Cultural Exchange in Seventeenth-Century France and England

Gesa Stedman's ambitious new study is a comprehensive account of cross-channel cultural exchanges between seventeenth-century France and England, and includes discussion of a wide range of sources and topics. Literary texts, garden design, fashion, music, dance, food, the book market, and the theatre as well as key historical figures feature in the book. Importantly, Stedman concentrates on the connection between actual, material transfer and its symbolic representation in both visual and textual sources, investigating material exchange processes in order to shed light on the connection between actual and symbolic exchange. Individual chapters discuss exchanges instigated by mediators such as Henrietta Maria and Charles II, and textual and visual representations of cultural exchange with France in poetry, restoration comedies, fashion discourse, and in literary devices and characters. Well-written and accessible, Cultural Exchange in Seventeenth-Century France and England provides needed insight into the field of cultural exchange, and will be of interest to both literary scholars and cultural historians.

Contents: Introduction: theories of cultural exchange; A wise and happy mediator? Queen Henrietta Maria as cultural ambassador; So much æmulacion, poverty, and the vices of swearing, drinking and whoring: Charles II and Anglo-French culture; Vanquishing with our pens as our ancestors have with their swords: textual and visual representations of cultural exchange; Summary and outlook; Bibliography; Index.

Gesa Stedman is Professor of British Literature and Culture at the Centre for British Studies, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany.