Few figures from history evoke such vivid Orientalist associations as Marco Polo, the Venetian merchant, explorer, and writer whose accounts of the "Far East" sparked literary and cultural imaginations. The essays in Marco Polo and the Encounter of East and West challenge what many scholars perceived to be an opposition of "East" and "West" in Polo's writings. These writers argue that Marco Polo's experiences along the Silk Road should instead be considered a fertile interaction of cultural exchange.
The volume begins with detailed studies of Marco Polo's narrative in its many medieval forms (including French, Italian, and Latin versions). They place the text in its material and generic contexts, and situate Marco Polo's account within the conventions of travel literature and manuscript illumination. Other essays consider the appropriation of Marco Polo's narrative in adaptations, translation, and cinematic art. The concluding section presents historiographic and poetic accounts of the place of Marco Polo in the context of a global world literature.
By considering the production and reception of The Travels, this collection lays the groundwork for new histories of world literature written from the perspective of cultural, economic, and linguistic exchange, rather than conquest and conflict.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-323) and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 915.04/2092
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 22
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 9781442688582 9780802099280
- LCCN
- G370.P9
- LCCN Item number
- M37 2008eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (x, 338 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)slc00224446 (OCoLC)635459193 (CaOOCEL)430814
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Contents 8
- Preface 10
- 1 Introduction: East, West, and In-between 14
- PART ONE: MARCO POLO AND THE EXPERIENCE OF WONDER 32
- 2 Text, Image, and Contradiction in the Devisement dou monde 34
- 3 Marco Polo's Le Devisement dou monde and the Tributary East 71
- 4 Marco Polo's Devisement dou monde as a Narcissistic Trauma 98
- 5 Currents and Currency in Marco Polo's Devisement dou monde and The Book of John Mandeville 121
- PART TWO: THE RECEPTION OF MARCO POLO: MEDIEVAL AND MODERN 142
- 6 Plucking Hairs from the Great Cham's Beard: Marco Polo, Jan de Langhe, and Sir John Mandeville 144
- 7 The World Translated: Marco Polo's Le Devisement dou monde, The Book of Sir John Mandeville, and Their Medieval Audiences 167
- 8 Calvino's Rewriting of Marco Polo: From the 1960 Screenplay to Invisible Cities 193
- 9 From Alterity to Holism: Cinematic Depictions of Marco Polo and His Travels 212
- PART THREE: CROSS-CULTURAL CURRENTS 256
- 10 The Perils of Dichotomous Thinking: A Case of Ebb and Flow Rather Than East and West 258
- 11 Marco Polo: Meditations on Intangible Economy and Vernacular Imagination 273
- 12 Marco Polo, Chinese Cultural Identity, and an Alternative Model of East-West Encounter 291
- Bibliography 308
- Contributors 336
- Index 340
- A 340
- B 340
- C 341
- D 342
- E 342
- F 343
- G 343
- H 343
- I 343
- J 344
- K 344
- L 344
- M 345
- N 345
- O 345
- P 346
- Q 346
- R 347
- S 347
- T 348
- V 348
- W 348
- X 348
- Y 348
- Z 349
