Mary Rowlandson's Captivity and the "Place" of the Woman Subject
Author(s): Lisa Logan
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Early American Literature, Vol. 28, No. 3 (1993), pp. 255-277
Published by: University of North Carolina Press
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MARY ROWLANDSON'S
CAPTIVITY AND THE "PLACE" OF
THE WOMAN SUBJECT
LISA
LOGAN
Kent State University
i
I hope she is reaping the fruit of her good labors, being faithful to
the service of God in her place. In her younger years she lay under
much trouble upon spiritual accounts, till it pleased God to make
that precious scripture take hold of her heart, "And he said unto
me, my Grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians
12.9). More
than twenty years after, I have heard her tell how sweet and com
fortable
that place was
to her.
(143)
writes
this passage Mary Rowlandson
about her sister, who was
on Lancaster that begins Rowlandson's
in
killed
the
raid
captivity. In a
In
own experience;
for Rowlandson's
sense, this passage is a metaphor
she,
too, "lay under much trouble" as she wrestled with her own "spiritual
accounts" during her three month captivity in an alien culture. Like her
is comforted
in her "low estate" by Biblical passages
sister, Rowlandson
that "[take] hold of her heart" and enable her to survive. (For example,
"Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine
Heart, wait I say on the Lord."
[Psalm 27.14]) This passage not only
of her own experience; her use of
parallels Rowlandson's
understanding
in both
the term "place" suggests the importance of place or position
and representing her captivity. Biblical verses are "places"
remembering
that comfort and provide reassurance in an uncertain world; they serve as
secure textual positions, discursive anchors that help her to make sense of
in the wilderness
her sorrow by placing her experience
into a typological
On another
(for her) context.1
and, therefore,
level,
meaningful
use of the term "place" suggests the position of a person?
Rowlandson's
as a member of the New England Puritan
social, political, spiritual?who,
sister was faithful in her place, a choice of
elect, serves God. Rowlandson's
to be so (or
words that suggests the existence of other places from which
*55
Early American
2j6
Literature,
Volume
28, 1993
New
England Puritan ideology
of literal and figurative spaces is a
it suggests to me that we can
work;
not), places which
seventeenth-century
constructs as gendered. This overlapping
feature of Rowlandson's
prominent
as both an account of her captivity and a narrative about
text
the
read
work
engages the intersecting and overlapping
"place." Rowlandson's
she occupies: Puri
positions?physical,
ideological, social, discursive?that
tan, woman,
captive, writer, wife, mother, neighbor. It is about finding a
place from which to speak, claiming a position of authority from which to
represent self and experience, and, in doing so, offering up one's speaking
text is
and textual self as a site of public scrutiny. In short, Rowlandson's
woman
as
an inquiry into the position(s) of
subject in/of/to discourse2; and
for
"captivity" is both the occasion for her writing and a telling metaphor
to
her position. Throughout
the text, captivity operates as a metaphor
reveal the position(s)
political subject.
she inhabits as a woman
author and a gendered
and
11
Each of us carries around those growing up places, the institutions,
a sort of backdrop, a stage set. So often we act out the present
that
against the backdrop of the past, within a frame of perception
is so familiar, so safe that it is terrifying to risk changing it even
are distorted, limited, constricted by
when we know our perceptions
Bruce Pratt, "Identity: Skin, Blood, Heart"
that old view.?Minnie
(quoted
inMartin
and Mohanty
196)
in Rowlandson's
narrative. For
of place figure prominently
Metaphors
terms
in
of
she
consistently portrays experience
physical spaces
example,
for the social and discursive places (positions) she
which serve as metaphors
occupies. The text itself is organized around "removes" or departures from
one place to the next. Over half of these departures "remove"
into the wilderness
and farther from home. As
deeper
she relates physical space
it
clear
that
becomes
progresses,
sense of identity and value. This capacity for physical places
Rowlandson
the narrative
closely to her
to incorporate
emotional, spiritual, cultural, and ideological value is especially apparent in
treatment of physical movement.
Rowlandson's
concern with
to
extent
The
which physical spaces reveal Rowlandson's
clear ifwe
becomes
identity and social, ideological, and discursive position
For
at
her juxtaposition
of home and the wilderness.
look
Rowlandson,
is a place that is "not home"?no
wilderness
walls,
furnishings, hearth,
food, health, or comfort:
The
...
"Place" of the Woman
Subject
257
sit in the snow, by a little fire, and a few boughs behind
sick child inmy lap. ... Imust sit all this cold winter
the
cold snowy ground, with my sick child inmy arms,
upon
night
that
hour would be the last of its life; and having no
every
looking
Christian friend near me, either to comfort or help me. (145)
Imust
me, with my
This wilderness
of "not home,"
like the daily removes she makes over
rivers and mountains
and through swamps and forests, mirrors the emo
tional, spiritual, and cultural displacements which captivity imposes on her.
With
each day of travel, Rowlandson
grows more "removed" not only
from the tiny frontier village of Lancaster, Massachusetts,
whole way of life and her certainty of its significance.
but from her
If one
looked before one there was nothing but Indians, and behind
one, nothing but Indians, and so on either hand, Imyself in the
midst, and no Christian soul near me. (150)
is lost "in the midst" of another people and another world
Rowlandson
or rules. The
view, a place without
boundaries,
recognizable markers,
household over which she presided with her husband is displaced by snow,
a little fire, and a few boughs. Native Americans
replace her Christian
family and friends.
