Travellers' Tales

Please join us for a series of public lectures exploring the findings and implications of our research "Cultural Encounters: Travel, Religion, and Identity in the Early Modern World"

The years between 1550 and 1700 saw the birth of our modern world. The rumbling legacy of the Reformations shaped the social and political landscape of Europe, and drove evangelical missions at home and abroad. Thanks to the trading influence and military prowess of the Ottoman Empire, Europeans were confronted by strange ideas, novel societies, and unfamiliar faiths, as well as sophisticated mathematical and scientific knowledge. Voyages of business and exploration brought travellers into contact with the peoples of the Far East, South Asia, and the Americas.
This lecture series will roam across early modern Europe and beyond, investigating the effects of these turbulent centuries, and their centrality to our own social and cultural inheritance.See further information about the series at: http://www.york.ac.uk/crems/conversion/news/publiclectures/

Lectures will take place in the wonderful surroundings of the York Medical Society, on Stonegate, and will start at 20.00. Refreshments will be provided, and all are welcome to attend.
For directions please see: http://yorkmedsoc.org/how-to-find-us.html

Dr Abigail Shinn, Department of English, University of York

Why was playing too much tennis in France or visiting the ruins of Rome hazardous to the English traveller? How did you go about visiting a Venetian courtesan or securing safe passage to the Holy Land? All these questions, and more, were addressed by sixteenth and seventeenth century travel guides and narratives. From descriptions of encounters with the New World, to journeys which prompted religious and cultural transformation, this lecture will explore how travel helped to shape both literary culture and English national identity in the early modern period.