Early Modern Literature Seminar
12 May 2026
Impression by Clémence Smith
On 12 May 2026, Professor Nandini Das was joined by Professor Bart Van Es and Professor Wes Williams to discuss the publication of her forthcoming book, This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart England, to be published by Bloomsbury on 28 May. Professor Das's book adopts a global historical perspective, as new archival discoveries recover a history of England that is underpinned by itinerant figures, migration, and craft knowledge.
Professor Van Es opened the conversation by reflecting on the book's methodology. How does one make a history 'new'? Away from the pomp and drama of royal courts and political chambers, the chapters of This Little World open by introducing readers to minor characters whose lives challenge our assumptions about the formation of an English national identity. By decentring monarchs and prominent political figures that saturate conventional narratives of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Professor Das brings to the fore a fresh understanding of England as a porous nation shaped by marginalised historical characters.
Chapters on topics such as visual culture, literature, and slavery raise questions about how ideas about cultural belonging shifted throughout the period. Crucial to Professor Das's research is an acute awareness of historical figures whose lives are only visible through glimpses, as mentioned in elusive archival fragments such as wills, account books, or court proceedings. These snippets, Professor Das argued, are often overlooked in critical discourse because they are not deemed robust enough to warrant sustained engagement. And yet, attention to these fragmentary lives presents a history of England that is complex and interwoven, rather than shaped through individual narratives.
Professor Williams commented on the book's cinematic dimension, as readers are guided through the different spaces of early modern England. Professor Das illustrated how her book's own narrative arc balanced issues of historical scale, as early modern visual models also grappled with questions of perspective, contrasting the immediacy of portrait miniatures and the more distant perspective offered by grandiose wall murals of the period.
The discussion turned to the significance of shapeshifting and the role of linguistic fluidity in histories of migration. Issues of identity and belonging are crystallised by the slipperiness of terms such as 'alien' or 'stranger' used to label cultural others. Professor Williams also noted the influence of writings by Hannah Arendt and Julia Kristeva on refugees and outsiders.
While multilingualism offers fertile loam for the study of cross-cultural encounters, it also highlights how moments of untranslatability render some aspects of migrant narratives invisible. This Little World asks readers to consider what is lost through exile in the early modern period, and how stories of exile are heard and narrated. Readers are thus encouraged to lend an ear to what remains unspoken in the archives. Professor Das noted that close readings of literary texts provide insight into the inner lives of early modern individuals.
Material culture played a vital role in how early modern individuals attempted to make sense of the world, as they collected and catalogued objects, flora, and fauna in cabinets of curiosities. These displays also give a sense of how the world was seen from an English perspective. For migrants arriving on English shores, objects were also imbued with a sense of futurity. A Dutch man writing home to his wife requesting that she bring their wooden butter dishes highlights how material culture fosters the elaboration of an imagined future in England, the recreation of a domestic life through the translation of familiar customs into a new setting.
Professor Das's work demonstrates a commitment to retaining the confusion and complexity that arises when we look beyond historical narratives of England as an insular nation. The voices that emerge from the archives not only reshape our understanding of English national identity, but also allow us to rethink how such histories are forged and disseminated.
