Description: Early modern Europe was obsessed with borders and travel, concepts that appealed and appalled in equal measure. Adopting a broad cultural approach, this collection presents a series of essays dealing with travel in the near east, Venice and Germany, travel writing and texts across Europe, and specific border zones, such as the Irish Pale and the border between Christians and Turks. Through a shared awareness of the way in which travelling and border crossing in the early modern world inevitably raised questions about identity, order and power, the contributors to this volume underline the shifting and uncertain nature of borders and travelling, and offer a fascinating insight into the cultural and social world of early modern Europe.
Review Quotes: 'The collection is a worthy addition to Ashgate's catalog, presenting important and thoughtful scholarship on early modern European crosscultural encounters and deploying the border in useful and sometimes innovative ways... It will be especially useful to those who continue to work with early modern travel and travel writing as well as those interested more generally in early modern cultural studies and questions of difference.' Renaissance Quarterly '[a] rich and challenging collection...' Review of English Studies