Central European University Press Practices of Coexistence: Constructions of the Other in Early Modern Perceptions

The essays in this book provide interesting contributions to the ongoing debate concerning the "image of the Other" in the early modern period. They deal with images, representations, projections, and perceptions, based on various experiences of coexistence. Although the individual contributions contain sources and references of iconography, this is not just another volume of art history or visual studies. As examples of practices in diverse historical contexts, the book includes a variety of textual material, such as literary productions, rhetorical exercises, dramatic applications, chronicles, epistles, and diary type historical accounts with ethnographic sensitivities. Thus, supported by a thorough research apparatus, these studies propose a new cultural history of the early modern coexistence of various communities, as identified in current research by young scholars. Their contributions either offer revisionist perspectives on their chosen subjects or suggest new interpretations. Another novel feature of the volume is the deliberate displacement of traditional scholarly foci to an investigation of rarely examined regions and practices. This approach allows the contributors to present their special areas of research and to share an off-centered vision of "the Renaissance" instead of the grand narrative of previous scholarship. Review The contributions in the volume collectively constitute a timely addition to the existing body of scholarship that has sought to problematize entrenched categories in the study of transnational political and cultural contacts between East and West, and to propose new models to better understand the complex processes of image-making that sparked from political coexistence in the early modern period.--World Literature Studies About the Author Marianna D. Birnbaum is Research Professor in the Department of Germanic Languages at UCLA. She is also involved in the Medieval Studies Department’s programs at the Central European University, Budapest.Marcell Sebők is Assistant Professor at the Department of Medieval Studies of Central European University.