Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative

1. Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative Adventure tale Propaganda Emphasis on Agency--Puritan maxim “Our Ribs were not ordained to be our Rulers” Practices of Reading and Writing Authorization and Authorship

2. February 20-May 2, 1676 Metacom / King Philip’s War 1675 1200 houses burned 600 English colonists killed 3,000 Native Americans killed Ends August 1676 Phillip killed, his wife and children sold into slavery. His head was put on a pole and displayed in Plymouth’s town square.

3. “I cannot but take notice of the strange providence of God in preserving the heathen. They were many hundreds, old and young, some sick and some lame; many had papooses at their backs. The greatest number at this time with us were the squaws, and they traveled with all they had, bag and baggage, and yet they got over this river aforesaid;

4. and on Monday they set their wigwams on fire, and away they went. On that very day came the English army after them to this river, and saw the smoke of their wigwams, and yet this river put a stop to them. God did not give them the courage or activity to go over after us.”

5. Characterizations of Native Americans “murderous wretches,” “infidels,” “wolves,” “hellhounds,” “ravenous beasts,” “barbarous creatures, “black creatures,” “merciless enemies,” “inhumane creatures.” They do show mercy, share resources, waste little: “A solemn sight methought it was, to see fields of wheat and Indian corn forsaken and spoiled and the remainders of them to be food for our merciless enemies.”

6. “The first week of my being among them I hardly ate any thing; the second week I found my stomach grow very faint for want of something; and yet it was very hard to get down their filthy trash; but the third week, though I could think how formerly my stomach would turn against this or that, and I could starve and die before I could each such things, yet they were sweet and savory to my taste.”

7. “Philip spake to me to make a shirt for his boy, which I did, for which he gave me a shilling. I offered the money to my master, but he bade me keep it; and with it I bought a piece of horseflesh.”

8. “And I cannot but admire at the wonderful power and goodness of God to me, in that, though I was gone from home, and met with all sorts of Indians, and those I had no knowledge of, and there being no Christian soul near me; yet not one of them offered the least imaginable miscarriage to me.”

9. “Being very hungry I had quickly eat up mine, but the child could not bite it, it was so tough and sinewy, but lay sucking, gnawing, chewing and slabbering of it in the mouth and hand. Then I took it of the child, and eat it myself, and savory it was to my taste.”

10. “Yet the Lord suffered not this wretch to do me any hurt. Yea, instead of that, he many times refreshed me; five or six times did he and his squaw refresh my feeble carcass. If I went to their wigwam at any time, they would always give me something, and yet they were strangers that I never saw before.” “So little do we prize common mercies when we have them to the full.”

11. Ethnographic Observations Narrative shift. Native American diet and metaphor. “I can but stand in admiration to see the wonderful power of God in providing for such a vast number of our enemies in the wilderness, where there was nothing to be seen, but from hand to mouth.”

12. “I have been in the midst of those roaring lions, and savage bears, that feared neither God, nor man, nor the devil, and yet not one of them ever offered me the least abuse of unchastity to me, in word or action.

13. “Oh! The wonderful power of God that mine eyes have seen, affording matter enough for my thoughts to run in, that when others are sleeping mine eyes are weeping.” “I have seen the extreme vanity of the world: One hour I have been in health, and wealthy, wanting nothing. But the next hour in sickness and wounds, and death, having nothing but sorrow and affliction.”

14. “The portion of some is to have their afflicitons by drops, now one drop and then another; but the dregs of the cup, the wine of astonishment, like a sweeping rain that leaveth no food, did the Lord prepare to be my portion. Affliction I wanted and affliction I had, full measure.”

15. Susan Faludi’sThe Terror Dream Nearly one third of women taken captive to Canada over four decades refused to return to colonial society. Benjamin Franklin observed that after a short period of time women captives “become disgusted with our manner of life ... And take the first good Opportunity of escaping again into the woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them.”

16. Rowlandson’s narrative became America’s first bestseller. By 1800 there were over 15 editions. 2,000 captivity narratives were published by 1880. She argues that the indigenous genre in American Lit reverberates across time in The Leather Stocking Tales, The Searchers, John Wayne’s career, right up to 9/11.

17. The American national narrative may be characterized through imperilled, victimized women under the threat of rape/defilement against both the male rescuer persona and deep feelings of shame.

18. First performed in London in 1673, Marriage A La Mode style includes heroic couplets, blank verse and prose. Heroic couplets use lines of iambic pentameter which rhyme in pairs. Blank verse consists of lines of iambic pentameter which are unrhymed.

19. Marriage a la Mode _Rho._ With all this, she's the greatest gossip in nature; for,besides the court, she's the most eternal visitor of the town; and yetmanages her time so well, that she seems ubiquitary. For my part, Ican compare her to nothing but the sun; for, like him, she takes norest, nor ever sets in one place, but to rise in another.

20. Rho._ No lady can be so curious of a new fashion, as she is of a newFrench word: she's the very mint of the nation; and as fast as anybullion comes out of France, coins it immediately into our language.

