The Captivity Narrative: Enduring Shackles and Emancipating Language of Subjectivity

The Captivity Narrative offers a collection of scholarly treatises that assess the phenomenon of captivity and the nuanced methods captives have used to express their psychological duress and the manner in which they coped with bondage and its aftermath. The essays reflect a multidisciplinary interest in the subject by offering historical, literary, and philosophical analyses. Topics include 17th-century captivity in Spanish Texas and Puritan New England, 19th-century slavery, Indian captivity in works of fiction, and the poetry, literature, and narratives of prisoners in the United States and England from the 19th to 21st century.The studies originated in a conference hosted in San Antonio, Texas (2011) by the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association. Contributors include Anne Babson, Jennifer Oakes Curtis, Lanta Davis, Steven Gambrel, Anne Matthews, Alan Smith and Elisabeth Ziemba.

About the Author :
Benjamin Mark Allen is a historian at South Texas College in the US, and author of Naked and Alone in a Strange New World: Early Modern Captivity and Its Mythos (2009). He is also editor of Captivity, Past and Present: A Compendium of Observations and Interpretations (2010).Dahia Messara is a translator and literary scholar at the Université de Haute-Alsace in France where she teaches and specializes in Puritan captivity narratives.

Review :
"This welcome collection of essays showcases the exciting work that has come out of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association's focus groups on captivity narratives. It illuminates important moments in the development of this dynamic genre, from accounts of early contact to 19th-century fictional captivities to contemporary prison writings, offering a diverse array of approaches both to captivity itself and to its literary legacies."– Jennifer S. Tuttle, University of New England; Co-editor of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers"Captivity studies scholars will find much to admire and engage with in The Captivity Narrative: Enduring Shackles and Emancipating Language of Subjectivity. The present volume organizes a rich array of scholarship analyzing accounts from the 16th century to the present day, from the history of the Talon children, members of the failed French colony established by LaSalle, to 19th-century slave narratives, to oral storytelling by contemporary imprisoned Englishmen. This multidisciplinary, transnational anthology considers captivity novels and poetry; two scholars use primary documents to reveal captivity accounts hidden in the archives. The anthology explores the relation of this protean genre to sensationalist and sentimental literature, as well as the ways in which these texts reveal the effects of trauma, displacement, redemption, and reconciliation on survivors. These essays will compel researchers in literature, sociology, history, cultural studies, psychology, and criminal justice, as well as gender, race, and ethnic studies."– Jeanne Holland, Associate Professor of English and author, University of Wyoming