Three early modern genres: A microhistorical approach to "world literature". Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Boelhower, William
• Is Part Of: Atlantic studies. Volume 16:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 21
• Page End: 37
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Travel collections -- naufragium -- utopia -- modern world-system -- Venice -- oceanic order -- first globalization -- globus versus mundus -- Thomas More -- Ramusio -- Oviedo y Valdes; Globalization -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- History -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- Intellectual life -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- In literature -- Periodicals; Cross-cultural studies -- Atlantic Ocean Region -- Periodicals; 909.0963
• DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2017.1349064
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1478-8810

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This essay adopts a microhistorical approach to the formation of three interrelated genres of the first half of the sixteenth century in continental Europe (the travel collection, the naufragium, and the utopia) – roughly speaking, the period of first globalization when the city-state of Venice was not only a dominant power in the spice trade and the continent's major printing centre, but also an immediately involved witness to the shift from a Mediterranean-centred to an oceanic-centred economy. By focusing on a single site, I hope thereby to provide a privileged perspective on an instance of "world literature" as it becomes entangled in a variety of geocultural scales representing the complexities of the modern world-system.