A Taste for the Foreign

Exploring the aesthetic significance of foreignness, this work traces the evolution of prose fiction from the 1547 translation of The Ethiopian Story to Galland's The Thousand and One Nights. In a literary culture that prioritized realism, authors turned to exotic settings as a source of novelty and allure. They skillfully blurred the lines between reality and imagination, engaging readers with the thrill of discovering distant lands. This examination reveals how early modern fiction served as a platform for contemplating the cultural implications of exoticism long before the term became widely used in France.