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As early modern Europe launched its multiple projects of global empire, it simultaneously embarked on an ambitious program of describing and picturing the world. The shapes and meanings of the extraordinary global images that emerged from this process form the subject of this highly original and richly textured study of cultural geography. Inventing Exoticism draws on a vast range of sources from history, literature, science, and art to describe the energetic and sustained international engagements that gave birth to our modern conceptions of exoticism and globalism.
Illustrated with more than two hundred images of engravings, paintings, ceramics, and more, Inventing Exoticism shows, in vivid example and persuasive detail, how Europeans came to see and understand the world at an especially critical juncture of imperial imagination. At the turn to the eighteenth century, European markets were flooded by books and artifacts that described or otherwise evoked non-European realms: histories and ethnographies of overseas kingdoms, travel narratives and decorative maps, lavishly produced tomes illustrating foreign flora and fauna, and numerous decorative objects in the styles of distant cultures. Inventing Exoticism meticulously analyzes these, while further identifying the particular role of the Dutch—"Carryers of the World," as Defoe famously called them—in the business of exotica. The form of early modern exoticism that sold so well, as this book shows, originated not with expansion-minded imperialists of London and Paris, but in the canny ateliers of Holland. By scrutinizing these materials from the perspectives of both producers and consumers—and paying close attention to processes of cultural mediation—Inventing Exoticism interrogates traditional postcolonial theories of knowledge and power. It proposes a wholly revisionist understanding of geography in a pivotal age of expansion and offers a crucial historical perspective on our own global culture as it engages in a media-saturated world.
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Inventing Exoticism Material Texts Series Editors Roger Chartier Leah Price Joseph Farrell Peter Stallybrass Anthony Grafton Michael F. Suarez, S.J. A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher. Inventing Exoticism Geography, Globalism, and Europe’s Early Modern World Benjamin Schmidt University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia Copyright © 2015 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112 www.upenn.edu/pennpress Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schmidt, Benjamin. Inventing exoticism : geography, globalism, and Europe’s early modern world / Benjamin Schmidt. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Material texts) ISBN 978-0-8122-4646-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Europe—Civilization—Foreign influences. 2. Geography— Europe—History—17th century. 3. Geography—Europe— History—18th century. 4. Exoticism in art—Europe. 5. Exoticism in literature. 6. Europe—Civilization—History—17th century. 7. Europe— Civilization—History—18th century. 8. Netherlands—Civilization— History—17th century. 9. Netherlands—Civilization—History—18th century. I. Title. II. Series: Material texts. CB203.S337 2015 940.2′52—dc23 2014030162 Finally, to them both, with boundless gratitude— Louise and Isabel [ Contents ] List of Illustrations ix Introduction On the Invention of Exoticism and the Invention of Europe 1 Chapter o