21. Mel._ But I know your meaning. You think, my dear, that I assumedsomething of _fierté_ into my countenance, to _rebute_, him; but,quite contrary, I regarded him,--I know not how to express it in ourdull Sicilian language,--_d'un air enjoüé_; and said nothing but _adautre, ad autre,_ and that it was all _grimace_, and would not passupon me.

22. _Palm._ The sun, methinks, shines faint and dimly, here;Light is not half so long, nor half so clear:But, oh! when every day was yours and mine,How early up! what haste he made to shine!

23. _Dor._ But you can neither of you be jealous of what you love not. _Rho._ Faith, I am jealous, and this makes me partly suspect that Ilove you better than I thought. _Dor._ Pish! a mere jealousy of honour. _Rho._ Gad, I am afraid there's something else in't; for Palamede haswit, and, if he loves you, there's something more in ye than I havefound: Some rich mine, for aught I know, that I have not yetdiscovered. _Pala._ 'Slife, what's this? Here's an argument for me to loveMelantha; for he has loved her, and he has wit too, and, for aught Iknow, there may be a mine; but, if there be, I am resolved I'll digfor it.

24. _Dor._ If you are wise, believe me for your own sake: Love andreligion have but one thing to trust to; that's a good sound faith.Consider, if I have played false, you can never find it out by anyexperiment you can make upon me. _Rho._ No? Why, suppose I had a delicate screwed gun; if I left herclean, and found her foul, I should discover, to my cost, she had beenshot in. _Dor._ But if you left her clean, and found her only rusty, you woulddiscover, to your shame, she was only so for want of shooting.

25. The Metaphysicals Samuel Johnson chose the term from Dryden’s estimation in 1693 of Donne’s work: “He affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the softness of love.”

26. Burton characterized the “tyranny of ‘strong lines’” from the metaphysicals. Concentrated style, hyperbole, allegory, conceit, dense use of figurative language, personal addresses to God or a woman, include domestic topics in order to highlight individuality, contrasted the spiritual with concrete/everyday, popularly engaged eight-syllable lines in poetry.

27. Conceit Figures of speech which draw striking parallels between two dissimilar objects or situations. The metaphysicals used their knowledge of the commonplace, the esoteric, theology, philosophy, empirical observation in order to invent succinct and expansive comparisons.

28. “O stay, three lives of one flea spare, Where we almost, yea, more than married are. This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is. Though parents grudge, and you, we’re met, And cloister’d in these living walls of jet. Though use make you apt to kill me, Let not to that self-murder be, And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.”

29. “Wise poets that wrapp’d Truth in tales, Knew her themselves through all her veils.” Carew “Ingrateful Beauty Threatened.” “There never yet was woman made, Nor shall, but to be curst” Suckling.

30. “My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow; An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze.” Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress.”

31. Anne Bradstreet’s The Tenth Muse first book published by a woman in America in 1650. Trial of Anne Hutchinson 1637. “To My Dear and Loving Husband” If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

32. In November 2008, Dennis Danielson published a prose translation of Milton’s Paradise Lost, which generated a significant amount of controversy regarding the merits of the project. The author justified the edition by explaining his purpose was to “invite more readers than ever before to enjoy the magnificent story — to experience the grandeur, heroism, pathos, beauty and grace of Milton’s inimitable work.” Prose translations of poetry call attention to the many syntactic choices a writer must make in rendering the original text in coherent and authentic form. For our goal here in a course designed to emphasize writing style, a poetry translation serves as a useful exercise because students must understand the author’s form and content before they are able to then re-write the poem in their own chosen style.

33. Select one of the following poems: • Bradstreet’s “The Vanity of All Worldly Things,” Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” Donne’s “The Flea,” Suckling’s “There Never Yet Was Woman Made,” or Carew’s “Ingrateful Beauty Threatened.”

34. When you re-write the poem, be sure that you have not added or omitted any ideas from the original text. Strive to employ figurative language to flesh out the style of your translation. Assignments will receive a passing grade for a plain translation into prose, but more ambitious style choices will receive a greater reward in terms of grade evaluation.

35. The exercise asks you to offer a translation that may be characterized as exhibiting the “opaque style” which I discussed in lecture. For example, taking these two lines from Bradstreet’s poem  “Where is the man can say, ‘Lo, I have found /On brittle earth a consolation sound’?”  One way to translate this would be to write “No man can find comfort on earth.”

36. An opaque translation would instead say “What soul’s solace settles on terra firma?” In this example, Bradstreet’s original denotation and connotation are preserved, but the author took care to offer an ornate stylistic revision using alliteration. Your assignment should not have a rhyme scheme. Present it in paragraph form.

37. In your tutorial today, pair up with another student and attempt to re-write the first few lines from each of the poems assigned for today. Strategize which figures of speech should be put to use. Simile, metaphor, alliteration, assonance, antithesis, conceit, hyperbole, aphaersis, anaphora, apocope, asyndeton, polysyndeton, epistrophe, onomotopoeia, personification, pun.