Francis Bacon's New Atlantis and the Alterity of the New World

摘要

How is the alterity of New World marvels made intelligible to Old World audiences? This paper addresses the question by investigating the philosophical work performed by early modern utopian literature and its appropriation of travel writing's rhetoric of marvels. I argue that Francis Bacon's configuration of the marvel in The New Atlantis establishes an epistemological framework in which the New World's alterity can be assimilated into Old World knowledge.