the captivity narrative and mary rowlandson. what is a captivity narrative? ● american indian...
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The Captivity Narrative The Captivity Narrative and Mary Rowlandsonand Mary Rowlandson
What Is a Captivity What Is a Captivity Narrative?Narrative?
●American Indian captivity narrativesoStories of men and, particularly, womenoOf European descentoPopular in both America and Europe
●White woman’s captivity by natives a metaphor for New England’s experience in the New WorldoAnxiety of female captivity: that she
may choose to stay, become part of the community
Are Captivity Narratives Are Captivity Narratives Historical? Historical?
●Often based on true events
●Contained fictional elements
●Some entirely fictional ocreated because
the stories were popular
Captivity Narrative’s Captivity Narrative’s PurposePurpose
●Religious expression ●Justification of westward expansion ●Popular symbol of American national
heritage ●Reinforcement of stereotypes
oSpanish: Indians as brutish beastsoFrench: Indians as souls needing
redemptionoEnglish in Virginia: innocent exoticsoPuritans: Satanic threat to religious utopia
ThemesThemes●Fears of cannibalism
●Fears of scalping
●Hunter-predator myth: captive caught between savagery and civilization
●For Puritans: Israel suffering under Babylonian captivity
●Freudian view: captivity becomes adoption (Puritan/Indian friendship development)
PatternPattern●Separation
oattack and capture
●Torment oordeals of physical and
mental suffering
●Transformationo accommodation, adoption
● Return oescape, release,
redemption
The Puritan WorldviewThe Puritan Worldview●Providence: History is ordered according
to God’s plan
●Typology: Biblical events and figures serve as types for historical events and figures
●Doctrine of predestination: The sovereignty and goodness of God
●Election: The covenant of grace
●Uncertain salvation: Looking for signs
The Narrative as MythThe Narrative as Myth●Captivity as exceptional and
exemplaryoA singular experience and testoA moral and religious lesson for readers
●Biblical frame of reference●Captivity as symbolic conversion
oCollapse of boundariesoWandering in the wildernessoTest and conversionoRestoration
Captivity and the RevolutionCaptivity and the Revolution
●Popular beyond Puritan era and region
●Colonies seen as captives of British CrownoKing George = savage
●Americans as chosen people being tested
Captivity Narrative as Captivity Narrative as Critique of EuropeansCritique of Europeans
●Not just English genre
●Captive identifies with captor
●Captivity narrative threatened the collapse of boundaries between ohome and captor culture obetween white and native identity
Readers Love Readers Love
●Details of Indians’ lives
●Gory descriptions
●Descriptions of wilderness
●Threats of sexual violation
●Individual Christian struggles
●Captivity narratives forerunners of dime novels, sensational true crime stories, and reality television
The WildernessThe Wilderness●Does not equal no people●Equals being unsure of one’s place●Typical European response
o Reassert one’s old sense of place • family, social standing, religion, Bible
o Learn the new place • social order, cuisine, language
o Improvise spaces to inhabit
●Unhoused especially receptive to the dangers of the wilderness
King Philip’s War (1675-76)King Philip’s War (1675-76)
●“King Philip” (Metacom) becomes leader of Wampanoags & creates a coalition to resist the English
●In 1675 Philip puts an informer to death; the English retaliate & kill three. War breaks out
●600 English & 3,000 Indians die by war’s end, brought about by widespread starvation among Indians & Philip’s death
King Philip’s War & ReligionKing Philip’s War & Religion
●Puritan interpretation: God’s judgment on New England for its sins
●Jeremiad: sermon that castigated the people for the sins; compared them unfavorably to predecessors
●Mary Rowlandson’s text as Jeremiad
Mary Rowlandson’s Mary Rowlandson’s True HistoryTrue History
●International bestseller.●Most famous example
of the “Indian captivity narrative”
●First and only work by its author
●Retells 11 weeks, 5 days that a minister’s wife spends among the Wampanoag people
Rowlandson as a Captive Rowlandson as a Captive Puritan WomanPuritan Woman
●Rowlandson’s positionoFamily (born in England 1637; arrived in
Salem in 1639; mother active in church)oMarriage and social standing
●Rowlandson copes with captivityoSkills and activitiesoSurvival strategiesoComparison with other captives
Rowlandson’s narrativeRowlandson’s narrative
●Puritan conventions barred women from writing for publication and unauthorized public speaking
●Rowlandson’s motivesoTitle pageoComments in text
Plot of Rowlandson’s Plot of Rowlandson’s NarrativeNarrative
●Lose home●Lose family●Dwell in
Wilderness●Regain family●Regain home
Representative AfflictionRepresentative Affliction
●Rowlandson’s afflictions those of New England’s
●God’s special notice of Rowlandson and his chosen people
●Rowlandson an example for others: how to persevere and remain faithful in a time of great suffering
Unintentional Unintentional Commentary? Commentary?
●Rowlandson describes her adventures using the values, language, and assumptions appropriate to her “place.”
●Despite herself, she shows us the following:oThe Wampanoags remarkably generous,
despite their desperate circumstancesoThe Wampanoags far from immoraloRowlandson successful in creating “space”
for herself (sewing); no passive victimoEnglish bungled in how they’ve handled
the situation
SourcesSources● Burnham, Michelle. Captivity and Sentiment: Cultural Exchange in
American Literature, 1682-1861. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997.
● Derounian, Kathryn Zabelle. "The Publication, Promotion, and Distribution of Mary Rowlandson's Indian Captivity Narrative in the Seventeenth Century." Early American Literature 23.3 (1988): 239-61.
● Gookin, Daniel. "An Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England." 1677. Archaeologia Americana: Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society Vol. 2 (1836): 423-523.
● Mather, Increase. A Brief History of the War with the Indians in New-England. London: Chiswell, 1676.
● Salisbury, Neal, ed. and intro. The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, and Related Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997.
● Slotkin, Richard. Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600-1860. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan UP, 1973.
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