How is it possible that three playwrights in the early modern Dutch
Republic wrote dramas based on contemporary political events in Asia?
Reflecting on this remarkable phenomenon, Staging Asia traces the
passage of the stories surrounding three political revolutions from
seventeenth-century Asia through to the Dutch Republic and their
ultimate manifestation as dramas. This book explores the nature of the
representation of the Orient in these plays and evaluates how this
characterization was influenced by the channels that these dramatists
relied on to gather information for their works. As these dramas exhibit
strong connections to the Dutch East India Company, this work
additionally examines the role of that enterprise in disseminating
information on Asia and producing imagery about the Orient.