EVROPA „NA VÝCHOD OD RÝNA” NA MENTÁLNÍ MAPĚ ANGLICKY PÍŠÍCÍHO CESTOVATELE SEDMNÁCTÉHO STOLETÍ

The study dealt with the problem of the other European identity as reflected in the English travel writing of the seventeenth century. The crucial question was if any coherent whole, in cultural terms, was distinguished on the mental map of the 17th century English traveller in the area of "Trans-Rhenic Europe". The mental map was understood here as a sort of image which is not related to sensory experience. It is considered as Creative construction of unknown based on what was read, what was heard, and on past experience. The viewpoints defining units and drawing borders were of cultural character. Firstly, it was interested in traveller's division of known and unknown Europe. Secondly, it was looking for the borders of learned part of Europe drawn on the traveller's mental map. Thirdly, it was focused on characteristics of people given by travellers. Finally, the borders of "civilization" and "barbarism" on the mental map of a 17th century traveller were questioned.