Narratives of astonishment: Miscegenation in New World literature

Posted in Dissertations, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive on 2011-11-15 03:52Z by Steven

Narratives of astonishment: Miscegenation in New World literature

Rice University
1994
235 pages

John Wesley Buass

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Through readings of a variety of literary and historical narratives from throughout the Americas dating from the 16th century to the present, I show that miscegenation, its sudden and disrupting revelation in these narratives serving as the catalyst for utopian and/or apocalyptic rhetoric, becomes a trope for New World cultural identity (Utopia and Apocalypse themselves being crucial ideas for this hemisphere). I call by the name “Astonishment” the resulting space created by the sudden revelation of miscegenation in these narratives.

Table of Contents

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgements
  • Prologue. Re-reading Columbus’s (Dis)Course: Toward a Reading of New World Literature
  • “Delta Autumn” and Tenda dos milagres: Toward a Theory of Astonishment
  • “Regions beyond right knowing”: Cabeza de Vaca’s Search for a Language
  • ¿Quienes somos?: Labyrinths of Blood in de la Vega, Faulkner, and Paz
  • Gonzalo Guerrero’s Children: A Survey of Narratives of Astonishment
  • Conclusion
  • Works Cited and Consulted

Read the first 30 pages here.

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