eBook

Literature, travel, and colonial writing in the English Renaissance, 1545-1625

Hadfield, Andrew

1998,2007,1999

Overview

What was the purpose of representing foreign lands for writers in the English Renaissance? This book argues that writers often used their works as vehicles to reflect on the state of contemporary English politics, particularly their own lack of representation in public institutions. Sometimes such analyses took the form of displaced allegories, whereby writers contrasted the advantages enjoyed, or disadvantages suffered, by foreign subjects with the political conditions of Tudor and Stuart England. Elsewhere, more often in explicitly colonial writings, authors meditated on the problems of government when faced with the possibly violent creation of a new society. If Venice was commonly held up as a beacon of republican liberty which England would do well to imitate, the fear of tyrannical Catholic Spain was ever present—inspiring and haunting much of the colonial literature from 1580 onwards. This book examines fictional and non-fictional writings, illustrating both the close connections between the two made by early modern readers and the problems involved in the usual assumption that we can make sense of the past with the categories available to us. The book explores representations of Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Far East, selecting pertinent examples rather than attempting to embrace a total coverage. It also offers fresh readings of Shakespeare, Marlowe, More, Lyly, Hakluyt, Harriot, Nashe, and others.

• Publisher: Clarendon Press,Oxford University Press,Oxford University Press, Incorporated
• Subject: 16th century / 17th century / British / British -- Travel -- Foreign countries -- History -- 16th century / British -- Travel -- Foreign countries -- History -- 17th century / Colonies / Colonies in literature / Early modern, 1500-1700 / English literature / English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism / English literature -- Great Britain -- Colonies -- History and criticism / Foreign countries / Foreign countries in literature / Great Britain / History / History and criticism / Imperialism in literature / Literary Studies (British and Irish) / Literary Studies (Early Modern) / Literary Studies (Travel Literature) / Politics and literature / Politics and literature -- Great Britain -- History / Renaissance -- England / Travel / Travel in literature / Travelers' writings, English / Travelers' writings, English -- History and criticism
• ISBN: 9780198184805, 0198184808, 0199233659, 9780199233656