Overview

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.

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9781399522625

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Reviews

This is not a book on what writers said Europe was in the sixteenth century. It is, rather, a book about dialogues. Dialogues between Europe and France, between Europeanness and Frenchness. [...] This book might be of particular interest for students and scholars of premodern constructs of Europe, Renaissance geographical thought, and imagined geographies broadly. -- Todd W. Reeser, University of Pittsburgh * French Studies *

Author Information

Niall Oddy is Associate Lecturer at The Open University (UK), where he teaches literature, early modern history and interdisciplinary humanities. His research is concerned with the literary and intellectual history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with a focus on travel and cross-cultural exchange. He has published articles on the history of the word ‘Europe’ and Franco-Ottoman relations.

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