Spaniards, moors and women in Early Modern English discourses. A critica! Edition of Thomas Dekker's Lust's Dominion (c. 1600)

Abstract

The purpose of the present dissertation is to analyse the representation of Spaniards, Moors and women in early modern English discourses. The main objectives ofthis study are to determine the rhetoric strategies employed for such representations; to establish how the presence of these individuals poses an element of anxiety in early modern England; to demonstrate that not ali the discourses about these subjects are negative (since the attitude towards them depend on political and economic interests); and to support ideas about the importance of alterity in the formation ofWestern identities. Our last objective is to elaborate an original critica! edition of Lust 'sDominion (c. 1600), by Thomas Dekker. With this contribution we seek to offer a relatively unexplored and seldom edited source, which shows how identities take shape during the early modern period together with a growing rejection of (political and "racial") strangers.