Literature, Travel, and Colonial Writing in the English Renaissance, 1545-1625 by Andrew Hadfield

Literature, Travel, and Colonial Writing in the English Renaissance, 1545-1625 by Andrew Hadfield

What was the purpose of representing foreign lands for writers in the English Renaissance? This innovative and wide-ranging study 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 stimulating 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. Hadfield explores in his work representations of Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Far East, selecting pertinent examples rather than attempting to embrace a total coverage. He also offers fresh readings of Shakespeare, Marlowe, More, Lyly, Hakluyt, Harriot, Nashe, and others.

scholarly and informed book.. Hadfield's book is an enterprising examination of the intricacies of political comment in Tudor and Stuart times, and he is adept in teasing out the significance of cautious multi-layered narrative. * Philip Edwards, Times Literary Supplement *

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780198184805
ISBN 10	0198184808
Title	Literature, Travel, and Colonial Writing in the English Renaissance, 1545-1625
Author	Andrew Hadfield
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	1998-12-17
Number of pages	320
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.