England, the “orient,” and the ocean

This chapter examines the legacy and the current state of early modern scholarship influenced by postcolonial studies, broadly conceived. It briefly traces the history of such scholarship from the influence of Edward Said in the 1980s to the directions that have been taken in the last ten years. And it asks what other directions are open to such scholarship at a moment when older concepts like “the Orient” or “the East” have lost a significant part of their critical relevance: there is little point in continuing to critique discredited terms, yet we have only just begun to trace the nature of England’s cross-cultural relations with the world beyond Europe. The chapter concludes with a brief analysis of the most famous early modern collections of travel narratives - by Richard Hakluyt and Samuel Purchas - in order to suggest one direction future scholarship might take.