The Captivity Narrative

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.

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.