1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910790106003321

Autore

O'Leary John

Titolo

Savage songs & wild romances [[electronic resource] ] : settler poetry and the indigene, 1830-1880 / / John O'Leary

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, : Rodopi, 2011

ISBN

1-280-49703-3

9786613592262

94-012-0686-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (216 p.)

Collana

Cross/cultures : readings in the post/colonial literatures in English ; ; 138

Disciplina

821.8093529

Soggetti

Indians in literature

Noble savage stereotype in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

"Writers treated include George Copway, Alfred Domett, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, George McCrae, Thomas Pringle, George Rusden, Lydia Sigourney, and Alfred Street".--Back cover.

New Zealand author, John O'Leary.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Preliminary Material -- Texts in Context: Nineteenth-Century Settler Culture -- “Bold, unfettered rhapsodies”: Nineteenth-Century Versifications of Indigenous Orature -- “We owe them all that we possess”: ‘Savage’ Songs and Laments -- “Unlocking the fountains of the heart”: Settler Verse and the Politics of Sympathy -- Indigenous Romeos and Juliets: Romantic Verse Melodramas -- “In their strange customs versed”: Ethnographic Verse Epics -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Works Cited -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

Savage Songs andamp; Wild Romances considers the various types of poetry – from short songs and laments to lengthy ethnographic epics – which nineteenth-century settlers wrote about indigenous peoples as they moved into new territories in North America, South Africa, and Australasia. Drawing on a variety of texts (some virtually unknown), the author demonstrates the range and depth of this verse, suggesting that it exhibited far more interest in, and sympathy for, indigenous peoples than has generally been acknowledged. In so doing, he challenges both the traditional view of this poetry as derivative and eccentric, and more



recent postcolonial condemnations of it as racist and imperialist. Instead, he offers a new, more positive reading of this verse, whose openness towards the presence of the indigenous Other he sees as an early expression of the tolerance and cultural relativity characteristic of modern Western society. Writers treated include George Copway, Alfred Domett, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, George McCrae, Thomas Pringle, George Rusden, Lydia Sigourney, and Alfred Street.