ENGLISH 635: STUDIES IN RENAISSANCE LITERATURE

Early Modern Travel and Colonization Literature, 1450-1713

Section B1: R 1000-1250

This course is an attempt to discuss the changing identities and geographies of European and other cultures of the early modern period as well as the relation between early modern and postmodern concerns, especially pertaining to the crossing of boundaries and cross-cultural contacts. The class will build on those interests and will be related to the mandate of the Medieval and Early Modern Institute (MEMI) at University of Alberta, which in October 1998 held a conference, Making Contact: Natives, Strangers, and Barbarians. It would be an interesting aspect of the course if we could contribute to MEMI and benefit from its presence on campus. Through a discussion of travel and exploration from 1450 to 1713 (the end of the War of the Spanish Succession or Queen Anne's War as it was known in Britain and its American colonies), the course explores 'English' culture in the context of other European and world cultures. The dream of the riches of China and Japan, the posts in Africa, the expansion in Ireland and the Canary Islands (as preludes to western expansion), the sense of what makes someone within and without that English culture uncivilized, strange, marginal or barbarous to the English polity and imagination are primary topics in this course. Theories of ethnology, barbarity, nationhood, culture, race and gender all inform the texts in question. Representations and theories of stereotyping and scapegoating will be constant concerns throughout the course. Moreover, other questions will be addressed: what is the relation of the colonial to the post-colonial? how does empire change in this period? are fictional texts much different from non-fictional texts in their representation of who belongs and who does not and of other communities away from home? who are the opponents of imperial expansion and what are their motives? does mediation work or is it a way of waiting for conquest or domination? Finally, the course invites each student to develop a paper topic and to help shape the course in a way develops his or her particular theoretical and textual interests in this area.

• Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko and Other Writings. Ed. Paul Salzman. Oxford: OUP, 1994.
• Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647. Intro. Francis Murphy. New York: Modern Library, 1981.
• Cartier, Jacques. The Voyages of Jacques Cartier. Trans. H. P. Biggar. Intro. Ramsey Cook. Toronto: UTP, 1995.
• Cary, Elizabeth. The Tragedy of Mariam, The Fair Queen of Jewry. Ed. B Weller and M.W. Ferguson. Berkeley: U of California P, 1994.
• Columbus, Christopher. The Four Voyages. Trans. J. M. Cohen Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992.
• Elizabeth I. The Letters of Elizabeth I. Greenwood (Backordered-- may have to use library copy)
• Hakluyt, Richard. Voyages and Discoveries: The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Ed. Jack Beeching. Harmondsworth: Penguin 1972.
• Las Casas, Bartolome. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. Trans. N. Griffin. Intro A. Pagden. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992.
• Lunenfeld, Marvin. 1492: Discovery, Invasion, Encounter: Sources and Interpretations. Lexington, MA: DC Heath, 1991. (the closest thing to a text book)
• More, Thomas. Utopia. Ed. G. Logan and R. Adams. Cambridge: CUP, 1989, rpt. 1995.
• Polo, Marco. The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule-Corder Edition. Vols. 1 and 2. New York: Dover, 1992. (Vol. 2 is yet to arrive)
• Ralegh, Walter. The Discoverie of Guyana. Walter J. Johnson (out of print -- will have to use library copy).
• Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Ed. Stephen Orgel. Oxford: OUP, 1987, rpt. 1994.
• Smith, John. Captain John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings. Ed. Karen O. Kupperman. Chapel Hill: U of N Carolina P, 1988.
• Spenser, Edmund. A View of the Present State of Ireland. Scolarly Press. (out of print -- will use library copy)
• Williams, Roger. The Actions of the Low Countries. Ed. D.W. Davies. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1964.

These may change a little according to availability (primary works in this area go out of print fairly quickly and often). Any adjustments will be announced as far as possible in advance.

• Kupperman, Karen Ordahl, ed. America in European Consciousness, 1493-1750. Chapel Hill: U of N Carolina P, 1995.
• Neale, J. E. Biography of Queen Elizabeth I. c. 1933-34. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1992. (also Wallace MacCaffrey's recent biography is highly recommended but is expensive if you wish to purchase it)
• Pagden, Anthony. Lords of All the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France c. 1500-c.1800. New Haven Yale UP, 1995.
• Patricia Seed. Ceremonies of Possession Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995.
• Todorov, Tzvetan. The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. (analysis related to Michel de Certeau's)

Later, in a full bibliography I will alert to you more secondary sources.

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