For Rowlandson,
home is not merely a physical space; it represents
toMartin
of
value
and
belief.
and Mohanty,
stability
According
[Home] refers to the place where one lives within safe, protected
'not being home' is a matter of realizing that home was
boundaries;
an illusion of coherence and safety based on the exclusion of spe
cific histories of oppression and resistance, the repression of differ
ences even within oneself. (196)
iswhere the self is clearly distinguished
Home
from the other, and borders
between
and
and
truth
and lies are stable and
wrong,
evil,
right
good
asMartin
uncontested.3 Home
is social, ideological, discursive. Moreover,
a
"not
and Mohanty
home"
of
marks
realization
home's
out,
point
being
fictive nature. The wilderness
destabilizes
Rowlandson's
of
categories
in her Bible and Lancaster, Massachusetts,
and disturbs
home, embodied
the security of the Puritan view. She has difficulty reading this new world
with her old set of clues.
Her captors are a continuous mystery: "Sometimes Imet with favor, and
sometimes with nothing but frowns ..." (154). She is never sure of them
(or herself); will they beat her and chase her out into the cold? laugh at her
inability to carry a heavy load or negotiate a tricky path? or share their fire,
blankets and food? Their seeming fickleness
from that which
she attributes to her God,
is perhaps not that different
who
sometimes appears to
Early American
2j8
Literature,
Volume
28, 1993
ignore her or cause her to suffer, while allowing her captors to flourish. But
she attempts to understand with scriptural clues.
God has a plan which
These same clues, however, are less effective in reading her captors, and she
they
finally concludes that they are insane: "So unstable and like madmen
were"
(163).
It is this instability, this threat of madness,
this disorder of howling
wilderness
that she tries to overcome by ordering her experience through
narrative.
... but I
hope all these wearisome
forewarning to me of the heavenly
steps that I have taken are but a
rest. (155)
to organize
tries to stabilize the meaning
of her experience,
Rowlandson
her ordeal into a pattern which will end in her rest inGod's heavenly home.
text is to reestablish a social, ideological,
The work of Rowlandson's
and discursive "home" for her. The title page, preface, appended sermon
and the narrative
itself all function to restore
written by her husband,
Rowlandson's
friends." The full (and
among her "Christian
position
to
which
of
these positions?social,
the
title
all
suggests
degree
lengthy)
discursive?intersect
and
overlap:
ideological,
The Soveraignty and goodness of GOD, together with the faithful
ness of his promises displayed; being a narrative of the captivity and
restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson,
commended
by her, to all
that desires to know the Lord's doings to, and dealings with her.
by her own
Especially to her dear children and relations. Written
hand and for her private use, and now made public at the earnest
desire of some friends, and for the benefit of the afflicted. Deut.
32.39. See now that I, even I am he, and there is no god with me; I
kill and Imake alive, Iwound and I heal, neither is there any can
deliver out of my hand.
(142)
title emphasizes the text's religious significance as well as its author's
must
if
be stabilized
each of these sites of interpretation
gender;
to
to
if
the
is
is
fruit
be
she
Rowlandson's
"reap
truly
recuperated,
position
itself as,
its title, the narrative advertises
of her good labors." Through
an
work is
the
and
"instance"
of
God's
Goodness";
foremost,
"soveraignty
a
restoration
not
it
author's
is
of
the
and
because
story
captivity
important
The
clause) but because of the larger typological
(relegated to a dependent
woman's
thus becomes represen
of
this
experience. Rowlandson
meaning
tative of any and all members of the Puritan elect who are "afflicted" and
redeemed through God's mercy. At the same time, as Kathryn Zabelle
Derounian
has pointed out, the title insists on Rowlandson's
propriety and
to
accusations
that
the
of
At
defend
publication
against
pains
humility.
The
"Place" of the Woman
Subject
259
such a work is unseemly in awoman,
the title emphasizes that the work has
earnest
"at
been
made
the
desire of some friends" and because
only
public
of its devotional use in benefiting the "afflicted."
Inmy view, this dual insistence on the text's typological significance and
a strategy for recuperating
the propriety of her narrative act becomes
an
for
Rowlandson's
and
her
position
claiming
authority over her experi
ence that, at the same time, is a form of discursive captivity. Iwill argue
that captivity is a crucial metaphor
for Rowlandson's
position and that it
at several different levels to reveal her subjection and resistance to
social, discursive, and political structures which define and confine women.
works
By tracing the historical context
framework of Puritan ideology
Americans
and
(especially
text attempts to
Rowlandson's
a position
of the community,
text and placing it in the
that embraced oppressive views of Native
I will
show
how
women,
"public")
recuperate her position as a valued member
of Rowlandson's
that she nonetheless
finds troubling.
resists interpretations of her experience
Rowlandson
that tie
consistently
the meaning
of her captivity to socially and ideologically
received ideas
about violent forms of justice visited on the guilty woman's
body. At the
same time, she appeals to models that cast her struggle in Job-like terms of
the narrative, title page, preface, and title
providential affliction. Moreover,
strive to reestablish Rowlandson's
former position of respect in the minds
In order to succeed
in reassimilating
of readers.
however,
herself,
must rely on the fatherly endorsements
of Puritan authorities,
Rowlandson
to
Such endorsements
such as Increase Mather.
