English 4371: Cultural Encounters

Householder, fall 2005

11/3/05: John Smith, the “First American”?

 

 

Add link: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/british/brit-1.html

 

  1. What you need to know about the research paper.

 

    1. Topic is open, but must be related to text(s) and issue(s) from the course. 

 

 

    1. Must be driven by a thesis that answers a critical question or controversy.  This question/controversy should be established through a thorough, but focused, review of secondary criticism on the text. 

 

 

    1. Must be persuasively demonstrated by a careful reading of a primary text.  This analysis should be insightful, going beyond what has already been discussed in the critical literature, and fully supported by a careful analysis of textual evidence in the form of quotations.

 

    1. Must be coherently organized, with one idea leading logically and smoothly to the next.

 

    1. Must conform to the conventions of academic English and MLA format and citation practices.

 

  1. Project Timeline

 

    1. Tues. 11/8: Reading critically

 

    1. Tues. 11/15: Improving logical and stylistic integration of quoted evidence

 

    1. Tues. 11/22: Thesis statement workshop

 

    1. Tues. 11/29.  Working draft due; peer conferences Thurs-Fri. 

 

    1. Final drafts the following Wed., 12/7. 

 

 

3.      My thesis for the day: Smith’s captivity among the Powhatan can be thought of as a “contact zone” experience—one that initiates him into a special knowledge of intercultural relations. 

 

 

 

 

4.      How does Smith’s narrative structure this experience and make it legible for the reader?

 

a.      Captivity and conversion/huskenaw; or from John Smith to Nantaquoud to Captain John Smith. 

 

                                                              i.      want of government

 

 

                                                            ii.      “Sixe or seven weekes those Barbarians kept him prisoner, many strange triumphes and conjurations they made of him, yet hee so demeaned himselfe amongst them, as he not onely diverted them from surprising the Fort, but procured his owne libertie” (58). 

 

 

                                                          iii.      “Much they marvailed”

 

 

                                                          iv.      “which made him thinke they would fat him to eat him”

 

 

                                                            v.      Pocahontas’ intervention. 

 

 

 

b.     His ability to lead the English with discipline. 

 

 

 

 

c.      His ability to deal with the Algonquians. 

 

 

 

 

5.      Conclusion: Smith’s status as a kind of “go-between” or hybrid figure in this contact zone economy has two consequences.

 

a.      He becomes the embodiment of a nascent vision of American entrepreneurialism and “land of opportunity” ideology, i.e., his success is achieved by what he knows rather than who he is.

 

 

    1. His ability to move between both worlds makes him the target of suspicions that he has “gone native” or somehow betrayed the English cause.  

 

 

  1. Whose story is this?: Representation and resistance in Smith’s narrative

 

 

    1. Representing the voice of the other as a strategy of symbolic/ideological containment. 

 

                                                              i.      174-5: Powhatan’s “subtil discourse” on his preference for peace over war

 

 

                                                            ii.      190: Okaning’s speech

 

 

 

    1. A critical problem: Can we take these speeches at face value? 

 

 

Native speeches are authentic

Native speeches are not authentic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    1. Pocahontas/Matoaks/Rebecca. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1. Engraving by Simon Van de Passe (1616)

 

 

    1. What’s love got to do with it? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion: 

 

 

Next time:  Jamestown after Smith, the “Peace of Pocahontas,” and the “massacre” of 1622.