Copy the page URI to the clipboard
Oddy, Niall (2024). Writing Europe in Renaissance France: Travels in Reality and Imagination. Edinburgh Critical Studies in Renaissance Culture. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.
URL: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-writing-...
Abstract
Offers a national approach to the issue of Europe as a geographical, political, cultural and ideological signifier during the Renaissance
• Original study of the interplay between discourses of Europe and nationhood in sixteenth and early-seventeenth century France
• The focus on France offers a unique national angle on the history of the idea of Europe
• The focus on Europe offers new interpretations of the literature, history and geography of Renaissance France
• Examines texts across a wide range of text types (literature, travel, geography, history, politics) to demonstrate the roles played by genre in shaping constructions of Europe
• Highlights how representations of Europe were inflected by real and imagined journeys to Brazil, Constantinople, Malta and Geneva
In this original study, Niall Oddy explores representations of Europe in sixteenth and early-seventeenth century French writing to argue that Europe as an idea evolved in productive dialogue with emerging national consciousness, not as an alternative to the nation state. Analysing literary texts alongside works of travel, geography, history and politics, this book demonstrates how ideas of Europe were shaped by real and imagined journeys across the globe and adapted across a range of discursive contexts for varied purposes. Using the notion of ‘imagined geography’ to present a conceptual map of what Europe looked like from different points across the globe, each chapter examines representations of the continent through the lens of one location (Brazil, Constantinople, Malta, Geneva). In a period of great intellectual transformation, as new interactions with cultures overseas reshaped how the wider world was understood, this focus on nationhood uncovers how, as the idea of ‘Europe’ developed, it emerged as a contested notion and an issue of debate.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