depend on her conformity
their agendas, which
establish dominant discursive practice and include
about women and their suffering bodies. Author
problematic assumptions
to resist her own ambivalent
ship requires Rowlandson
feelings about her
that nevertheless
intrude into her text. I will
show how
experience
resists readings that violate her and struggles to claim author
Rowlandson
ity and significance for her experience. This resistance is in tension with her
acceptance of her structural captivity within dominant discursive practices
I will argue that Rowlandson's
and their limitations.
language creates
as
she
with
constructed
struggles
places of ambivalence
culturally
of her experience that cast her own language and body as sites
meaning(s)
of captivity.
in
have stept out of your place. You have rather bine a Hus
band than aWife and a Preacher than a Hearer; and aMagis
trate than a Subject_?Thomas
Prince to Anne Hutchinson
You
(cited inHall 383)
26o
Early American
Volume
Literature,
28, 1993
wrote
A consideration
of the historical context in which Rowlandson
a
extent
to
in
is
narrative.
Not
which
factor
her
illustrates the
only
gender
were women discouraged
from coming forward to speak or write, this kind
of forwardness was connected with their persons and their sexuality. The
a New
the climate in which
historical evidence available to reconstruct
are
woman
wrote
statements
ismarked by conflicting
inter
that
England
preted variously by modern critics. There are the oft-cited remarks of John
Winthrop,
who
connected
Anne Hopkins's
writing
with madness:
came to
Mr. Hopkins,
the governor of Hartford upon Connecticut,
and
and
with
his
wife
Boston,
him, (a godly young woman,
brought
of special parts,) who was fallen into a sad infirmity, the loss of her
and reason, which had been growing upon her divers
understanding
to reading and writ
of her giving herself wholly
occasion
years, by
written
Her
had
books.
and
many
husband, being very loving
ing,
and tender of her, was loathe to grieve her; but he saw his errour
itwas too late. For if she had attended to her household
af
as
to
not
out
such
and
her
of
and
women,
gone
fairs,
things
belong
as
are
to
in
and
meddle
for
such
men,
way
proper
calling
things
whose minds are stronger, she had kept her wits, and might have
when
improved them usefully and honourably
her. (cited inMartin
58)
in the place God
had set
Here, writing causes the woman's
"infirmity," her loss of understanding
sex in both mind and body, women's
and reason. As the weaker
reading
a defiance of place that disrupts God's
ismere "meddl[ing],"
and writing
In 1650, Thomas Parker displayed his offense at his
ordering of the world.
own sister's publication of her book:
... your printing of a Book, beyond
rankly smell, (cited in Bremer 44)
the custom
of your Sex, doth
only does Parker connect the right (or lack of it) to authorship with
gender, he attributes a physicality to his sister's act?it "doth rankly smell."
The book is foul because it is her book. His association of her work with
smell implies a connection between woman's
corporeal body and the body
invite us to associate women's writing with
of her text. Parker's comments
their sexual organs and perhaps other acts that are "beyond the custom."
Not
This linking of women's
public speech with their sexuality is not unique to
referred to Anne Hutchinson's
Thomas
Parker. John Cotton
heresy as
was
"American
it
that
this
and
frequently charged
"spiritual adultery,"
Jezibel" had "seduced" Christians away from the church.4 The connection
to Ann
with Hutchinson
is doubly appropriate here because, according
Kibbey,
the Antinomian
controversy
ended
in the denial of the "figurative
The
"Place" of the Woman
Subject
261
of the "material shape of
and the destruction
of women"
imaginations
a result of the events of
As
in
Puritan
women's
society."5
public speech
to
conversion
women's
narratives were given
1637-38,
Kibbey,
according
to
in
the
entire
rather
than
before
congregation; women
only
private
clergy
were officially banned from public religious discourse.
While
the positive reception of Anne Bradstreet's work in 1650 would
seem to belie this argument, we must keep in mind that itwas Reverend
not the woman herself, who effected the unprecedented
John Woodbridge,
his
of
sister-in-law's
poems. Not surprisingly, given the previ
publication
ous examples, Anne Bradstreet's The Tenth Muse was introduced by twelve
pages of prefatory material which authenticated,
explained, and justified
this "curious Work."6 Using the example of Bradstreet, Mitchell Breitwieser
Puritan women met rarely
suggests that the writing of seventeenth-century
with outright hostility and was in fact "cautiously celebrated"?as
long as
it was
in the major
confined to "minor genres" and avoided "meddling
"nervous
Yet
toler
of doctrine, theory, or collective history"
(18).
even
the
of
ance" does not exclude
open
(and may
promise)
possibility
to
if and when boundaries of genre and doctrine are perceived
hostility
in
work
have been crossed. Rowlandson's
"major
clearly "meddl[es]"
the colonial
of doctrine
modes
errand,
[and] theory" by invoking
modes
captivity, and the political and ideological significance of the
Babylonian
war against the "heathens." Therefore, despite cases of hesitant permissive
text is framed within
ness towards women's written works, Rowlandson's
sanction
of
for and
both imaginative and literal violence
the potential
women.
against [public]
Ann Kibbey's work on John Underbill's Newes
from America
(1638)
context
tacit
the
illustrates
that
another
approval of violence
provides yet
against not only public women but all women who "deserve" it. Underhill
in captivity, were
narrates the story of two "English maids" who, while
to Kibbey, Underhill
reads this
allegedly raped by their captors. According
a
wise
for
as
and
instance
of
God's
clear
violence
just punishment
physical
demon
Underbill's
the women's
interpretation, Kibbey writes,
impiety.
strates a prevalent belief in the subordinate position of women
and the
of women's
bodies.
society for the literalization
and
their
the
is
physical bodies,
literally signified through
impiety
out
harm.
