... 29 Imagined England ...................................................................................................................... 31 Devilish Leadership ................................................................................................................... 40 Table 1: Terms Used to Demonize Figures in Gesta regum Anglorum ................................. 43 Demonic Kings .......................................................................................................................... 44 The Consequences of Devilish Leadership ................................................................................ 49 Weak and Bedeviled Men .......................................................................................................... 51 Devilish Religious Leaders ........................................................................................................ 55 Inspirational Figures and the Restoration of Order .................................................................... 58 Chapter Two: The Democratic Collective as Demonic Parliament in A Song Called Þe Deulis Perlament, OR Parlamentum of Feendis ............................................................... 65 The History of Parliament .......................................................................................................... 67 Table 2: Named English Parliaments 1258-1536................................................................... 72 A History of Infernal Councils .................................................................................................. 73 The Democratic Collective as Demonic .................................................................................... 84 Demonic Creation as Mimesis ................................................................................................... 85 Table 3: Terms Used to Describe Devil and Fallen Devils in Þe Deulis Perlament .............. 87 Only the English Demonize Parliament ..................................................................................... 98 Chapter Three: Diabolical Rebellions in 1 Henry IV and Macbeth............................... 102 Past Scholarship ....................................................................................................................... 109 Rebellion is Diabolic................................................................................................................ 113 How Language and Speech Construct the Demonic ................................................................ 116 Heroes as Mechanism of the Restoration of Monarchial Authority ........................................ 136 Chapter Four: Paradise Lost’s Reformed Devil .............................................................. 141 Shimabukuro ix History of Paradise Lost..........................................................................................................
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