Moorings

Moorings

Portuguese Expansion and the Writing of Africa

Josiah Blackmore
Table of Contents

$25.00 paper
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4833-7

$75.00 cloth
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4832-0

How Africa was perceived in the early modern imaginary.

In this first book to study Portuguese texts about Africa, Moorings brings an important but little-known body of European writings to bear on contemporary colonial thought. Images of Africa as monstrous, dangerous, and lush were created in early Portuguese imperial writings and dominated its representation in European literature. Moorings establishes these key works in their proper place: foundational to Western imperial discourse.

Attentive to history as well as the nuances of language, Josiah Blackmore leads readers from the formation of the “Moor” in medieval Iberia to the construction of a full colonial imaginary, as found in the works of two writers: the royal chronicler Gomes Eanes de Zurara and the epic poet Luís de Camões. Blackmore’s original work helps to explain how concepts and myths—such as the “otherness” of Africa and Africans—originated, functioned, and were perpetuated.

Delving into the Portuguese imperial experience, Moorings enriches our understanding of historical and literary imagination during a significant period of Western expansion.

“Excellent, even groundbreaking.” —Choice

Josiah Blackmore is professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Manifest Perdition: Shipwreck Narrative and the Disruption of Empire (Minnesota, 2002).

224 pages | 5 b&w photos | 6 x 9 | 2008

Table of Contents
Note to the Reader
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Into Africa

1. Encountering the African
            Some Medieval Formulations
            The African In-Between

2. Expansion and the Contours of Africa
            Routes, Histories, and Chronicles
            Strangeness under the Imperial Sun
            Africa and the Imagination

3. The Monster of Melancholy
            Adamastor melancholicus
            The Masculine Ship
            The Devil’s Map

Notes
Works Cited
Index

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Moorings *Portuguese Expansion and the Writing of Africa* Josiah Blackmore Table of Contents		$25.00 paper ISBN: 978-0-8166-4833-7 $75.00 cloth ISBN: 978-0-8166-4832-0
How Africa was perceived in the early modern imaginary. In this first book to study Portuguese texts about Africa, Moorings brings an important but little-known body of European writings to bear on contemporary colonial thought. Images of Africa as monstrous, dangerous, and lush were created in early Portuguese imperial writings and dominated its representation in European literature. Moorings establishes these key works in their proper place: foundational to Western imperial discourse. Attentive to history as well as the nuances of language, Josiah Blackmore leads readers from the formation of the “Moor” in medieval Iberia to the construction of a full colonial imaginary, as found in the works of two writers: the royal chronicler Gomes Eanes de Zurara and the epic poet Luís de Camões. Blackmore’s original work helps to explain how concepts and myths—such as the “otherness” of Africa and Africans—originated, functioned, and were perpetuated. Delving into the Portuguese imperial experience, Moorings enriches our understanding of historical and literary imagination during a significant period of Western expansion. “Excellent, even groundbreaking.” —Choice Josiah Blackmore is professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Manifest Perdition: Shipwreck Narrative and the Disruption of Empire (Minnesota, 2002). 224 pages \| 5 b&w photos \| 6 x 9 \| 2008 Table of Contents Note to the Reader Acknowledgments Introduction: Into Africa 1. Encountering the African Some Medieval Formulations The African In-Between 2. Expansion and the Contours of Africa Routes, Histories, and Chronicles Strangeness under the Imperial Sun Africa and the Imagination 3. The Monster of Melancholy Adamastor melancholicus The Masculine Ship The Devil’s Map Notes Works Cited Index