This
is
borne
is
claim
authoritative
sin
for
by
bodily
punishment
murder. Like Underbill's
narrative, John
readings of Anne Hutchinson's
"Short Story" about the Antinomian
controversy
Winthrop's
subsequent
and Theodore Weld's
(Hutchinson's)
appended preface portray a woman's
as an instance of divine justice.7
murder by Native Americans
potential
Women's
in Puritan
this context, the fact that Rowlandson's
captivity places her in the
public eye threatens to make her culpable for her suffering. Her struggle to
Given
Early American
262
Literature,
Volume
28, 1993
claim authority over her experience and its significance must be viewed in
the context of these attitudes toward women's
public speech and toward
The work of her narrative
and
violation.
the meaning of women's
suffering
is not only to make sense of her captivity; she must also recuperate her
very idea of who she is at "home" as
in such a way
that she does not
into
her
reinforce notions of women's
guilt through
foray
public speech.
that Anne Hutchinson's
public speech was also
Perhaps remembering
that of the au
tolerated and even respected until it began to undermine
enters
Anne
the
of
like
world
Rowlandson
discourse,
Bradstreet,
thorities,
on the arm of a powerful man of God, Increase Mather.8
former reputation and position?her
to in the wilderness?and
compared
for hostility toward the
Rowlandson's
work anticipates
the potential
woman writer as well as her audience's suspicions about the author: that
for her sins of impiety and pride, of
her captivity may be God's punishment
is but one example. The preface, probably written by
which her writing
Increase Mather,
from the wrong kinds of
attempts to protect Rowlandson
speculation:
I hope by this time none will cast any reflection upon this gentle
woman on the score of this publication of her Affliction
and Deliv
erance.9
in the sphere
He understands that the act of publication places Rowlandson
of public "reflection," that her speech makes her the subject of others', and
book in an unflattering
that her audience may view this "gentlewoman"'s
way.
ostensible purpose for writing refutes the aspersions
Rowlandson's
a writer, and a captive:
audience may cast on her for being a woman,
her
And here Imay take occasion to mention one principal ground of
my setting forth these lines, even as the psalmist says to declare the
works of the Lord and His wonderful
power in carrying us along,
us
in
while
under
the enemy's hand and
the
wilderness
preserving
us
in bringing to my
in
His
and
returning
safety again
goodness
hand so many comfortable
and suitable scriptures inmy distress.
(46)
justifies her work by claiming to "declare the works of the
she insists on her "preservation"
and
Lord and his wonderful
power";
to
in
in
order
preempt other readings of herself,
"enemy" hands
"safety"
Rowlandson
Americans'
violence
readings that confirm public suspicions of Native
and question to what extent she, like the "English
against white women
deserved this "punishment." Not only did the Puritans believe
maids,"
raped their female captives, their assump
(wrongly) that Native Americans
The
"Place" of the Woman
Subject
263
tion was compounded
had been
report that Rowlandson
by a published
to
a Nashaway
forced
chief
marry the "one-eyed sachem," John Monoco,
who led the raid on Lancaster.10 She is placed in the position of defending
her chastity:
I have been in the midst of those roaring lions, and savage bears
that feared neither God, nor man, nor the devil, by night and day,
alone and in company, sleeping all sorts together, and yet not one
of them ever offered me the least abuse of unchastity to me, inword
or action. Though some are ready to say I speak it for my own
credit; but I speak
it in the presence
of God,
and to His Glory.
(169)
Like Puritan
(fallen) sexuality and
ideology's connection between women's
their public speech, Rowlandson's
attempts to discredit public speculation
about rape merge with her defense against those who question her writing
and "say [she] speakfs] it for [her] own credit." In order to validate her
must define the meaning of her experience
piety and chastity, Rowlandson
or risk the interpretations
see her captivity
of others, who might
(and
as
divine
for
sins
that
have authored
themselves
justice
they
imagined rape)
recounts carefully her
for her. Inwriting about her experience, Rowlandson
a
in
role
while
of
her
redefinition
of self that
discovery
spiritual
captivity,
enables her survival.
I then remembered how careless I had been of God's holy time;
how I had lost and misspent and how evilly I had walked
in God's
sight; which
lay so close unto my spirit that itwas easy for me to
see how righteous itwas with God to cut off the thread of my life
and cast me out of His presence forever. (145)
Placing herself
and redemption,
tion: a member
God Himself"
within a known
at the center of the familiar and meaningful
drama of sin
Rowlandson
refashions herself in a new and valid posi
of the elect who
learns the lesson that "we must rely on
the wilderness
and frames
(173). Rowlandson
appropriates
and communally validated discourse her own alien experi
so, she secures itsmeaning and value. She herself names the
ence. In doing
of her transgressions?she
took the
enjoyed tobacco, sometimes
Sabbath for granted, and was perhaps proud inwishing that she, too, could
experience affliction as proof that God was testing and preparing her for
salvation. She herself decides that her physical captivity has spiritual mean
ing. She claims a position inGod's (and therefore the Puritan community's)
nature
eyes: God afflicts her not because she is unchaste or impious but because
He has chosen to love and lead her.
