The Ottoman Turks in English Heroic Plays

Book excerpt: Contesting the argument that Restoration-period drama referred almost exclusively to domestic social and political issues, this text interrogates the extent to which seventeenth century heroic plays justify and perpetuate stereotypical representations of the Ottoman Turks in Western discourse. It provides a comprehensive account of representation of “the Other” based on difference. Joining historical discussions ranging from the Ottoman Empire’s rise as a world power to the development of British imperial ideology, the book asserts that dramatic texts and production provide a rich and unexamined archive in which the issues of representation, difference, and cultural stereotyping are attendant on the emergence of imperial figure largely. This account not only deciphers representation of the Ottoman Turks based on simplification and stereotyping in dramatic representations, but also throws light on the most pressing political issues of seventeenth century England, including revolution, regicide, and restoration, dramatized in the guise of the Ottoman Turks and Ottoman history. The book’s attention to the Ottoman-related themes of a number of plays decisively redraws the map of Restoration drama.