For the Benefit of the Afflicted?: American Captivity Narratives from Mary Rowlandson to Jessica Lynch

Since Mary Rowlandson’s book was published in 1682, captivity narratives have been extremely popular and successful, becoming a distinctively all-American genre. Over time, captivity narratives have fulfilled different goals, evolving and adapting themselves to the emergence of new formats and new m...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Gómez Galisteo, Carmen
Format: article
Publication Date:2019
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Repository:e-spacio. Repositorio Institucional de la UNED
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:e-spacio.uned.es:20.500.14468/29990
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/29990
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:5505.10 Filología
captivity narratives
Mary Rowlandson
horror movies
september/11
narrativas de cautiverio
películas de terror
11 de septiembre
Description
Summary:Since Mary Rowlandson’s book was published in 1682, captivity narratives have been extremely popular and successful, becoming a distinctively all-American genre. Over time, captivity narratives have fulfilled different goals, evolving and adapting themselves to the emergence of new formats and new media. Since the apparition of motion pictures, movies dealing with the topic of captivity are numerous, from The Searchers (1956) to the most recent, Captivity (2007). This essay examines the main characteristics of the genre and its evolution from colonial times to present-day America, in order to show how captivity narratives have changed to adjust to contemporary sensibilities. This essay also considers what uses captivity narratives have been put to and how they have changed and been modified to convey ends other than those envisaged by the authors of Puritan captivity narratives.