Before claiming this authority for herself, however, Rowlandson
first
264
Early American
Literature,
Volume
28, 1993
(such as Increase Mather) who can sanction
subjects herself to authorities
her work. By invoking discourses of providential affliction and the colonial
frames her text in a way pleasing to those anxious to
errand, Rowlandson
control the meaning of her experience in the wilderness. Hers is the first in
a series of New England captivity experiences that were used as sermons to
demonstrate God's rising anger at the "sins" of His people.11 While Mitchell
Breitwieser writes that Rowlandson
"speaks" and authors herself, accept
a
construction
of
ing typological
experience that would have been imposed
on her anyway (82), I view her use of Puritan idioms as a self-preserving
of captiv
strategy. As I have shown, other and less desirable constructions
are
It
is
her
and
social
for
survival
ity
possible.
perhaps imperative
physical
to put forth this meaningful
in the Puritan community
version of her
in order
thus submits to one public interpretation
experience. Rowlandson
to avoid other potential
to
that
she
wishes
preempt. She
interpretations
speaks within a publicly authorized discourse and, in a sense, complies with
the discursive captivity of a woman writer. In constructing a narrative self,
Rowlandson
becomes subject to others' agendas and interpretations.
Rowlandson
conspires in her own literalization, but it is a literalization
can
she
live with. If, as I have suggested, the woman's
self is constructed
from within a context that approves her violently compelled
literalization,
then the act of situating her experience within
the discursive
frames of
providential affliction and the colonial errand permits her to recuperate for
herself a meaningful
social, political, and spiritual position. As Mitchell
Breitwieser has noted, her acceptance of this form of representation
is a
no
to
is
it
outside
within
the community
that she
but
way of proving
longer
an
on
to
assert
her
work
is
While
Breitwieser
that
"unforced
(82).
goes
raises her to a transcendent perspective"
affirmation that...
(103), Iwould
wants
to
return to her
it
if
demonstrates
that
she
that
argue
stridently
former position, she must remain a Puritan reader. She cannot necessarily
effect her own reading of herself but can engage in an interpretation co
authored
of the Puritan fathers. As
by the imaginations
incurs no hostility and permits her to fix or recuperate her
and reinforced
such, her writing
"place."
But it is not the usual practice of women
(even to appear) to speak for
themselves, and so "Per Amicum's"
preface ensures the proper interpreta
tion of the work and the woman.12 Mather
encloses the entire text within
his own legitimating frame, identifying for readers the spaces of significa
in the
tion.13 In this sense, Mather
in an authorial manner
functions
text.
production of Rowlandson's
The tendentious aim of the preface
of the text. In the preface, Rowlandson's
clearly
distinguishable?white
and
is to ensure the typological meaning
experience is portrayed in terms of
non-white?binary
oppositions.
The
"Place" of the Woman
Subject
265
Native American
Rowlandson's
captors are "Barbarians,"
"Heathens,"
and "cruel and barbarous Salvages," who attack with "causeless Enmity"
and "revengeful Spirit." They are "Atheistical, proud, wild, cruel, barba
rous, brutish (in one word) diabolical Creatures." On the other hand,
as a "worthy and precious gentlewoman,"
a
is portrayed
Rowlandson
"dear Consort" of that "faithful Pastor," and the "precious Servant, and
of God. Mather
Handmaid"
the textual content: this is
literally commands
a "Narrative of the wonderfully
awful, wise, holy, powerful, and gracious
of God." Readers
find themselves
providence
within Per Amicum's well-ordered
textual world:
enclosed
and
implicated
I am confident that no Friend of divine Providence, will ever repent
his time and pains spent in reading over these sheets; but will judge
them worth perusing again and again.
Per Amicum
commands not only the way one should read but also how
often. His comments amount almost to a decree for the text's circulation.
(Whether or not as a result of his imperative, the first edition was literally
read to pieces, requiring four editions in the first year of its publication.)14
The preface also sanctions good reading and condemns bad:
Reader, if thou gettest no good by such an implication
fault must needs be thine own.
as this, the
is for the elect, for those who
"disdain not to consider the
so
hands"
"have
of
and
[God's]
operation
deeply tasted how good the Lord
is." If your reading is not mine, the preface warns, you are surely not one of
us; and if your reading ismy reading, then you will participate in this text's
circulation and valorization. Mather,
this
through his preface, co-produces
its proper significance and stabilizing interpretation; in this
text, delineating
way, he assigns spiritual value to its author, subject, and readers.
This work
IV
... A
of unspotted
life,
Worthy Matron
A loving Mother
and obedient wife,
A friendly Neighbor,
pitiful to poor,
Whom
oft she fed, and clothed with her store;
To Servants wisely aweful, but yet kind,
And as they did, so they reward did find:
A true Instructer of her Family,
The which she ordered with dexterity.
?Anne
Bradstreet,
1643
266
Early American
Literature,
Volume
28, 1993
The work of the text, title, and preface is to recuperate and restore the
to restore her to home. The wilderness
of
position(s) of Mary Rowlandson,
disordered
racial, social, and religious hierarchies must be reestablished,
fixed. The supremacy of certain
interpretations
significances
assigned,
must
be
declared.
