Persia in Early Modern English Drama, 1530–1699
The Imagined Empire
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Beschreibung
This book is a study of the representation of the Persian empire in English drama across the early modern period, from the 1530s to the 1690s. Its wide focus, encompassing fifteen dramatic entertainments, both canonical and little-known, allows it to trace the changes and developments in the dramatic use of Persia and its people across the period. It explores what Persia signified to English playwrights and audiences in this period; ideas and associations conjured up by mention of ‘Persia’; and where information about Persia came from. It also considers how ideas about Persia changed with the development of global travel and trade, as English people came into contact with Persians for the first time. In addressing these issues, this book provides an examination not only of the representation of Persia in dramatic material, but of the broader relationship between travel, politics and the theatre in early modern England.
Chloë Houston is Associate Professorin the Department of English Literature at the University of Reading, UK.
This book is a study of the representation of the Persian empire in English drama across the early modern period, from the 1530s to the 1690s. The wide focus of this book, encompassing thirteen dramatic entertainments, both canonical and little-known, allow it to trace the changes and developments in the dramatic use of Persia and its people across one and a half centuries. It explores what Persia signified to English playwrights and audiences in this period; the ideas and associations conjured up by mention of ‘Persia’; and where information about Persia came from. It also considers how ideas about Persia changed with the development of global travel and trade, as English people came into people with Persians for the first time. In addressing these issues, this book provides an examination not only of the representation of Persia in dramatic material, but of the broader relationship between travel, politics and the theatre in early modern England.
Explores representations of the Persian empire in English drama across the early modern period Illustrates how ideas shifted over time, as global trade brought English and Persian people into contact Considers a wide corpus of primary plays
Autor*in
Chloë Houston
Themen in »Persia in Early Modern English Drama, 1530–1699«
Iran Theatre Early modern plays Literature Orientalism transculturalism
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“Chloë Houston’s Persia in Early Modern English Drama, 1530–1699: The Imagined Empire, part of the New Transculturalisms, 1400–1800 series, encapsulates the essence of earlier scholars and offers a detailed analysis of the evolving portrayals of Persia in early modern English literature. ... This well-structured monograph analyzes fourteen dramatic works, either well-known or anonymous, and is divided into three sections according to the historical periods they reflected.” (Yaxin Shi, Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 56 (2), 2025)
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"Persia in Early Modern English Drama: 1530-1699: The Imagined Empire is a shrewd, timely and compelling study of the multiple meanings and interests of Persia to English readers and theatregoers over almost two centuries. It proves an immensely rich subject of study - not just revealing English conceptions of Persia and the Middle East as these developed with increased contact, but serving again and again as a powerful vehicle for self-reflection, specifically on domestic political and cultural issues, across this period of significant political change.
Beautifully written and extensively researched, the book is brimming with important details that will interest any scholar of early modern English culture as it traces how English dramatic engagements with Persia look inwards as well as outwards, whether in closet drama or on the public stage, during the very period in which English diplomatic, commercial and political engagements with the East were established and beganto take imperial shape."
Professor Jane Grogan, University College Dublin, author of The Persian Empire in English Renaissance Writing, 1549-1622
“Carefully researched and clearly argued throughout, the book draws attention to specific contexts behind the ever-changing image of Persia from 1530 to 1699, and in the process offers compelling readings of fourteen plays about the Persian Empire, as well as important observations on the origins of imperialism and Orientalism in Britain."
Kurosh Meshkat, The British Library, Persian Gulf History Specialist, The British Library, London, UK
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