ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book combines literary and historical analysis, in order to understand the social, political, and textual dynamics of intercultural exchange, as well as the representation of such an exchange in a range of narratives. It contributes to a growing body of scholarship that understands European modernity as constituted by global travel and intercultural contact. The reception of English emissaries by these foreign powers was an acknowledgment both of the increasing power and sovereignty of the English ruler and of the growing reliance of England on these foreign societies. The willingness of English authorities to negotiate with cultural difference is an indication of the flexible representation of seemingly fundamental identity categories such as religion, language, and race. Theatricality and performance are useful lenses through which to examine intercultural exchange in the time period.