The
meanings
importance of her social role in the
construction and recuperation of her "place" becomes clear as Rowlandson
was an
describes
the aftermath of her capture. At home, Rowlandson
a
a
to
minister's
and
influential
mother
her
chil
person,
wife,
important
a
dren. In this new, unstable, wilderness
is
she
from
shuffled
servant,
place,
master
poses
to master, begging
a loss of identity:
for food from
strangers. Her
removal from home
gone, my husband gone ... my children gone, my relations
and friends gone, our house and home and all our comforts?
was gone (except my life), and I knew
within door and without?all
not but the next moment
that might go too. (144)
All was
For Rowlandson,
in relation to
upon her position
identity is contingent
others. She lists a virtual hierarchy of social connection: husband, children,
home and
relatives, friends. She lists herself lastly, even after material
comforts, as a mere parenthesis; her words
suggest that the loss of these
connections
and the position they furnish is equivalent to the loss of self.
is depen
robs her of her identity, which
in the wilderness
Her experience
But
dent on her place: minister's wife, mother,
sister, friend, housekeeper.
her captors strip her of her roles. She cannot nurse or provide for her dying
child. She is told that her other children are dead and that her husband has
that
remarried. Bereft of her social identity, lost in a spiritual wilderness
calls into question familiar hierarchies of social, racial, and spiritual mean
is unwillingly placed in a position
ing, this wife of a New England minister
on and servitude to an "inferior" master. Her sense of
of dependence
to mark
in her use of parentheses
and loss of self is encapsulated
life."
"my
The textual apparatus work to reestablish and validate Rowlandson's
fulfillment of the Puritan woman's
prescribed social roles. The title directs
the narrative "especially to her dear children and relations," and positions
the writer as a mother concerned for the spiritual welfare of her children,
confusion
the words,
will benefit from understanding
the "true" value of the captivity
In writing
is complying with the pre
this text, Rowlandson
experience.
scribed duty of a Puritan parent to provide her children with spiritual
instruction and guidance. In bringing her narrative forward, she is carrying
out her role as neighbor and Christian, acting in a "motherly" way for the
who
benefit of all the afflicted.15 The apparent devotional
by descriptions of her motherly ministering
mirrored
purpose of her text is
to her fellow captives,
The
"Place" of the Woman
Subject
267
such as the unfortunate young Goodwife
Joslin, with whom she shares her
Bible. Under the guise of a mother's
righteous and dutiful act, her author
a
bold
than a compliance with a prescribed
becomes
less
assumption
ship
community
role.
industrious knitting, which enables her to barter for food and other
necessaries throughout her captivity is a reenactment of her role as "deputy
husband." Laurel Thatcher Ulrich writes that a Puritan wife was a business
and her ability to drive a hard bargain was often
partner in marriage,
Her
in bargain
for economic
survival. Rowlandson's
effectiveness
even
to
with
and
whom
and
for
how
procur
much,
ing?knowing
bargain
account?demonstrates
from an especially delinquent
her
ing payment
necessary
of her structural role while in captivity.
is reinforced by the impor
Rowlandson's
position as deputy husband
tance the appended sermon, preface, title page, and the text itself place on
her role as minister's wife. Rowlandson's
work was published with her
recreation
last sermon in all of the early editions.16 Her text conveys a
to this sermon, which Joseph Rowlandson
message
preached at
in her
Her
narrative
assists
before
he
died.
Wethersfield,
Connecticut,
days
in
vocation
husband's
his
his
thesis, expressed
title, "A
by illustrating
Sermon of the Possibility of God's Forsaking a People that have been near
and dear to him." This textual congruence of sermon and narrative, hus
husband's
similar
to return the lost captive to her former place,
and wife, works
will
be viewed from the framework of husband Joseph's
ensuring thatMary
ministry and her own position as his wife. Her position is reinforced by the
role as "precious
language of the preface, which emphasizes Rowlandson's
Mr.
Consort
of
and
"dear
the
said
Reverend
Rowlandson."
yoke-fellow"
This language sanctions her work and experience,
infusing the text and its
with
subject
legitimizing significance.
textual and social au
Despite the text's recuperation of Rowlandson's
structures that define
remains
discursive
and
social
she
thority,
captive by
her roles as author and member of the community. Rowlandson
writes,
band
Itwas
given
Iwould have
but the other day that if I had had the world,
it for my freedom, or to have been a servant to a Christian.
(173)
inNative American and Puritan societ
The parallels between her positions
is another form of servitude. In neither
ies suggest that her restoration
society does she have a legal "say" in her destiny or the interpretation of
to Ulrich, a Puritan woman
her experiences. According
could not enter a
or
a
write
will (7). Her social place was largely
contract, acquire property,
by her position as wife; a husband's
(148). Trusted
"carefully defined dependency"
dictated
left a woman with a
neighbors came in and took
death
Early American
268
Literature,
Volume
28, 1993
inventories of household
detailed and exhaustive
goods, including every
thing from farm animals to "forks and food." By law, a widow was entitled
to one-third of the household goods and an annual, fixed "maintenance"
provided by her son, "but only rarely did she retain full control of her
house and yard or even the assembly of pots, beds, and cows which had
once been her domain"
if she
(7). Even the annual fee was relinquished
or "restored,"
"held captive,"
remarried. Whether
"maintained,"
a subject to social and
continues in a position of dependence,
Rowlandson
discursive
constructions
of women
that define and attach value to her acts.
v
in America often mean to say that a
Early spiritual autobiographies
soul has found love inwhat the Lord has done_Words
sound
other ways. I hear short-circuited conviction. Truth is stones not
bread.?Susan
Howe,
"Encloser"
resists interpretations that tie her captivity and writ
While Rowlandson
ing to women's
impiety, she nevertheless struggles to position herself within
those constructions
of her experience as a captive and an author that she
also tie Rowlandson's
value to
finds acceptable; these same constructions
to
The
discursive
and
social
her are
available
her gendered body.
positions
on
It
women's
cultural
bodies.
of
contingent
representations
might be said
that the narrative framing of her captivity is an attempt to transcend that
presenting captivity as conver
body by assigning it spiritual meaning?by
text follows suit in attempting to efface her
sion. Criticism of Rowlandson's
the dynamics of
body by focusing on the capacity of language to mediate
value and power that captivity has disrupted.
