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For Monday’s reading, we shift from Pynchon’s narrative of Oedipa’s journey to two narratives of European arrival in North America. Before we look at Cabeza de Vaca and Smith, I would like to outline a few focus points for your reading of Greenblatt’s essay, "Culture."

"Culture"

While many cultural commentators excoriate the language and rhetoric of literary criticism, I find some of the most effective statements about the nature of literature, the relationship between literature and culture, and the role of literary analysis that I have ever read in this Greenblatt essay. Please take the time to read it carefully. Come to class with quotes and passages from the essay to discuss because we will return to this essay again and again not only as we read Smith and Cabeza de Vaca but also as we explore the many diverse texts and contexts in American literature.
A few study questions to consider vis a vis Greenblatt (I do not intend these questions to limit or define your thinking…just prod it along a bit…always go where you interpretive impulses take you…)

Cabeza de Vaca:

Your reading includes an excellent brief intor that I will not attempt to improve. I will add, however, my rationale for including this reading in our course. I think it essential that we recognize that English was by no means the first language of North America. Before the arrival of Europeans we had hundreds of indigenous languages. Even among European arrivals, Spanish narratives preceeded English accounts of what we now call the United States. In this sense, multiculturalism and multilingualism are not some PC notion from the 90’s but the cultural reality of America dating back to its pre-colonial history. Cabeza de Vaca offers us a great test case for Greenblatt’s ideas. How does he negotiate constraint and mobility? Let’s also not forget our disucssions about the nature of representation and interpretation. Both Cabeza de Vaca and Smith must negotiate with a culture they percieve as "other" than their own, represent themselves and their culture to this "other" group, and then represent this "other" back to their homeland through narrative. Their accounts document their representations of themselves and others and reflect their own interpretive contexts and values. They also capture early efforts to shape a colonial culture at once an extension of Europe but and a new variation from it.

John Smith (1580-1631)

Ah yes, the Pocohantas story…
Well, yes, but the far more interesting story we encounter, the far more impressive voice we hear (however distorted by Smith’s voice and perspective) is Powhatan’s, the chief of the indigenous tribes in the Jamestown area. Although it reads in the third person, Smith’s General History was written by Smith (he seems to have written several versions) and first published in 1624. For this reason, we should take his claims about "the president’s" performance with a barrel or so of salt.
Jamestown, founded for commercial gain rather than religious idealism, had a quite different feel to it than the later New England colonies. For one thing, it was beset by internal leadership battles. Indeed, we can read Smith’s narrative as a defense of his own brief but vital leadership period. Renowned for requiring all of the settlers to work to help support the colony (an idea that did not sit well with many of the noble born gold seeking colonists), Smith enacted an aggressive approach to the Indians that eventually put him at odds not only with his fellow colonists but also with his employers back in England. He did, however, take seriously native culture, even sending young men to live with the Indians and learn their language. By 1609, Smith was on his way home after a gunpowder explosion wounded him, but he never returned because his employers had already decided to replace him.

As you read Smith, explore the comparisons to and contrasts with Cabeza de Vaca while keeping in mind the analytical approach Greenblatt outlines for us. Focus in on Smith’s representations of Powhatan and the Indians. What do they tell us about the Indians and Smith?