5 Letters From Henry Morley To Edward Arber

Author : Michael Householder
Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN 13 : 1409428877
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (94 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Inventing Americans in the Age of Discovery written by Michael Householder and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2011 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inventing Americans in the Age of Discovery analyzes the linguistic, rhetorical, and literary innovations that emerged out of the first encounters between Europeans and indigenous peoples of the Americas. Through analysis of six texts, Michael Householder demonstrates the role of language in forming the identities or characters that permitted Europeans (English speakers, primarily) to adapt to the unusual circumstances of encounter. Arranged chronologically, the texts examined include John Mandeville's Travels, Richard Eden's English-language translations of the accounts of Spanish and Portuguese discovery and conquest, George Best's account of Martin Frobisher's voyages to northern Canada, Ralph Lane's account of the abandonment of Roanoke, John Smith's writings about Virginia, and John Underhill's account of the Pequot War. Through his analysis, Householder reveals that English colonists did not share a universal, homogenous view of indigenous Americans as savages, but that the writers, confronted by unfamiliar peoples and situations, resorted to a mixed array of cultural beliefs, myths, and theories, to put together workable explanations of their experiences, which then became the basis for how Europeans in the colonies began transforming themselves into Americans. .