Framing 'India': The Colonial Imaginary in Early Modern Culture

Raman (literature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) explores the European discursive formations that framed conceptions of "India" (a concept that is not necessarily geographically or culturally isomorphic with the modern nation) as an object of colonial knowledge and practice. Looking at such texts as John Fletcher's The Island Princess , John Dryden's Amboyna , Lufs Vaz de Cam)es's Os Lusfadas , and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream , Raman examines how European notions of discovery as equating to possession were related to theologized cosmological symbols of order and how colonial activity relied on ideological constructions of colonized subjects and their worlds. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)