Universidade Federal De Santa Catarina

Universidade Federal De Santa Catarina

UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM LETRAS/ INGLÊS E LITERATURA CORRESPONDENTE THE POCAHONTAS NARRATIVES IN THE ERA OF THE ROMANTIC REPRESENTATIONS OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY POR MARIA DO SOCORRO BAPTISTA BARBOSA Tese submetida à Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina em cumprimento parcial dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de DOUTOR EM LETRAS FLORIANÓPOLIS Março 2005 Esta Tese de Maria do Socorro Baptista Barbosa, intitulada The Pocahontas Narratives in the Era of the Romantic Representations of the Native Americans and their Influence on the Construction of an American National Identity , foi julgada adequada e aprovada em sua forma final, pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente, da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, para fins de obtenção do grau de DOUTOR EM LETRAS Área de concentração: Inglês e Literatura Correspondente Opção: Literaturas de Língua Inglesa _________________________________________ Mailce Borges Mota Fortkamp Coordenador (a) BANCA EXAMINADORA: _________________________________________ Anelise Reich Corseuil Orientadora e Presidente __________________________________________ Renata Ruth Mautner Wasserman Co-Orientador (a) e Examinador (a) _________________________________________ José Roberto O’Shea Examinador (a) _________________________________________ Carlos Eduardo Schmidt Capela Examinador (a) __________________________________________ Sandra Regina Goulart Almeida Examinador (a) Florianópolis, 16 de março de 2005. To Pocahontas, whose silence made me feel so uneasy that I had to find a way to make her talk. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to acknowledge the people who had made this work possible: To CAPES, whose scholarship gave the financial support I needed to develop my research; To UFSC, for giving me the opportunity to take this course; To UESPI, for having released me so that I could undertake this course and do this research. To my children, Antônio Carlos, Virgínia Maria, José Francisco and Augusto César, whose support was fundamental in any aspects, especially for their patience, care and understanding; To my grand-daughter, Ana Vitória, light of my life, for encouraging me in my difficult moments, and for never allowing me to give up; To my sister Elisabeth, without whose support it would have been impossible to finish this dissertation. To my friend Thais, for helping me to understand that a real friendship may never end. To Francisca Maria for helping me proofreading and revising my text, besides being my friend in any circumstances; To my last year students at UESPI whose patience was crucial to the conclusion of this dissertation; To Professor Susana Funck, to whom I owe my persistence in finishing this course, for, without her advice, I would certainly have given up; To Professor Sérgio Luís Prado Bellei, for being the first one besides myself to make me believe in the possibility of writing this dissertation; To Professor Renata Wasserman, my co-supervisor, for the relevant comments v she has made throughout the writing of this text; Finally, to my supervisor Anelise Corseuil, the most wonderful supervisor I could have, for helping revise and proofread my dissertation and for being so patient with me. I could not have found a better one. Thanks, Anelise. And to all who, in some way or another, have participated in the construction of this work, my sincere thanks. vi ABSTRACT THE POCAHONTAS NARRATIVES IN THE ERA OF THE ROMANTIC REPRESENTATIONS OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY MARIA DO SOCORRO BAPTISTA BARBOSA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA 2004 SUPERVISING PROFESSOR: ANELISE REICH CORSEUIL This dissertation analyses five literary texts about Pocahontas and some of the visual representations about the Native American girl, which were produced during American Romanticism comparing / contrasting these texts with the founding narratives of James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans and The Pioneers , as well as with two other novels of the same period, Catherine Maria Sedgwick’s Hope Leslie and Lydia Maria Child’s Hobomok. The objective of this research is to show that the Romantic narratives on Pocahontas are important for the definition of an American national identity through the discussion of themes like miscegenation, liminal figures and the captivity narratives inserted in these texts. In order to make such analysis, this dissertation begins with a discussion of the historical aspects concerning the story of Pocahontas, then a survey about the theoretical background, dealing with the theories on nation and national identity of