Perceived in Print
Indigenous American and French Ideas of the Other
Will be published approx. on 28. July 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
300 pages
978-0-8139-5521-6 (ISBN)
Description
A fresh look at the conversations and interactions of Native Americans and French as recorded in writings from the New World
Perceived in Print uses the published writings of adventurers and churchmen in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries to unlock the impressions Americans and French expressed about each other-what people from a diverse range of Indigenous cultures thought about the French and how the French perceived the inhabitants of these New Lands. Straddling history and literary studies, Sharon Salinger peels away how European authors cast the exchanges to reveal a "dialogue between cultures." What emerges are two groups of equal standing, motivated by different cultural impulses.
As Salinger shows, French assessments were often contradictory: the Natives were cannibals, but also noble; they were without religion but also devil worshipers. At the same time, Indigenous Americans hurled a range of critiques toward the French, from mocking the absurdity of French clothing to articulately rejecting assimilation and Christianity, even with its promise of heaven. In the end, Salinger reveals a cultural dissonance that portended the failure of the French ambition to transform the Americas into a "New France."
Perceived in Print uses the published writings of adventurers and churchmen in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries to unlock the impressions Americans and French expressed about each other-what people from a diverse range of Indigenous cultures thought about the French and how the French perceived the inhabitants of these New Lands. Straddling history and literary studies, Sharon Salinger peels away how European authors cast the exchanges to reveal a "dialogue between cultures." What emerges are two groups of equal standing, motivated by different cultural impulses.
As Salinger shows, French assessments were often contradictory: the Natives were cannibals, but also noble; they were without religion but also devil worshipers. At the same time, Indigenous Americans hurled a range of critiques toward the French, from mocking the absurdity of French clothing to articulately rejecting assimilation and Christianity, even with its promise of heaven. In the end, Salinger reveals a cultural dissonance that portended the failure of the French ambition to transform the Americas into a "New France."
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Charlottesville
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
22 b&w illus and 7 maps
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-8139-5521-6 (9780813955216)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sharon V. Salinger was Dean of Undergraduate Education and is Professor Emerita of History at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of three previous books.