Mythic Histories

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Mythic Histories

This paper provides a critical analysis of 'Pocahontas' by Paula Gunn Allen and 'The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita' by John Thornton.

1,285 words () | 2 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer explores how, in "Pocahontas", Allen imbues her narrative representation of the life of Pocahontas with the qualities of the sacred. The thesis is argued that Allen, in keeping with the hybrid nature of her subject and the overarching American myth within which her subject is a critical figure, achieves her objectives by combining the narrative conventions of Indian oral traditions and mythic elements together with western narrative models and an anthropological understanding of myth. The paper further explains that this hybrid approach, as is seen with comparative reference to the story of Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita, allows access to the multiple cultural perspectives necessary to understand these otherwise elusive and complex historical figures. From this perspective the paper shows how important an appreciation of the reality of the mythic can be in the comprehension of such women as Pocahontas and Dona Beatriz who would otherwise be alien and opaque to our western secular modes of analysis.

Outline:
Introduction
The Reality of Myth
The Importance of Being Hybrid

From the Paper:

"In the realm of the strictly empirical as opposed to the mythic, Allen's hybrid narrative model yields insights into our understanding of her subject and the events of her time that would not otherwise be apparent. Consider, for example, the story of the initial contact between John Smith and the tsenacommacah of which our primary narrative perspective is a text of Smith's written years afterwards. Smith believed - understandably from his English perspective - that the young Pocahontas must have fallen in love with him, as this was the only explanation he could discern for her flinging herself upon his to save him from ritual execution at the hands of her father."

Sample of Sources Used:

Allen, Paula Gunn. Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur Diplomat. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004.
Thornton, John. The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684-1706. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.