Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World (Carpenter Lectures) - Hardcover

Greenblatt, Professor Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226306518 ISBN 13: 9780226306513

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1991

Synopsis

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

About this title

About the Author

Stephen Greenblatt is the John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He is the author of many books, including Hamlet in Purgatory, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, and The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

 

Review

“A marvelous 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 Greenblatt’s Marvelous Possessions. Nothing else in the entire literature of the quincentennial remotely approaches his vivid engagement with the crucial issue of cross-cultural perceptions.” (Simon Schama New Republic)

“Greenblatt writes with sophistication, wit, and considerable grace. I was intrigued throughout by the many flavors of his erudition, intelligence, and style.” (Ronald Wright Globe and Mail)

“A witty and erudite study of early American explorers and their sensibilities. . . . Greenblatt’s deft handling of intellectual baggage is a special gift, but his clear, quick, pungent re-creation of specific people and events in this context is remarkable.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“For the most engaging and illuminating perspective of all, read Marvelous Possessions.” (Laura Shapiro Newsweek)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0226306518
• ISBN 13: 9780226306513
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216