Les Sauvages Américains: Representations of Native Americans in French and English Colonial Literature / Edition 1

by Gordon M. Sayre

Overview

Algonquian and Iroquois natives of the American Northeast were described in great detail by colonial explorers who ventured into the region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Beginning with the writings of John Smith and Samuel de Champlain, Gordon Sayre analyzes French and English accounts of Native Americans to reveal the rhetorical codes by which their cultures were represented and the influence that these images of Indians had on colonial and modern American society. By emphasizing the work of Pierre Franaois-Xavier Charlevoix, Joseph-Franaois Lafitau, and Baron de Lahontan, among others, Sayre highlights the important contribution that French explorers and ethnographers made to colonial literature. Sayre's interdisciplinary approach draws on anthropology, cultural studies, and literary methodologies. He cautions against dismissing these colonial texts as purveyors of ethnocentric stereotypes, asserting that they offer insights into Native American cultures. Furthermore, early accounts of American Indians reveal Europeans' serious examination of their own customs and values: Sayre demonstrates how encounters with natives' wampum belts, tattoos, and pelt garments, for example, forced colonists to question the nature of money, writing, and clothing; and how the Indians' techniques of warfare and practice of adopting prisoners led to new concepts of cultural identity and inspired key themes in the European enlightenment and American individualism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807846520
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/11/1997
Edition description:	1
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.92(d)
Lexile:	1590L (what's this?)

About the Author

Gordon M. Sayre is professor of English and folklore at the University of Oregon.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A wide-ranging yet concise study of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century descriptions by colonial explorers of the indigenous North American Algonquin and Iroquois peoples and the rhetorical impact of these descriptions on Europe and the colonial Americas. . . . An important addition to any library.—Religious Studies Review



Makes a profound contribution to our understanding of New World natural history. . . . A valuable and intriguing study, whose emphasis on French travel writing is especially important. Sayre's focus is sharp, his analysis keen."Reviews in American History



Importantly enriches our understanding of colonial texts and the manner in which such documents record cultural information.—American Literature



Gordon Sayre's book is worthwhile reading for any scholar seeking to understand how Native Americans were represented in colonial literature and how these representations influenced European and American thought. A carefully researched and documented study. . . . Les Sauvages Americains is more than a good book about representations of Native Americans in colonial literature. It is a significant contribution to American literary history, one that asks us to rethink some of our most basic assumptions about how Europeans thought and wrote about Native Americans.—Christianity and Literature



A thought-provoking analysis of some previously little-considered aspects of early European-Amerindian relations. . . . His work still makes clear the influence of the past on aboriginal political and social issues of today.—Olive Patricia Dickason, William and Mary Quarterly



Widely researched, combining ethnohistory with literary methodology, and quoting original French texts at length with English translations immediately following, Les Sauvages Americains offers new approaches and breathes some new life into some familiar areas. . . . A useful contribution to the literature on how Europeans encountered, perceived, and constructed Indian people and of how Europeans themselves were subtly changed by the experience.—New England Quarterly



In Les Sauvages Americains, Gordon Sayre draws an alluring map of the linguistic and cultural codes through which two major European peoples constructed Native Americans. Energetically conceived and sharply rendered, his book offers excellent guidance through a very large, complex, and important terrain.—Wayne Franklin, Northeastern University

Editorial Reviews

[A] significant contribution to American literary history, one that asks us to rethink some of our most basic assumptions.

"Christianity and Literature"

A thought-provoking analysis of some previously little-considered aspects of early European-Amerindian relations.

Olive Patricia Dickason, "William and Mary Quarterly"

Importantly enriches our understanding of colonial texts and the manner in which such documents record cultural information.

"American Literature"

Makes a profound contribution to our understanding of New World natural history.

"Reviews in American History"

ÝA¨ significant contribution to American literary history, one that asks us to rethink some of our most basic assumptions.

"Christianity and Literature"

"[A] significant contribution to American literary history, one that asks us to rethink some of our most basic assumptions.

"Christianity and Literature""

"A thought-provoking analysis of some previously little-considered aspects of early European-Amerindian relations.

Olive Patricia Dickason, "William and Mary Quarterly""

An important addition to any library.

"Religious Studies Review"

From the Publisher