The Fiction and Reality of Jan Struys

Dutch Sailmaker and sailor Jan Struys' (c.1629-c.1694) account of his various overseas travels became a bestseller after its first publication in Amsterdam in 1676, and was later translated into English, French, German and Russian. This new book depicts the story of its author's life as well as the first singular analysis of the Struys text.

'Joins the best traditions of archival detective work with the latest in cultural studies to show who generated this seventeenth-century survey of the "Other" and how this work anticipated modernity - in its Orientalist "gaze" as well as in its capitalist inspirations. This combination makes The Fiction and Reality of Jan Struys a significant achievement not only to studies of early modern Russia, but also to the history of modernity and Europe's encounter with the non-Christian world.' - Daniel H. Kaiser, Grinnell College Grinnell, USA

'We should thank Kees for telling us the tale in this fascinating account.' Marshall Poe, New Books In History

Autorentext
KEES BOTERBLOEM is a graduate of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and McGill University, and teaches Early Modern and Modern European History at the University of South Florida in Tampa, USA. He is the author of Life and Death under Stalin (1999) and The Life and Times of Andrei Zhdanov (2004).

Inhalt
Introduction: From Sailmaker to Celebrity Struys's Youth and Reysen's First Journey The Second Voyage The Dutch Republic The Dutch in Muscovy Muscovy In the Tsar's Service Reysen's Muscovy and Struys's Muscovy The Volga Delta and the Oryol's Demise A Dutch Slave in Asia Liberation Reysen's Readers Reysen's Creation and its Creators Genre and the Test of Time 'Any Soil is the Fatherland for a Courageous Man' Conclusion Bibliography