Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World (Carpenter Lectures) by Stephen Greenblatt (PDF)

Description

Marvelous Possessions is a study of the ways in which Europeans of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period represented non-European peoples and took possession of their lands, in particular the New World.In a series of innovative readings of travel narratives, judicial documents, and official reports, Stephen Greenblatt shows that the experience of the marvelous, central to both art and philosophy, was cunningly yoked by Columbus and others to the service of colonial appropriation. He argues that the traditional symbolic actions and legal rituals through which European sovereignty was asserted were strained to the breaking point by the unprecedented nature of the discovery of the New World. But the book also shows that the experience of the marvelous is not necessarily an agent of empire: in writers as different as Herodotus, Jean de Léry, and Montaigne—and notably in Mandeville’s Travels, the most popular travel book of the Middle Ages—wonder is a sign of a remarkably tolerant recognition of cultural difference.Marvelous Possession is not only a collection of the odd and exotic through which Stephen Greenblatt powerfully conveys a sense of the marvelous, but also a highly original extension of his thinking on a subject that has occupied him throughout his career. The book reaches back to the ancient Greeks and forward to the present to ask how it is possible, in a time of disorientation, hatred of the other, and possessiveness, to keep the capacity for wonder from being poisoned?”A marvellous book. It is also a compelling and a powerful one. Nothing so original has ever been written on European responses to ‘The wonder of the New World.'”—Anthony Pagden, Times Literary Supplement”By far the most intellectually gripping and penetrating discussion of the relationship between intruders and natives is provided by Stephen Greenblatt’s Marvelous Possessions.”—Simon Schama, The New Republic”For the most engaging and illuminating perspective of all, read Marvelous Possessions.”—Laura Shapiro, Newsweek

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐In lucid and compelling prose, Greenblatt examines the discourse of travel and conquest in terms of marvel — a failed semiosis, a communication that could not happen because of the conquistadores’ fear of ambiguity of the natives signs and that therefore necessitated appropriation and annihilation as a means to clarity.Greenblatt assembles a fascinating collage of documents to argue how the metanarrative of marvel, ie that which was wondrous and yet dangerous, just outside of the Western frame of understanding, worked as a means of justification for enslavement — and not just purely for greed, but also and especially to restore balance, comprehend what could not, as it was, make sense.By studying Columbus and Cortes, Greenblatt not only presents us with a reconstruction of how conquest is justified in the name of _____ (something higher than itself), but also how research, and all forms of Othering are indeed resolved by appropriation and ownership of those we study.

⭐Feels as if you are standing on Hispaniola with Columbus for the first time experiencing your own and his first impressions. Greenblatt writes like a dream.

⭐Brilliant

⭐I like it

⭐An amazingly original set of observations and thoughts, opening new ways of seeing the encounters between Europeans and the people of other continents, and the ensuing history. Stephen Greenblatt’s writing is superb, erudite, expressive, alive, and full of feeling. I recommend this book to anyone because of its importance – our world was shaped by these encounters and we live with the consequences of the first misunderstandings.

⭐Stephen Greenblatt, literary critic, research scholar, and professor at Berkeley shines the spotlight on various historical documents, and speculates that what accounted for the appropriation and colonization of the New World was the fact that Europeans had print literacy. The ethos projected by Greenblatt is a likeable one–a scholar who likes blues bars in Chicago and who was captivated by stories as a child. He weaves his own literacy narrative into his analysis of historical writings produced by the likes of Columbus, Jean de Lery, and others who were at the forefront of colonization. Ultimately, Greenblatt makes the point that the ways in which “wonder” and the “marvelous” circulated in European discourse become the strategies for colonizing practice. To tell his version of the ways in which peoples were conquered, Greenblatt uses the writing that tells of events, focusing especially on anecdote, feeling as he does that anecdote, though sometimes not valued in our fact-laden world, does the lion’s share of the work, functions somewhere between what occurred and the formalized history that gets told. The book is a strong argument that “wonder” and more especially, written “wonder” functioned to elevate certain peoples and demonize others. It makes the equally strong point that writing, though in some cases works to the detriment of peoples and cultures, can also be the liberating force as well.Texts that would work well in conversation with Greenblatt’s would be Mary Louise Pratt’s Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. Also useful would be Walker Percy’s essay, “The Loss of the Creature,” and Clifford Geertz’s essay on Balinese cock-fighting.

⭐A highly interesting and well written account of how the early European explorers claimed the New World as their own. The author’s account of ownership was not limited to just the land, and all of its wealth, the natives themselves were considered subjects of the King of Spain-and of the Christian God. Unfortunately the author is a bit of a “third world-er” describing the Europeans as liars and not allowing himself to speak for or about native cultures. This line of reasoning has only one end and that is the old ideal of the Noble Savage. The author just cannot bring himself to say that European explorers were not practicing anything new under the sun. Some readings of the ancient Akkadians or the Babylonians should remind us that aggressive and superior cultures have always overpowered smaller and weaker societies.

⭐This is an excellent critical analysis, written by the highly educated, greatly informative Stephen Greenblatt. In this analysis of the motivation behind conquest, in its various shapes and forms in what is now North America, as well as other parts of the world, new light is shed on the driving forces that pushed Middle Age explorers to seek out new, more exoticized territories. The statement is reiterated, time and again, throughout the course of this book that European explorers/colonists were motivated by the vision of the “marvelous” that existed in the indigenous, uncolonized parts of the world. The only way to truly realize the potential of these people and their rich natural resources, was to possess them in some form.Greenblatt sheds new insight on what was going on in the head of Columbus (one of the many examples presented here), when he set out to conquer what he understood to be India, hence his reasoning behind calling the indigenous people he discovered “Indians.” This will definitely make you reconsider what Columbus Day really stands for, as well as ponder how the scope of human relations has been altered, based on the motivation of possession and ownership alone.Fascinating and cautionary……

⭐very sweet

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