Writing captivity in the early modern Atlantic
Subtitle: circulations of knowledge and authority in the Iberian and English imperial worlds
By: Lisa Voigt.
Contributors: Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture.
Publisher: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Chapel Hill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 339
ISBN-13: 9780807831991; 9780807859445
Subjects: Captivity narratives -- America; Europeans -- Ethnic identity -- America -- Historiography; Intercultural communication -- America -- Historiography; Authority in literature; America -- Ethnic relations -- History -- To 1500 -- Historiography; America -- Ethnic relations -- History -- 16th century -- Historiography; America -- Church history -- Historiography; Spain -- Colonies -- America -- Historiography; Portugal -- Colonies -- America -- Historiography; Great Britain -- Colonies -- America -- Historiography
Description: This book explores the role of captivity in the production of knowledge, identity, and authority in the early modern imperial world. The practice of captivity attests to the violence that infused relations between peoples of different faiths and cultures in an age of extraordinary religious divisiveness and imperial ambitions. The author demonstrates that tales of Christian captives among Muslims, Amerindians, and hostile European nations were not only exploited in order to emphasize cultural oppositions and geopolitical hostilities, but to valorize the knowledge and mediating abilities acquired by captives through cross-cultural experience. She shows how the flexible identities of captives complicate clear-cut national, colonial, and religious distinctions.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.