Before Orientalism

This volume examines early Anglo-Indian relations through trade (with the establishment of the East India Company), tourism, and diplomacy and reveals important differences between traveller reports and the representations of London's press and stage. Richmond Barbour looks closely at exotic visions of "the East," as staged in the playhouses, at court, and on the streets of Shakespeare's London. He follows the efforts of the newly established East India Company, and the careers of England's first tourist and first ambassador in India, Thomas Coryate and Sir Thomas Roe.

• Proposes and practices 'cultural logistics' as a theoretical rapprochement between cultural poetics and cultural materialism
• Analyses passages from Emperor Jahangir's journal (in English translation) in counterpoint to Sir Thomas Roe's journal
• Offers a wide range of illustrations and includes illustrations that reveal European influences in Moghul art and the latter on English representations