Wendy Laura Belcher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199793211
- eISBN:
- 9780199949700
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793211.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, World Literature
The introduction delineates models of transcultural contact and notes their limits. It then lays out the model of discursive possession and textual energumens, addresses possible challenges to the ...
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The introduction delineates models of transcultural contact and notes their limits. It then lays out the model of discursive possession and textual energumens, addresses possible challenges to the model, and provides two instructive examples of spirit possession from West and East Africa. Finally, it addresses the vexed terms “Africa,” “Europe,” “Ethiopia,” and the “Habesha” (the name of the people of the highlands of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea who are the focus of this book) and describes how the terms are used.Less
The introduction delineates models of transcultural contact and notes their limits. It then lays out the model of discursive possession and textual energumens, addresses possible challenges to the model, and provides two instructive examples of spirit possession from West and East Africa. Finally, it addresses the vexed terms “Africa,” “Europe,” “Ethiopia,” and the “Habesha” (the name of the people of the highlands of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea who are the focus of this book) and describes how the terms are used.
Wendy Laura Belcher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199793211
- eISBN:
- 9780199949700
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793211.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, World Literature
This chapter describes Johnson’s experience of translating A Voyage to Abyssinia during a period of mental illness, which resulted in his discursive possession. The chapter analyzes how the multiple ...
More
This chapter describes Johnson’s experience of translating A Voyage to Abyssinia during a period of mental illness, which resulted in his discursive possession. The chapter analyzes how the multiple conflicting sources of the textwould have contributed to such.Less
This chapter describes Johnson’s experience of translating A Voyage to Abyssinia during a period of mental illness, which resulted in his discursive possession. The chapter analyzes how the multiple conflicting sources of the textwould have contributed to such.
Wendy Laura Belcher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199793211
- eISBN:
- 9780199949700
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793211.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, World Literature
As a very young man, one of the most celebrated English authors of the eighteenth century translated a tome about Ethiopia. This experience permanently marked Samuel Johnson, leaving traces of the ...
More
As a very young man, one of the most celebrated English authors of the eighteenth century translated a tome about Ethiopia. This experience permanently marked Samuel Johnson, leaving traces of the African discourse he encountered in that text in his drama Irene;several of his short stories; and his most famous fiction, Rasselas. This book provides a much needed perspective in comparative literature and postcolonial studies on the power of the discourse of the other to infuse European texts. This book illuminates how the Western literary canon is globally produced by developing the powerful metaphor of spirit possession to posit some texts in the European canon as energumens, texts that are spoken through. The model of discursive possession offers a new way of theorizing transcultural intertextuality, in particular how Europe’s others have co-constituted European representations. Through close readings of primary and secondary sources in English, French, Portuguese, and Gəʿəz, the book challenges conventional wisdom on Johnson’s work, from the inspiration for the name Rasselas and the nature of Johnson’s religious beliefs to what makes Rasselas so strange.Less
As a very young man, one of the most celebrated English authors of the eighteenth century translated a tome about Ethiopia. This experience permanently marked Samuel Johnson, leaving traces of the African discourse he encountered in that text in his drama Irene;several of his short stories; and his most famous fiction, Rasselas. This book provides a much needed perspective in comparative literature and postcolonial studies on the power of the discourse of the other to infuse European texts. This book illuminates how the Western literary canon is globally produced by developing the powerful metaphor of spirit possession to posit some texts in the European canon as energumens, texts that are spoken through. The model of discursive possession offers a new way of theorizing transcultural intertextuality, in particular how Europe’s others have co-constituted European representations. Through close readings of primary and secondary sources in English, French, Portuguese, and Gəʿəz, the book challenges conventional wisdom on Johnson’s work, from the inspiration for the name Rasselas and the nature of Johnson’s religious beliefs to what makes Rasselas so strange.
