Pocahontas through the Ages

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes Robert Tiltonis book "Pocahontas: The Evolution of a Narrative" which considers the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century re-interpretations and re-assessments of the early texts that document the life of the "Indian Princess". He does not discuss the actual story of Pocahontas at all. It demonstrates how the story has played itself out, again and again, in the pages of history and literature, in the visual arts, and in political tracts and how the story has been manipulated and molded into narrative that is becoming to the American people.

From the Paper:

"The central argument of Tilton's book is that the narrative tradition surrounding Pocahontas has been continually recast in different time periods. It has changed and evolved according to the needs of writers and artists who sought to re-tell the story according to the prevailing values of their time. Tilton writes, "[a] study of a tradition like that of Pocahontas reminds us that every new era interprets the cultural documents of the past in the service of prevailing agendas" (186)."

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