In this engaging book, John Gillies explores Shakespeare's geographic imagination, and discovers an intimate relationship between Renaissance geography and theatre, arising from their shared dependence on the opposing impulses of taboo-laden closure and hubristic expansiveness. Dr Gillies shows that Shakespeare's images of the exotic, the 'barbarous, outlandish or strange', are grounded in concrete historical fact: to be marginalised was not just a matter of social status, but of belonging, quite literally, to the margins of contemporary maps. Through an examination of the icons and emblems of contemporary cartography, Dr Gillies challenges the map-makers' overt intentions, and the attitudes and assumptions that remained below the level of consciousness. His study of map and metaphor raises profound questions about the nature of a map, and of the connections between the semiology of a map and that of the theatre.

An exploration of Shakespeare's geographic imagination and the relationship between Renaissance geography and theatre.
Reviews
'[An] absorbing and challenging book.' John Scattergood, Theatre Research International



Book Information
ISBN 9780521458535
Author John Gillies
Format Paperback
Page Count 308
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 482g
Dimensions(mm) 228mm * 151mm * 19mm