The Dialectics of Orientalism in Early Modern Europe

Uniting twelve original studies by scholars of early modern history, literature, and the arts, this collection is the first that foregrounds the dialectical quality of early modern Orientalism by taking a broad interdisciplinary perspective. Dialectics of Orientalism demonstrates how texts and images of the sixteenth and seventeenth century from across Europe and the New World are better understood as part of a dynamic and transformative orientalist discourse rather than a manifestation of the supposed dichotomy between the 'East' and the 'West.' The volume's central claim is that early modern orientalist discourses are fundamentally open, self-critical, and creative. Analyzing a varied corpus-from German and Dutch travelogues to Spanish humanist treaties, French essays, Flemish paintings, and English diaries-this collection thus breathes fresh air into the critique of Orientalism and provides productive new perspectives for the study of east-west and indeed globalized exchanges in the early modern world.

Brings together an international group of scholars from the fields of history, literature, and the arts.

Introduction.- Part I. ORIENTALIST EPISTEMOLOGIES.- "A Captive Library between Morocco and Spain" (Oumelbanine Zhiri).- "Political Pragmatism, Humanist Ideals, and Early Modern Orientalism in Busbecq's Turkish Letters" (Kaya ¿ahin).- "Competing Forms of Knowledge in Adam Olearius's Orientalische Reise (1647)" (Aigi Heero and Maris Saagpakk).- Part II. EMPIRE AND ITS ORIENTS.- "The Discourse on the Chinese and Muslim Worlds in the Hispanic Empire (New Spain and Castile, 1550-1650)" (José L. Gasch-Tomás and Natalia Maillard Álvarez).- "Mapping Islam in the Philippines: Moro Anxieties of the Spanish Empire in the Pacific" (Ana María Rodríguez-Rodríguez).- "The Invention of Europe and the Intellectual Struggle for Political Imagination: Spanish Humanism on the Ottomans" (Natalio Ohanna).- Part III. ORIENTALISM AND THE IDEA OF EUROPE.- "Europe, France, and the Ottoman Empire in the Essais: Montaigne's Dialectics" (Marcus Keller).- "Mehmed II and His Woman: The Idea of Europe in Early Modern Representations of a Female Captive" (David Moberly).- "Was There a Pan-European Orientalism? Icelandic and Flemish Perspectives on Captivity in Muslim North Africa (1628-1656)" (Toby Wikström).- Part IV. VISUAL DIALECTICS.- "Christian of Ottoman Europe in Sixteenth-Century Costume Books" (Robyn D. Radway).- "Amazon Battle and the Seventeenth-Century Antwerp Painting Canon" (Lisa Rosenthal).- "The Architectural Setting of 'Empire': the English Experience of Ottoman Spectacle in the Late Seventeenth Century and Its Consequences" (Lydia M. Soo)