Envisioning the Worst: Representations of "Hottentots" in Early-modern EnglandUniversity of Delaware Press, 2001 - 289 pages "The descriptions of Africa's southern-most people that appear in travel narratives and collections, geography books, and other textbooks of learning written from the first contact between English sailors and the Cape Khoikhoi in 1591 until the establishment of the British Cape Colony in the 1820s only tell part of the story about the invention and construction of "Hottentots." No other indigenous society was described so negatively or appropriated for such extensive use in domestic discourses. Indeed, the countless number of literal and figurative "Hottentot" references that appear in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century journals, letters, poetry, novels, and drama, as well as in scientific, imperialist, political, and abolitionist writings demonstrate how the very idea of them figures in crucial ways in the early modern consciousness as well as in some of the period's most critical debates, especially those concerning race, nationalism, and gender.". |
Contents
32 | |
Spreading the Word | 60 |
The Story of Cory | 87 |
Hottentots at Home and Abroad | 118 |
Challenging the Constructions | 151 |
An Information Age | 176 |
Common terms and phrases
appeared authors Barrow Bavius beastly beasts Betty Rizzo British Bushmen called Cape Colony Cape Khoikhoi Cape people's Cape Town Christian civilized colonial constructions of Hottentots Cory story Cory's culture depicts description of Hottentots Dutch early-modern East India Company edition Edward eighteenth century England English readers English sailors European female glish Hacqua Herbert Heylyn History Hope Hotten Hottentot Venus human Ibid Indies inhabitants John John Barrow Journal Kolb Kolb's language live London manners Mary Louise Pratt nation Native Americans nature Negro Peter Heylyn political present Purchas His Pilgrimage Purchas's quoted in BVR race reference relation religion representations of Hottentots Samuel Purchas savage ships skin color slavery slaves society South Africa Southern Africa Sparrman's Stel's youth suggests System of Geography Table Bay tentots Terry Terry's Thomas tion tots translation travel narratives University Press Vaillant's Venus vols Voyage round William William Funnell women