Visions of Persia

Mapping the Travels of Adam Olearius
Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-0-674-01254-7
Verlag: Harvard University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 48, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 426 g

Reihe: Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature

This work examines the travel account of a German baroque author who journeyed in search of silk from Northern Germany, through Muscovy, to the court of Shah Safi in Isfahan. Adam Olearius introduced Persian literature, history, and arts to the German-speaking public; his frank appraisal of Persian customs foreshadows the enlightened spirit of the eighteenth century (influencing Montesquieu’s Persian Letters as well as Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan) and prepares the way for German Romanticism’s infatuation with Persian poetry. Elio Brancaforte focuses on the visual and discursive nexus uniting Olearius’s text with the numerous engravings that supplement the book. The emphasis falls on contextualized readings of Olearius’s decorative frontispieces and his new and improved map of Persia and the Caspian Sea, as expressions of early modern subjectivity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brancaforte, Elio

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturen sonstiger Sprachräume Literatur des Nahen Ostens & Nordafrikas
• Sozialwissenschaften Sport | Tourismus | Freizeit Tourismus & Reise Reise & Urlaub: Führer, Landkarten, Pläne

Über Autor(innen)

Brancaforte, Elio
Elio Brancaforte is Assistant Professor of German at Tulane University.