Abstract

Margaret Cavendish may not have described her prose narrative The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World as a utopia, let alone assigned it a single genre or form. It contains aspects of romance, adventure, and fantasy and many of the elements that would come to be associated with utopian literature, such as world building and a detailed accounting of that world by a traveler who happens upon it. Yet The Blazing World also contains philosophy, scientific debates, political discussions, and a detailed narrative of a successful military campaign. Folded into this rich hybrid text are also numerous autobiographical events, characters, and details. This rich plurality of elements offered Cavendish a...