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2025-04-25
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This project is a study of early modern English aesthetic travel writing. While travel narratives generally served as political tools of empire building, this dissertation evaluates how consciously fictional and aesthetic travel narratives offered imaginative exercises in world making. The core argument is therefore that the aesthetic travel narrative should be treated as a serious philosophical exercise (available to early modern authors and readers alike) regarding how the globe could or could not be mastered. The genre undoubtedly belongs within its colonial contexts as a tool of empire, but its ability to imaginatively speculate upon how to alternatively handle English invasion and expansion also appears to delight in the concept of non-mastery. The authors featured in this project include William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Milton, and Margaret Cavendish. By selecting these authors, the project traces the development of the aesthetic travel genre from its origins within the exploration of the New World into early instances of speculative fiction.
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English