The Indian Captivity Narrative as Ritual
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3760916 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard Vanderbeets (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1972 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 548 |
| Publication date | 1972-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Literature (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9831 • E-ISSN: 1527-2117 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2924653 |
| OpenAlex | W2323932056 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
ALL CIVILIZED PEOPLES have recognized the value of tempering their joys with a play or story chronicling the misfortunes and tragedies of others. Because the earliest Americans countenanced neither play-acting nor the unhealthy influences of the novel, they wrote and read true tales of tragedy and horror in the form of disasters, plagues, and shipwrecks-and of Indian massacres and captivities. As the frontier pushed westward under continuing conflict the tales of Indian captivity accompanied it, gradually becoming our first literature of catharsis in an era when native American fiction scarcely existed. The immense popularity of the Indian captivity narratives in their time is unquestionable. First editions are rare today because they were quite literally read to pieces, and most narratives went through a remarkable number of editions: there are over thirty known editions of the Mary Rowlandson narrative; John Dickenson's account went to twenty-one, including translations into Dutch and German; there are twenty-nine editions of the Mary Jemison captivity, and the popularity of Peter Williamson's narrative carried it through forty-one editions.' Over twenty-five years ago, Phillips Carleton made the point that the vast body of Indian captivity narratives was known mostly to historians, anthropologists, and collectors of Americana.2 Regrettably, that observation is as true today as then. And in the rare instances where informed scholarship has turned its attention to the narratives, emphasis has been upon the historical and cul
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Captivity · Literature · Narrative · Sociology · Anthropology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Cuban History and Society · History
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,12 |
| Citation span | 1983 - 2025 (43) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |