Shows how Renaissance writers and artists struggled to reconcile past traditions with experiences of 'discovery.' In what ways have colonial and postcolonial studies transformed our perceptions of early modern European texts and images? How have those perceptions enriched our broader understanding of the colonial and the postcolonial? Focusing on English, Portuguese, Spanish and French colonial projects, Shankar Raman explains how encounters with new worlds and peoples irrevocably shaped both Europeans and their 'others'. There are in-depth case studies on: the Portuguese drama and epic of Gil Vicente and Luis Vaz de Camões; travel narratives and exotic engravings from Theodore de Bry's influential compilations; and the English plays and verse of Christopher Marlowe, John Donne and Richard Brome.