No figure has had a more global impact than Alexander the Great: his reception in the literary cultures of early modern Britain and Southeast Asia shaped early global literary networks. This study uses the parallel traditions of the Alexander Romance to trace cultural convergences and imperial rivalries.

No figure has had a more global impact than Alexander the Great, whose legends have encircled the globe and been translated into a dizzying multitude of languages, from Indo-European and Semitic to Turkic and Austronesian. Alexander the Great from Britain to Southeast Asia examines parallel traditions of the Alexander Romance in Britain and Southeast Asia, demonstrating how rival Alexanders - one Christian, the other Islamic - became central figures in their respective literatures. In the early modern age of exploration, both Britain and Southeast Asia turned to literary imitations of Alexander to imagine their own empires and international relations, defining themselves as peripheries against the Ottoman Empire's imperial center: this shared classical inheritance became part of an intensifying cross-cultural engagement in the encounter between the two, allowing a revealing examination of their cultural convergences and imperial rivalries and a remapping of the global literary networks of the early modern world. Rather than absolute alterity or strangeness, the narrative of these parallel traditions is one of contact - familiarity and proximity, unexpected affinity and intimate strangers.

No figure has had a more global impact than Alexander the Great, whose legends have encircled the globe and been translated into a dizzying multitude of languages, from Indo-European and Semitic to Turkic and Austronesian. Alexander the Great from Britain to Southeast Asia examines parallel traditions of the Alexander Romance in Britain and Southeast Asia, demonstrating how rival Alexanders - one Christian, the other Islamic - became central figures in their respective literatures. In the early modern age of exploration, both Britain and Southeast Asia turned to literary imitations of Alexander to imagine their own empires and international relations, defining themselves as peripheries against the Ottoman Empire's imperial center: this shared classical inheritance became part of an intensifying cross-cultural engagement in the encounter between the two, allowing a revealing examination of their cultural convergences and imperial rivalries and a remapping of the global literary networks of the early modern world. Rather than absolute alterity or strangeness, the narrative of these parallel traditions is one of contact - familiarity and proximity, unexpected affinity and intimate strangers.

Alexander the Great is one of the most celebrated figures ofantiquity. In this book, Carol G. Thomas places this powerfulfigure within the context of his time, place, culture, and ancestryin order to discover what influences shaped his life andcareer. The book begins with an exploration of the Macedonia thatconditioned the lives of its inhabitants. It also traces suchinfluences on Alexander's life as his royal Argead ancestry, hisfather, Philip II, and his mother, Olympias. The author examinesAlexander's engagement with Greek culture, especially hisrelationship with Aristotle, and contemplates how other societalfactors - especially the highly militarized Macedonian kingdom andthe nature of Macedonia's relationship with neighboring states -contributed to his achievement. What was the significance of these influences on the man whosucceeded in conquering most of the known world from the AdriaticSea to the Indus River? The author focuses on this question inexploring ancient landscapes and resurrecting key figures fromantiquity in order to penetrate the motivation, goals, and innerbeing of Alexander the Great.

A fascinating history of one of the most successful military leaders of all time.

England's Asian Renaissance explores how Asian knowledges, narratives, and customs inflected early modern English literature. Just as Asian imports changed England's tastes and enriched the English language, Eastern themes, characters, and motifs helped shape the country's culture and contributed to its national identity. Questioning long-standing dichotomies between East and West and embracing a capacious understanding of translatio as geographic movement, linquistic transformation, and cultural grafting, the collection gives pride of place to convergence, approximation, and hybridity, thus underscoring the radical mobility of early modern culture. In so doing, England's Asian Renaissance also moves away from entrenched narratives of Western cultural sovereignty to think anew England's debts to Asia. Published by the University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

"The story of Alexander the Great's 22 000-mile expedition from Greece to India and his conquest of most of the known world is an extraordinary tale of bravery and cruelty, endurance and excess, chivalry and greed. [More than two] thousand years later, historian and author Michael Wood endeavours to retrace the ... conqueror's epic route, using only the ancient historians as his guide. ..."--Back cover.