Shakespeare and the Geography of Difference

"John Gillies's idea of 'poetic geography'--a kind of historicized phenomenology of space--is compelling; it enables him to take what might otherwise appear to be unrelated fragments--maps, the metaphors used in the titles and prefaces of Renaissance atlases, isolated turns of phrase in Shakespeare and other literary texts--and construct a resonant account of a whole, complex mental universe." Stephen Greenblatt

"Shakespeare and the Geography of Difference, John Gillies's book on the Renaissance fascination with wide-ranging and marvelous phenomena, is itself wide-ranging and marvelous, energized by the contact between the disciplines of cartography, geography, anthropology, and literary criticism." Katherine Eisaman Maus, SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

"Shakespeareans who come to Gillie's book for new interpretations of familiar plays will find their due reward, but those who stay around for the map sections will learn even more and will have more fun in the process." Shakespeare Quarterly

"The particular spin that Gillies puts on this material is to treat geography, especially where cartography is concerned, as a poetic rather than a scientific activity....Gillies's book will stand as a worthwhile contemporary supplement to works like Cawley's and to E.G.R. Taylor's pioneering studies of Tudor and Stuart geography, and as a useful corrective to current readings of Renaissance colonialism that define "context" much more narrowly that Gillies does." David Read, Modern Philosophy