The Far East and the English Imagination, 1600-1730

Focusing on the interplay between East Asia's wealth and English identity, Robert Markley examines how seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century literature reflects shifting perspectives on national and personal identity. By analyzing the works of notable authors like Milton, Dryden, Defoe, and Swift, he challenges traditional Eurocentric narratives, revealing how these writers grappled with England's marginalized position in a world economically influenced by powerful Far Eastern empires until 1800.