Imagining the world : mythical belief versus reality in global encounters
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Imagining the world : mythical belief versus reality in global encounters
Bergin & Garvey, 1994
Available at / 5 libraries
-
No Libraries matched.
- Remove all filters.
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [217]-229) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This is a study of the manner in which certain mythical notions of the world become accepted as fact. Dathorne shows how particular European concepts such as El Dorado, the Fountain of Youth, a race of Amazons, and monster (including cannibal) images were first associated with the Orient. After the New World encounter they were repositioned to North and South America. The book examines the way in which Arabs and Africans are conscripted into the view of the world and takes an unusual, non-Eurocentric viewpoint of how Africans journeyed to the New World and Europe, participating in, what may be considered, an early stage of world exploration and discovery. The study concludes by looking at European travel literature from the early journeys of St. Brendan, through the Viking voyages and up to Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville. In all these instances, the encounters seem to justify mythical belief. Dathorne's interest in the subject is both intellectual and passionate since, coming from Guyana, he was very much part of this malformed Weltschmerz.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Europe Invents a New World European Myth Exported Discovering West and East in Literature African Voyages: "Discovery" of Europe Notes Bibliography Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
