Les Sauvages Américains: Representations of Native Americans in French and English Colonial LiteratureAlgonquian and Iroquois natives of the American Northeast were described in great detail by colonial explorers who ventured into the region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Beginning with the writings of John Smith and Samuel de Champlain, Gordon Sayre analyzes French and English accounts of Native Americans to reveal the rhetorical codes by which their cultures were represented and the influence that these images of Indians had on colonial and modern American society. By emphasizing the work of Pierre Franaois-Xavier Charlevoix, Joseph-Franaois Lafitau, and Baron de Lahontan, among others, Sayre highlights the important contribution that French explorers and ethnographers made to colonial literature. Sayre's interdisciplinary approach draws on anthropology, cultural studies, and literary methodologies. He cautions against dismissing these colonial texts as purveyors of ethnocentric stereotypes, asserting that they offer insights into Native American cultures. Furthermore, early accounts of American Indians reveal Europeans' serious examination of their own customs and values: Sayre demonstrates how encounters with natives' wampum belts, tattoos, and pelt garments, for example, forced colonists to question the nature of money, writing, and clothing; and how the Indians' techniques of warfare and practice of adopting prisoners led to new concepts of cultural identity and inspired key themes in the European enlightenment and American individualism. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Founding Fathers and Their Indian Relations | 49 |
Rhetorics of Colonial Writing | 79 |
CHAPTER 4 Clothing Money and Writing | 144 |
CHAPTER 5 The Beaver as Native and as Colonist | 218 |
CHAPTER 6 War Captivity Adoption and Torture | 248 |
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accounts Adario adopted Algonquian American Indians American literature Amerindians animal autres avoir beaver beaver pelts Bossu c'est Canada Captain John Smith captivity narrative Castor castoreum Champlain chapter Charlevoix claimed clothing colonists coureurs de bois cultural customs described eighteenth century enemies England English colonial ethnographic European exploration narrative explorer-ethnographers fait François French colonial fur trade genre guerre Hennepin hommes hunting Hurons Iroquoian Iroquois Jesuit John Smith l'Amérique Septentrionale Lafitau Lahontan Lakes land language learned Lebeau Lescarbot live Louis Hennepin Louisiana missionaries Mississippi mœurs des sauvages narrated nation Native American negation Noble Savage North America Nouveaux voyages observers Opechancanough Peuples Pierre Powhatan Pratz premiers temps prisoners published Puritan qu'ils Quebec readers relations representations Reprint rhetorical river Sagard Samuel de Champlain sauvages américains seventeenth century society status tattoos texts tion torture tout translation travel narrative tribes trope University Press Virginia wampum warriors William writing wrote