By Dens of Lions
Notes on Stylization in Early Puritan Captivity Narratives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7579765 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David L Minter, David Minter (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1973 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 335 |
| Publication date | 1973-11-01 |
| 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 | 10.2307/2924608 |
| OpenAlex | W2332405011 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
Tl['HE INDIAN CAPTIVITIES of the New England Puritans were, during the first several years of their existence, deeply devout. Born as they were, however, in the late seventeenth century, in what was for the Puritan way an era of fundamental transformation, the captivity narratives soon changed drastically. First, they became instruments of propaganda against Indian devils and French Papists.' Later, after need for inspiring hatred of the French had subsided, the narratives played an important role in encouraging government protection of frontier settlements. Still later they became pulp thrillers, always gory and sensational, frequently plagiaristic and preposterous.2 Popular in each of these three different modes, as religious tale, as propagandistic tract, and as sensational thriller, Indian captivity narratives spread well beyond the borders of New England and lasted well into the nineteenth century. About I875, when people stopped reading them, scholars began studying them. Moses Coit Tyler (1878) viewed them as records of Indian conflict and as pictures of Indian cruelty.3 In an effort to generalize the significance of the narratives, Phillips Carleton interpreted them as accounts of the frontier experience and as expressions of the frontier mind.4 Later, in a far more searching essay, The Significances of the Captivity Narrative (I947), Roy Harvey Pearce reoriented study of the form
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Captivity · Literature · Narrative · Visual arts · American Sports and Literature · History · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Race, History, and American Society
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,12 |
| Citation span | 1975 - 2021 (47) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |