Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Discussion question
For my French class, we just read a novel called "Lettres d'une Peruvienne," in which a Peruvian woman is taken prisoner and brought to France. The author uses her as an outside, supposably purer standpoint from which she can critique and analyze 18th century french society. I'm having a hard time thinking of American examples of this same sort of reverse "going native," beyond Pocohontas, but I'm sure they exist, in both flims and books. In my understanding of these types of stories, the main character is usually a very noble, ethical sort, who adjusts to being in a European culture. They either genuinely miss their own culture and come to a tragic end, or they come to (in the terms of the story) "appreciate the superiority" of European culture. Hundorf gives us real-life stories of this type with the "Eskimos" that were shown-off in the museums, but she doesn't address any fictional examples. What do you think she would say about these sorts of examples? How would they fit in with her analysis?
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Hm... in Pocahontas II she heads to the "New World" to immerse herself in European society. The film itself is somewhat critical of the callousness of European society. The film provides an interesting critique of Europeans as "others", but it is so historically inaccurate it's value is questionable. Pocahontas' love story with John Rolfe develops, but in the Disney version she returns to her people and John Rolfe tags along, snubbing his duty to the Kind to follow his heart. Well, wouldn't that have been nice if it were true? Pocahontas stayed in Europe, was baptised (Rolfe was concerned about marrying a heathen), changed her name to Rebecca, and died during a return to Virginia.
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