Possible Pasts : : Becoming Colonial in Early America / / ed. by Robert Blair St. George.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Backlist 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Burkhart, Louise M.,; Ditz, Toby L.,; George, Robert Blair St.,; Gustafson, Sandra M.,; Hall, David D.,; Hulme, Peter,; Juster, Susan,; Lovell, Margaretta M.,; Mazzotti, José Antonio,; Meranze, Michael,; Murray, Laura J.,; Myles, Anne G.,; Nelson, Dana D.,; Silverblatt, Irene,; Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll,; Thornton, John K.,; Warner, Michael,
• HerausgeberIn: St. George, Robert Blair,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©2000
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (432 p.) :; 6 tables, 33 halftones, 1 map

Possible Pasts represents a landmark in early American studies, bringing to that field the theoretical richness and innovative potential of the scholarship on colonial discourse and postcolonial theory. Drawing on the methods and interpretive insights of history, anthropology, history of art, folklore, and textual analysis, its authors explore the cultural processes by which individuals and societies become colonial.Rather than define early America in terms of conventional geographical, chronological, or subdisciplinary boundaries, their essays span landscapes from New England to Peru, time periods from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, and topics from religion to race and novels to nationalism. In his introduction Robert Blair St. George offers an overview of the genealogy of ideas and key terms appearing in the book.Part I, "Interrogating America," then challenges readers to rethink the meaning of "early America" and its relation to postcolonial theory. In Part II, "Translation and Transculturation," essays explore how both Europeans and native peoples viewed such concepts as dissent, witchcraft, family piety, and race. The construction of individual identity and agency in Philadelphia is the focus of Part III, "Shaping Subjectivities." Finally, Part IV, "Oral Performance and Personal Power," considers the ways in which political authority and gendered resistance were established in early America.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part One: Interrogating America -- Postcolonial Theory And Early America: An Approach From The Caribbean -- What's Colonial About Colonial America? -- Part Two: Translation And Transculturation -- Dissent And Difference -- The Native Translator As Critic: A Nahua Playwright's Interpretive Practice -- Dissent And The Frontier Of Translation: Roger Williams's A Key Into The Language Of America -- Colonial Visions -- The Inca's Witches: Gender And The Cultural Work Of Colonization In Seventeenth-Century Peru -- Mestizo Dreams: Transculturation And Heterogeneity In Inca Garcilaso De La Vega -- Puritanism's Progress -- From "Religion And Society" To Practices: The New Religious History -- What Did Christianity Do For Joseph Johnson? A Mohegan Preacher And His Community -- Nation And Race -- War, The State, And Religious Norms In "Coromantee" Thought: The Ideology Of An African American Nation -- Consolidating National Masculinity: Scientific Discourse And Race In The Post-Revolutionary United States -- Part Three: Shaping Subjectivities -- Secret Selves, Credible Personas: The Problematics Of Trust And Public Display In The Writing Of Eighteenth- Century Philadelphia Merchants -- Black Gothic: The Shadowy Origins Of The American Bourgeoisie -- Bodies Of Illusion: Portraits, People, And The Construction Of Memory -- A Criminal Is Being Beaten: The Politics Of Punishment And The History Of The Body -- Part Four: Oral Performance, Personal Power -- Massacred Language: Courtroom Performance In Eighteenth-Century Boston -- "Neither Male Nor Female": Jemima Wilkinson And The Politics Of Gender In Post-Revolutionary America -- The Genders Of Nationalism: Patriotic Violence, Patriotic Sentiment In The Performances Of Deborah Sampson Gannett -- Contributors -- Index