CAPTIVITY NARRATIVES AND COLONIAL ANXIETIES IN NORTH AMERICA

Written from a western or European perspective, captivity narratives describe the capture, treatment, and rescue of British, French, and Spanish colonists at the hands of Native Americans. These texts illuminate not only how Europeans viewed “the other,” but how Westerners articulated fears and anxieties about race, physical danger, sexual vulnerability, and cultural self-doubt. This lecture examines the well-known Mary Rowlandson captivity (1676) as well as more contemporary narratives in literature and film.