Cannibals: The Discovery and Representation of the Cannibal from Columbus to Jules Verne (New Historicism) [Hardcover]

Frank Lestringant (Author), Rosemary Morris (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520202406 | ISBN-13: 978-0520202405 | Publication Date: May 30, 1997 | Edition: 1

Frank Lestringant, one of the foremost scholars of European encounters with the Americas, looks at the concept of the cannibal and the powerful images and meanings it conjured for Europeans from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century. Combining historical and ethnographic data with allegorical and literary concerns, he describes how European voyagers, writers, and missionaries encountered cannibal cultures and represented them in their writings. Lestringant argues that sixteenth-century travelers and writers gave the figure of the "man-eating savage of the Americas" a positive currency, as a hero who devoured his defeated enemy in accordance with custom, not to satisfy a cruel instinct. Two centuries later, Enlightenment philosophers used the figure of the cannibal in their fight against colonialists and Catholics. But the image of the cannibal suffered a reversal at the end of the eighteenth century, becoming a hateful figure that aroused the primitivist imaginings of writers like Sade and Flaubert. Lively, accessible, and provocative, this unique study will not only be welcomed by readers in early modern history, European literature, anthropology, and religious studies, but will fascinate anyone interested in the myths and realities of cannibalism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Frank Lestringant's Cannibals is a magisterial, wide-ranging, and wonderfully readable exploration of one of the great Western obsessions. With a blend of horror, astonishment, and half-suppressed admiration, European travellers, philosophers, theologians, missionaries and artists have argued for centuries about the significance of cannibalism. Lestringant's extraordinary erudition enables him to map an immensely complex territory. His book is a feast!" Professor Stephen Greenblatt

"A fascinating account of European cannibalism." The Bookseller

"This is a learned and highly original book. Its virtues lie in its details, in the dazzling series of connections it makes between different aspects of cultural history - literary, theological, economic and artistic. Dare one say, in the words of the Prayer Book, that there is much here to "read, learn, and inwardly digest"?" The Sunday Telegraph

"Excellent ... It takes a freshly informed look at the question of the American Indian, mainly through French rather than Spanish or British witnesses with whom Anglo-American scholars are more familiar." Claude Rawson, The Times Literary Supplement --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

"Frank Lestringant's Cannibals is a magisterial, wide-ranging, and wonderfully readable exploration of one of the great Western obsessions. With a blend of horror, astonishment, and half-suppressed admiration, European travellers, philosophers, theologians, missionaries and artists have argued for centuries about the significance of cannibalism. Lestringant's extraordinary erudition enables him to map an immensely complex territory. His book is a feast!" Professor Stephen Greenblatt

"A fascinating account of European cannibalism." The Bookseller

"This is a learned and highly original book. Its virtues lie in its details, in the dazzling series of connections it makes between different aspects of cultural history - literary, theological, economic and artistic. Dare one say, in the words of the Prayer Book, that there is much here to "read, learn, and inwardly digest"?" The Sunday Telegraph

"Excellent ... It takes a freshly informed look at the question of the American Indian, mainly through French rather than Spanish or British witnesses with whom Anglo-American scholars are more familiar." Claude Rawson, The Times Literary Supplement --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 247 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (May 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520202406
• ISBN-13: 978-0520202405
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,135,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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