Traveller's Tales

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.

This lecture is the second in a series entitled Cultural Encounters: Travel, Religion, and Identity in the Early Modern World, which explores the findings and implications of the research coming out of the Conversion Narratives in Early Modern Europe project.

Cultural Encounters poster (PDF , 738kb)