Travel Narratives, the New Science, and Literary Discourse, 1569-1750

Judy Hayden is Associate Professor of English and Chair of English and Writing at the University of Tampa. She has published extensively on the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British literature.

• Contents: Intersections and cross-fertilization, Judy A. Hayden; Part 1 Inquiry and Fact: Directing the Course of Knowledge: Inquiries, heads and directions: orienting early modern travel, Daniel Carey; Forming knowledge: natural philosophy and English travel writing, Julia Schleck; Geography and authority in the Royal Society's instructions for travelers, Jason H. Pearl. Part 2 New Science, New Worlds: Traditions of the monstrous in William Dampier's New Holland, Geraldine Barnes; Writing 'science fiction' in the shadow of war: bodily transgressions in Cavendish's Blazing World, Holly Faith Nelson and Sharon Alker; 'As far as a woman's reasoning may go': Aphra Behn, Oroonoko, and the new science, Judy A. Hayden; Roger Phequewell, colonial man of science: re-reading imperial fantasy in Merryland, Marcia Nichols. Part 3 Charting Knowledge, Mapping Encounters: Telescopic voyages: Galileo and the invention of lunar cartography, Howard Marchitello; Defoe the geographer: redefining the wonderful in A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain, Jesse Edwards. Part 4 The Curiosity of Travel: Spectating science in the early modern collection, Barbara M. Benedict; Selected works cited; Index.

'... the collection brings together generally solid and useful essays, as well as a comprehensive bibliography that will be of interest to historians of science and early modern literary historians, especially those working with English archives. In their sum, they serve as a useful reminder to scholars of the impossibility of thinking about science and literature in discrete terms during the early modern period. As such, the volume accomplishes its central goal, which is to illuminate the interconnections and cross-fertilizations of literary and scientific discourses from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-eighteenth.' Huntington Library Quarterly '... the essays in the volume offer a fascinating balance between literature which focuses on England, that which focuses on ’the world’, and that which focuses on imaginary places. All of which will be of interest to both literary scholars and historians of science. ...The number of productive interconnections between the volume and cultural history of science, historical epistemology, and the history of visual and material culture is, to my mind, indicative of the strength of the research topic, which should continue to attract a wide variety of attention from literary scholars and historians alike.' British Society for Literature and Science 'It is a good sign of synergy in a collective volume when its papers present similar issues for consideration ... With so many points of resonance among the authors, the synthetic introduction by Judy Hayden must have been made much easier and is, indeed, a job neatly done.' Endeavour