Cosmographical Glasses: Geographic Discourse, Gender, and Elizabethan FictionA fresh perspective on Elizabethan fiction In Cosmographical Glasses Constance Relihan examines the ways in which sixteenth-century English texts--traveler's reports, ethnographic studies, and geographic guides--provide the foundation for how fictional prose of the period envisions the locations in which its tales are set. Relihan suggests that this nonfictional discourse becomes central to how the fictional prose of the period imagines cultural identity, fictional purpose, and gender identity. Places and cultures were defined in opposition to each other in early modern romances. In the examples in Cosmographical Glasses, writers attempt to define the spaces of their texts in an effort to identify what it means to be male, English, and Elizabethan. Through these texts, Relihan considers the various ways in which fictional pieces seize the spirit of ethnographic and geographic texts, as well as the ways in which historically identifiable and overtly fictional places were used to complicate representations of utopian fantasies. A number of prose romances and novella collections and their use of historical and geographical facts are analyzed in order to explore the associations between the genre, the discourses of colonialism, and the construction of gender. These texts become "glasses" that reflect and refract the social and cultural realities of early modern England. Those interested in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature, the history of the novel, and the influence of travel literature on fictional texts will appreciate Cosmographical Glasses. |
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... fictional prose of the pe- riod envisions the locations in which its tales are set . Relihan suggests that this nonfictional discourse becomes central to how the fictional prose of the period imagines cultural identity , fictional ...
... Prose Fiction and Early Mod- ern Sexualities in England , 1570–1640 , ed . Constance C. Relihan and Goran V. Stanivu- kovic ( New York : Palgrave Macmillan , 2003 ) , 43–59 . LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING - IN - PUBLICATION DATA ...
... prose fiction . In particular , I would like to thank Goran Stanivukovic , Lori Humphrey Newcomb , Derek Alwes , and Terry Prendergast for reading early portions of this manuscript and providing extremely important e - mail support . I ...
Geographic Discourse, Gender, and Elizabethan Fiction Constance Caroline Relihan. Introduction ETHNOGRAPHIC AND FICTIONAL ... prose fiction , the rock of Auden's poem represents the maternal body — the lived - in de Certeauian " space " that ...
Geographic Discourse, Gender, and Elizabethan Fiction Constance Caroline Relihan. prose fiction writers tried to develop to authorize their tales within ethno- graphic discourse and the threats posed to its identity by the overwhelm ...
Contents
1 | |
The Gendered and Geographic Glasses of the English Novella | 27 |
Full Works to Excellent Geographers | 45 |
Trapalonia Machilenta and the Uses of Fictional Glasses | 69 |
The Ethnographic Function of Latin | 86 |
Conclusion | 108 |
Notes | 113 |
Works Cited | 134 |
Index | 144 |