Ogot, B. A. (2013). General History of Africa, Volume V: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century (Translated by UNESCO). China Translation and Publishing Corporation. (In Chinese)

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: “Barrens” or “Heavens”: African Geography Imagination under Shakespeare’s Foreign Land Narratives

  AUTHORS: Guijie Li, Lihui Liu

  KEYWORDS: Shakespeare, Foreign Land Narrative, Africa, Geography Imagination

  JOURNAL NAME: Open Journal of Social Sciences, Vol.13 No.7, July 15, 2025

  ABSTRACT: In Shakespeare’s foreign land narrative plays, Tunisia, Algiers, Morocco, and Mauritania, the four countries in northern and northwestern Africa, are portrayed as remote and barbaric places; Egypt and Ethiopia, two countries located in northeast Africa, are depicted as rich and mysterious countries full of oriental flavors. At the same time, Shakespeare’s plays lack depictions of central and southern African countries. Shakespeare’s imagination mechanism of African geography was influenced by factors such as traffic conditions, geographical landscapes, as well as mythological stories etc., reflecting the romantic imagination of early modern Europeans on the African continent. Such an African geographical imagination mechanism has promoted Europeans’ exploration of the unknown African world, accelerated the Western colonial process towards Africa, and enhanced Europeans’ awareness of their own geographical and cultural identity, allowing them to maintain their “Europeanness” while engaging in trade and cultural exchanges with Africans.