Ernest Renan, Benedict Anderson and Homi Bhabha. The theoretical chapter is followed by a comparative / contrastive analysis of the texts, including the visual representations, which concludes with the idea that Cooper’s narratives portray a traditional view of the American nation, while the Pocahontas textual and visual narratives give a different view of it. This analysis also led this dissertation to conclude that the story of Pocahontas has had a great influence on the construction of a national identity in the beginning of the nineteenth century, the moment when the American nation was establishing itself as a new one. The Pocahontas narratives do not deal with nation and national identity in the same way the other narratives do, but they are important as a way of establishing an alternative view of what it means to be an American. Nº. de Páginas: 247 Nº. de Palavras: 74.500 vii RESUMO Esta tese analisa cinco textos literários sobre Pocahontas e algumas representações visuais sobre a garota nativa americana produzidos durante o período romântico, comparando / contrastando tais textos com as narrativas de fundação de James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans e The Pioneers , bem como com dois outros romances do mesmo período, Hope Leslie , de Catherine Maria Sedgwick, e Hobomok , de Lydia Maria Child. O objetivo desta pesquisa é mostrar que as narrativas românticas sobre Pocahontas são também importantes para a definição de uma identidade nacional americana através da discussão de temas como miscigenação, figuras de borda e narrativas de cativos inseridas nesses textos. Inicialmente a tese apresenta uma discussão sobre os aspectos históricos referentes à história de Pocahontas, sendo feito um levantamento do referencial teórico, através das teorias sobre nação e identidade nacional de Ernest Renan, Benedict Anderson e Homi Bhabha. Dessa forma, há uma análise comparativa / contrastiva dos textos , incluindo as representações visuais, que leva à conclusão que as narrativas de Cooper retratam uma visão tradicional da nação americana, enquanto que as narrativas textuais e visuais de Pocahontas proporcionam uma visão diferente da nação. Essa análise também permite concluir que a história de Pocahontas teve uma grande influência na construção da identidade nacional no começo do século dezenove, no momento em que a nação americana estava se estabelecendo como uma nova nação. As narrativas de Pocahontas não tratam nação e identidade nacional do mesmo modo que as outras narrativas, mas são importantes como uma forma de estabelecer uma visão dos possíveis significados de identidade americana. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ……………………………………………………….. x LIST OF APPENDIXES ……………………………………………………………. xi INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 1 - Historical Character / Literary Persona: Pathway of the Pocahontas Narratives from Colonial History to Romantic Literature ...…………………………………………………….. 22 1.1. Adventurers or Pilgrims? Historical and Literary Differences in the Early Colonization of Virginia and New England. ................. 23 1.2. From the Non-Pareil of Virginia to a long suffering Romantic Princess: the path of Pocahontas from a historical character to a fictional heroine............................................................................. 38 1.3. American Romanticism .................................................................... 45 1.4. From British Colony to Independent Nation: The Post- Revolutionary Period in the United States of America. ................ 54 CHAPTER 2 - Explaining theories: crucial concepts on Nation and National Identity, Miscegenation, Liminal Figures and Captivity Narratives ……………………………………………………….. 59 2.1. Nation and National Identity ............................................................ 60 2.2. Miscegenation .................................................................................. 65 2.3. Liminal Figures ................................................................................ 77 2.4. Captivity Narratives ......................................................................... 83 CHAPTER 3 - Romantic Texts on Pocahontas and the Construction of an American National Identity ……………………………………. 89 3.1. “I might have forgotten that nature had put barriers between us”: mixing races/mixing blood in Romantic narratives of Pocahontas……………………………………………………….. 90 3.2 Neither me, nor you, in between: Liminal Figures in Romantic narratives on Pocahontas ………………………………………... 122 3.3 “Held as a Hostage in the Stranger’s Cell”: Captivity Narratives in Romantic Texts on Pocahontas ……………………………… 148 2 CHAPTER 4 – Visual Representations of Pocahontas in the construction of American national identity during the Romantic

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