Awards

• Winner of Awarded the 2014 Roland H. Bainton Book Prize in Literature by the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference 2021
• Winner of Awarded the 2014 Roland H. Bainton Book Prize in Literature by the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference.
• Winner of MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures 2014
• Winner of MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures 2014.
• Winner of Winner of the 2014 MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies 2021
• Winner of Winner of the 2014 MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies.

Overview

Through literary and historical documents from the early sixteenth to late seventeenth centuries-epic poetry, private correspondence, secular dramas, and colonial legislation-Carmen Nocentelli charts the Western fascination with the eros of ""India,"" as the vast coastal stretch from the Gulf of Aden to the South China Sea was often called. If Asia was thought of as a place of sexual deviance and perversion, she demonstrates, it was also a space where colonial authorities actively encouraged the formation of interracial households, even through the forcible conscription of native brides. In her comparative analysis of Dutch, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish texts, Nocentelli shows how sexual behaviors and erotic desires quickly came to define the limits within which Europeans represented not only Asia but also themselves. Drawing on a wide range of European sources on polygamy, practices of male genital modification, and the allegedly excessive libido of native women, Empires of Love emphasizes the overlapping and mutually transformative construction of race and sexuality during Europe's early overseas expansion, arguing that the encounter with Asia contributed to the development of Western racial discourse while also shaping European ideals of marriage, erotic reciprocity, and monogamous affection.

Full Product Details

9780812244830

Table of Contents

Reviews

Compelling and filled with rich textual and historical details, Empires of Love will alter the ways we read the cross-cultural and domestic production of both race and desire. * Emily Bartels, Rutgers University * Carmen Nocentelli's book makes important contributions to the multiple fields it embraces, from colonial studies to gender politics to comparative literature. Scholars working in all of the national traditions presented in Empires of Love will find much to think about. * Josiah Blackmore, University of Toronto *

Compelling and filled with rich textual and historical details, Empire of Love will alter the ways we read the cross-cultural and domestic production of both race and desire. -Emily Bartels, Rutgers University Carmen Nocentelli's book makes important contributions to the multiple fields it embraces, from colonial studies to gender politics to comparative literature. Scholars working in all of the national traditions presented in Empires of Love will find much to think about. -Josiah Blackmore, University of Toronto

Compelling and filled with rich textual and historical details, Empires of Love will alter the ways we read the cross-cultural and domestic production of both race and desire. -Emily Bartels, Rutgers University Carmen Nocentelli's book makes important contributions to the multiple fields it embraces, from colonial studies to gender politics to comparative literature. Scholars working in all of the national traditions presented in Empires of Love will find much to think about. -Josiah Blackmore, University of Toronto

""Compelling and filled with rich textual and historical details, Empires of Love will alter the ways we read the cross-cultural and domestic production of both race and desire."" (Emily Bartels, Rutgers University) ""Carmen Nocentelli's book makes important contributions to the multiple fields it embraces, from colonial studies to gender politics to comparative literature. Scholars working in all of the national traditions presented in Empires of Love will find much to think about."" (Josiah Blackmore, University of Toronto)

Author Information

Carmen Nocentelli is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of New Mexico.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available