For example, David Sewell suggests that writing
about the captivity
an
once
to
establish
and for all the
for
the
is,
attempt
author,
experience
over
reverse
to
the
of
the
the power
captors',
captive's language
primacy
relationship of the captivity experience. During captivity, Sewell writes, the
is unsettled and called into
victim's power over language and its meaning
revises
the
narrative
the
power relationship be
question. The writing of
tween captor and captive and reestablishes
the victim's language as the
civilized and powerful one. Sewell argues that the foremost rule of captivity
cannot give vent to their natural
is that the victims
feelings. That
in her censoring of her own
Rowlandson
observes this rule is apparent
in captivity. She writes
that she broke down before the
despair while
and found
Indians only once, when she crossed the river into Connecticut
herself "sitting alone in the midst" of a great number of them, all laughing
The
and sharing their war
remembers her home.
"Place" of the Woman
Subject
269
news
weeps before them as she
(152). Rowlandson
is reflected in the scriptural
[Her reason for weeping
"By the Rivers of Babylon there we sate down: yea, we wept
quotation:
when we remembered
asked why
she cries, however,
Zion."] When
can hardly tell them of her desolation and perhaps come to an
Rowlandson
end like Goodwife
Joslin, another who cried to be sent home. Rowlandson
censors herself: "Yet I answered, they would kill me" (152). Her captors
"understand" and reassure her with spoonfuls of meal, a half pint of peas,
and promises
that "none will hurt [her]." Rowlandson
shows that she
understands
the limits imposed on the language of captives, limits which
she gladly overturns as she writes her narrative.
If, as Sewell argues, former captives write to gain ascendancy over their
experience, to decimate the power of their captors' language and reinstate
theirs and, therefore,
the "true"
of their captivity,
significance
use of the Puritan idiom is an apt one. She invokes God, the
Rowlandson's
ultimate linguistic authority, and establishes Him as the true captor. Ac
cording to this reading, her captors merely act out God's will that His
use of language
chosen one be afflicted. Not only does Rowlandson's
to
over
of
her
control
the
attempt
regain
meaning
experience, it also wreaks
a sort of verbal revenge:
But the Lord requited many of their doings,
ter, was hanged afterward in Boston. (165)
for this Indian her mas
Praying Indian was at Sudbury fight, though,
was afterward hanged for it. (163)
he
served,
Another
as he de
Her text seeks to reestablish the superiority of the Puritan world view and,
in effect, reenact on the Native Americans
the silencing which she experi
enced as a captive.
At the same time, however, Rowlandson's
work
exhibits a tension
between
the language of typology, which
stabilizes interpretation,
and
other kinds of language that disrupt the authority of this interpretation.
use of Native American words, her growing differentiation
Rowlandson's
of her captors from the "heathen" stereotype, and other evidence of adap
tation to her captors' culture seems to undermine the portrayal of experi
ence in terms of Babylonian
affliction.
captivity and providential
Ifwriting
is to reestablish Rowlandson's
position
as the primacy of this culture over her captors',
own. She
language would creep into Rowlandson's
term for husband, "sannup," as well as "pow-wow"
well
the Wampanoag
husband":
"Nux"
answer
[Yes].
to her question,
"would
in her own culture as
it seems odd that their
uses theWampanoag
and "sagamore," and
they sell me to my
Early American
270
Literature,
Volume
28, 1993
In addition, Rowlandson's
narrative reveals a degree of acculturation on
a
is not as firmly fixed as it seems.
her part,
suggestion that her position
V/hile at first, Wampanoag
food is "filthy trash," and she would
rather
"starve and die before [she] could eat such things," eventually
it becomes
"sweet and savory to [her] taste" (150). Rowlandson
learns to
eventually
"enjoy" horse-liver, boiled horse's feet, and the fetus of a fawn. She knits
socks, shirts, and hats for her captors, and even invites her master and
to dinner. The following passage suggests the degree to which
mistress
Rowlandson
...
grows
accustomed
to Native
American
ways:
I cannot
but remember how many times sitting in their
and
wigwams,
musing on things past, I should suddenly leap up
and run out, as if I had been at home, forgetting where Iwas, and
what my condition was; but when Iwas without,
and saw nothing
and a company of barbarous heathens,
but wilderness,
and woods,
my mind quickly returned to me ... (156)
Rowlandson
admits to a certain degree of comfort in her surroundings; she
feels "as if [she] had been at home" in their wigwams. Only when she goes
outside and sees not her village and friends but "wilderness, woods,
and a
She
company of barbarous heathens" does she remember her "condition."
finds that she can be "at home" with their way of life.
ceases to view her
There is also substantial evidence that Rowlandson
a
or
sense.
in
and
white
non-white
She describes
captors
strictly typological
numerous
social interactions that suggest her growing view of them as
individuals rather than a mere "company of heathens."
