Orientalism in Early Modern France
Eurasian Trade, Exoticism, and the Ancien Régime
Ina Baghdiantz McCabe
Francis I's ties with the Ottoman Empire marked the birth of court-sponsored Orientalism in France. Under Louis XIV, French society was transformed by cross-cultural contacts with the Ottomans, India, Persia, China, Siam and the Americas. The consumption of silk, cotton cloth, spices, coffee, tea, china, gems, flowers and other luxury goods transformed daily life and gave rise to a new discourse about the 'Orient' which in turn shaped ideas about science, economy and politics, and against absolutist monarchy.
An original account of the ancient regime, this book highlights France's use of the exotic and analyzes French discourse about Islam and the 'Orient'.
Ina Baghdiantz McCabe is Darakjian Jafarian Professor of History, Tufts University
Part I: One Nation, One World under French Rule
Introduction
Chapter 1: The First Orientalist; Guillaume Postel
Chapter 2: The Ambassadors
Chapter 3: France in the World
Chapter 4: Orientalism and the Production of Knowledge under Louis XIV
Chapter 5: The Turks and the 'Other' Within: The Huguenots
Chapter 6: Coffee and Orientalism in France
Part II: Consuming the Exotic
Chapter 7: A 'barbarous taste': The Transmission of Coffee Drinking
Chapter 8: Domesticating the Exotic: Imports and Imitation
Chapter 9: The Politics of Pleasure: French Imitations of Oriental Sartorial Splendor and the Royal Carrousels
Chapter 10: Orientalism, Despotism and Luxury
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Hardback
Jun 2008
352pp, 25 illustrations, bibliography, index
9781845203740
 | McCabe has produced an excellent reference work for the researcher in quest of detailed factual information about myriad aspects of early modern France's intellectual, cultural, and economic relations with the Orient. An ambitiously wide-ranging book with exceptionally interesting content.
Julia Landweber, Montclair State University, for H-France Review |  |
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