Abstract

AbstractThis article looks at the word echappee, using the structure of complex thought that is borne by this compound term as a lens to examine the theme of imagination's role in Renaissance journeys. Echappee can mean 'escape', 'glimpse' or 'the outstripping of a rival'. Each of these meanings is examined in turn through a cluster of sixteenth-century texts that illustrate how travel literature can be viewed as a means of exhibiting the powers of imaginative speculation and exploration in adventures of flight and sight or insight. From the fantastic, mythological journeys described by Ronsard and Aneau via the domestic settings of Marguerite de Navarre to the encounters of Lery and Montaigne with New World natives, the article analyses the transformation of the space of exploration into the space of imaginative speculation, of risky engagement with the Other. Using the work of Quentin Skinner and Michel de Certeau, it proposes that we see echappee as providing an incremental narrative of a multi-layered...

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