Restoration Orientalism

This book examines the complex representation of the Oriental Turk in Restoration serious drama, as embodying new perceptions of the "Other." First, the theoretical approach which is largely informed by the study of historical contexts, is definet. In the second chapter light is shed on the Ottoman decline during the seventeenth century and its effect on English attitudes towards the Turk in Restoration literature. The third chapter explores the dominant theatrical form in the Restoration, the heroic genre, which provides a novel representation of the Oriental world. Chapter four focuses on Davenant''s heroic play, The Siege of Rhodes (1656 and 1661), and its dual representation of the Turk as both Other and similar. Chapters five and six are devoted to the discussion of other Oriental heroic plays, Roger Bolye''s Mustapha (1665) and Mary Pix''s Ibrahim(1696), which combine conventional and heroic tropes of representation. Finally, Chapter seven is concerned with a group of plays mainly representing the Orient as humanised and similar to the European and hence symbolising a completed stage in, what I argue, is a process of cultural assimilation.