Synopsis:
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.
Review:
Review from previous edition Hadfield's . . . scholarly and informed 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. (Times Literary Supplement)
an ambitious and nuanced treatment . . . In his rewarding book Hadfield shows us just how "multiple" the intellectual and political "contexts" for early modern travel were and consistently juxtaposes those contexts with travel accounts in a way that brings their importance home. . . . Hadfield is especially good at sketching in the intellectual background that these travellers brought with them and in bringing out the republican overtones of their accounts. (Sixteenth Century Journal)
This important and timely book brings a new expansiveness and sophistication to its field. (Shakespeare Quarterly)
The ideas raised . . . are both interesting and challenging - and not infrequently radical in their questioning of received thinking. . . . an especially important contribution to the interpretation of Renaissance travel writing and concepts of place . . . Hadfield's sheer range of primary references provides a secure foundation for his empirical investigations. (Notes and Queries)
Hadfield's study is important both for the special focus he brings to this area and for the breadth of its research. . . . both forceful and productive . . . Hadfield effectively calls for us to reconsider some texts, writers and genres to which we have not devoted sufficient critical attention. (Sixteenth Century Journal)
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