The Indian captivity narrative as providence tale: Religion, reason and the development of narrative prose.
Item
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Title
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The Indian captivity narrative as providence tale: Religion, reason and the development of narrative prose.
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Identifier
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AAI9530881
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identifier
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9530881
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Creator
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Hartman, James Daniel.
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Contributor
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Adviser: William Kelly
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Date
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1995
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, American | American Studies
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Abstract
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This study examines early New England Indian captivity narratives in the context of the genre from which they derived: the English providence tale. Crafted in the face of mounting atheism, these providence tales attempted to prove the existence of God by documenting instances of supernatural activity. Although the captivity narratives either appeared within collections of providence tales, or were saturated with their tropes, no in-depth critical work has explored what the captivities took from or added to their precursors. My reading allows the captivities, as well as an entire host of other, largely neglected early-American providence tales, to be seen in a much broader, pan-European context, as sites of cultural negotiation between Medieval and Renaissance faith and Enlightenment rationalism. Examining the providence tale background also highlights many usually neglected characteristics of the captivities; many of these qualities appear in eighteenth and nineteenth-century American texts which are not typically associated with the captivity narratives. The providence tale connection, in other words, helps locate the captivities along the main line of American literature, and shows their essential and generative role in its development. The Indians in my study can still be seen as demonized others, the women as struggling against gendered roles while simultaneously seeking ideologically-sanctioned election, but I hope to reset current conversation about the narratives by highlighting their literary achievements, their creative synthesis of an extended moment of great cultural transformation.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
