New World, Known World: Shaping Knowledge in Early Anglo-American WritingNew World, Known World examines the works of four writers closely associated with the early period of English colonization, from 1624 to 1649: John Smith's Generall Historie of Virginia, William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, Thomas Morton's New English Canaan, and Roger Williams's A Key into the Language of America (in conjunction with another of Williams's major works, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution). David Read addresses these texts as examples of what he refers to as "individual knowledge projects"- the writers' attempts to shape raw information and experience into patterns and narratives that can be compared with and assessed against others from a given society's fund of accepted knowledge. Read argues that the body of Western knowledge in the period immediately before the development of well-defined scientific disciplines is primarily the work of individuals functioning in relative isolation, rather than institutions working in concert. The European colonization of other regions in the same period exposes in a way few historical situations do both the complexity and the uncertainty involved in the task of producing knowledge. Read treats each work as the project of a specific mind, reflecting a high degree of intentionality and design, and not simply as a collection of documentary evidence to be culled in the service of a large-scale argument. He shows that each author adds a distinct voice to the experience of North American colonization and that each articulates it in ways that are open to analysis in terms of form, style, convention, rhetorical strategies, and applications of metaphor and allegory. By applying the tools of literary interpretation to colonial texts, Read reaches a fuller understanding of the immediate consequences of English colonization in North America on the culture's base of knowledge. Students and scholars of early modern colonialism and transatlantic studies, as well as those with interests in seventeenth-century American and English literature, should find this book of particular value. |
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Page 7
... describe the myth - making activities of primitive cultures : the rules of ... [ the bricoleur's ] game are always to make due with “ whatever is at hand , ” that is to say with a set of tools and materials which is always finite and is ...
... describe the myth - making activities of primitive cultures : the rules of ... [ the bricoleur's ] game are always to make due with “ whatever is at hand , ” that is to say with a set of tools and materials which is always finite and is ...
Page 15
... describe the colonial past : “ The Pilgrims were narrow- minded prigs , ” for example , or “ The Jamestown settlers were ... describes has not diminished , and it extends beyond the discipline of history proper to any other field that ...
... describe the colonial past : “ The Pilgrims were narrow- minded prigs , ” for example , or “ The Jamestown settlers were ... describes has not diminished , and it extends beyond the discipline of history proper to any other field that ...
Page 19
... describes Christopher Newport's grotesque attempt in the autumn of 1608 to “crown” Pow- hatan as a sort of tributary monarch to James I.3 Jehlen points out that “Smith describes a scene in which not just Newport but the English as a ...
... describes Christopher Newport's grotesque attempt in the autumn of 1608 to “crown” Pow- hatan as a sort of tributary monarch to James I.3 Jehlen points out that “Smith describes a scene in which not just Newport but the English as a ...
Page 22
... describing that voice in terms that look forward to the lexicon of the new historicism : “ each voice in these works is a center struggling for power , excluded in its own right but willing to exclude others , if need be , to for- tify ...
... describing that voice in terms that look forward to the lexicon of the new historicism : “ each voice in these works is a center struggling for power , excluded in its own right but willing to exclude others , if need be , to for- tify ...
Page 40
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Contents
1 | |
17 | |
2 Silent Partners | 43 |
3 Importing the Metropolis | 71 |
4 American Consciences | 95 |
Conclusion | 131 |
Appendix | 137 |
Notes | 141 |
Bibliography | 163 |
Index | 171 |
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Common terms and phrases
activity Adams Algonquian Allerton appears argue argument Ben Jonson Bloudy Tenent Bradford chapter character Christ church civil claim colonial texts colonial writers colonists Complete Writings conscience critical culture describes discourse discussion Dutch early colonial effort England English Canaan European Famous Voyage Francis Bacon Generall Historie Harriot’s hath Hayden White Historie of Virginia Hulme human Ibid Indians interpretation Jamestown Jehlen Jonson kind knowledge project Landskipp Language least literary literature Ma-re Mount Massachusetts material means Miantonomi Miller mind Morison Mount Wollaston Narragansetts narrative Native Americans nature offers Opechancanough passage perhaps Perry Miller Pilgrims Plymouth Plantation poem Powhatan presents problem providential providentialist Puritan readers reading rhetorical Richard Hakluyt Roger Williams Schweitzer second book seems sense separatists settlers seventeenth century sort speak suggests Testament Teunissen and Hinz things Thomas Morton tion trade Truth typology voice wilderness Williams's Wood words