She recounts spe
on
one
lets her cook
cific kindnesses of individual women,
who
dwelling
views
and get warm at her fire and bids her to "come again." Rowlandson
her master as "the best friend that I had ... both in cold and hunger"
her mistress,
is a "severe and proud
(155). On the other hand, Weetamoo,
"bestow[s] every day in dressing herself neat as much time as
also rejects the drunken
any of the gentry of the land" (162). Rowlandson
Indian stereotype and defends her master; although he negotiates a "pint of
liquor" from one Mr. Hoar, he "was the first Indian I saw drunk all the
while that Iwas amongst them" (167).17
dame" who
views border on defiance, as when
she inter
times, Rowlandson's
a few
account
to
her
for
her
"mention
of
the
release
rupts
negotiations
notice
remarkable passages of providence, which
took
of in
[she]
special
are
time"
afflicted
these
the
[her]
(167). Among
English army's turning
back for provisions
the English
just as the enemy arrived at Lancaster;
over
to
their
follow
the
failure
her
captors
army's sluggish pursuit;
Baquaag
At
River; the Native Americans'
ability to survive despite the lack of food; and
the English victory, which comes only after they assume defeat and place
The
"Place" of the Woman
Subject
271
their fate in God's hands. These "remarkable providences"
disrupt her
seems
on
When
she
the
of
her
she
verge
story.
validating
captors' ways,
a
to
same
"God's
At
shifts
reaffirmation
of
the
time,
plot."
abruptly
of the English in pursuing
however, her "wonder" at the incompetence
their enemies is certainly a criticism. While on the surface, this interruption
the explicit purpose of her narrative (to "declare the works of the
it
also calls into question the actions of the Puritan authorities. Her
Lord"),
questions interrupt the authority of their decisions, an interruption which is
emphasized by its narrative placement.
These disruptions of the Puritan world view must be read in the context
of the narrative's overall focus on the typological reading of experience and
reaffirms
the insistent presence of scripture. As I have shown, seventeenth-century
act
notions of women
and their public speech demand that Rowlandson's
concur
to
in
Puritan
with the
world view
order
of writing
have value. These
the desire for mastery
of language and the sense of
tensions between
language's incapacity to describe (indeed, its tendency to efface by leaving
this woman's
experience are a problem for Rowlandson,
unpresentable)
one
occurs
in critical readings of her work as well. For example,
which
and
and Leonard Tennenhouse
emphasize Rowlandson's
Armstrong
rather than her experience, acknowledging
the presence of her
suffering physical body only insofar as it becomes symbolic of a "sensibil
the narrative. Accord
is the source of the language composing
ity," which
"the individual acquires value ...
and Tennenhouse,
ing to Armstrong
and Tennenhouse's
because she was the source of language." Armstrong
Nancy
imagination
statement captures exactly the problem
that troubles Rowlandson,
the
of
problem of her body, violated by captivity and now by the domination
an inadequate language which reduces her to a symbol for the regeneration
of the Puritan community. Readings such as this one threaten, as language
does, to eclipse Rowlandson's
experience and to cast it, as does the Puritan
conversion
as
narrative,
mere
abstraction.
For
and
Armstrong
is
of her personal worth
the "most powerful demonstration
Tennenhouse,
as
an
value
of
narrative
Rowlandson
the published word."
acquires
object
is an
terms, her captivity experience
exchange.
Similarly, in typological
a
to
Puritan congregation,
her body worthy
only
backsliding
example
because of her soul.
In Rowlandson's
is
text, the tension between experience and expression
ever present:
It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of the heart,
and bitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure ... (144-45)
and
I cannot
express
to man
the affliction
that lay on my
spirit...
(149)
Early American
272
Literature,
Volume
28, 1993
sites of silence, are filled up with references
These places of inexpressibility,
to God and scriptural quotations
that reencapsulate
(and thus threaten to
Rowlandson's
within
efface)
experience
typology:
... but God was with me
along, and bearing up my
in a wonderful
manner, carrying me
not quite fail,
it
that
did
spirit,
and
... but the Lord
I
helped me at that time to express it to Himself.
to
Bible
and
the
Lord
that
my
read,
brought
precious
scrip
opened
ture
to me.
to gain power over the meaning of her captivity and to fix its
is ultimately left
significance and her value in the public mind, Rowlandson
with the unsatisfactory
of her sorrows and an uncertainty,
representation
which she attempts to resolve by recourse to scripture.18 At the same time,
the transcendence
of language; once "re
Rowlandson's
body disrupts
In attempting
stored," she continues to grieve and suffers from insomnia.19 Her sustained
account of the memories
that disturb her suggests her wavering
back and
forth between the desire that typological
of experience be
representation
enough and her heart's dissatisfaction with it:
I can remember the time when I used to sleep quietly without work
ings inmy thoughts, whole nights together, but now it is other ways
with me. V/hen all are fast about me, and no eye open, but His who
ever waketh, my thoughts are upon things past, upon the awful
of the Lord towards us, upon His wonderful
power
dispensation
in carrying us through so many difficulties,
in returning
and might,
us to safety, and suffering none to hurt us. I remember in the night
season, how the other day Iwas in the midst of thousands of en
emies, and nothing but death before me. It is then hard work to
persuade myself, that ever I should be satisfied with bread again_
the wonderful
power of God that mine eyes have seen, afford
ing matter enough for my thoughts to run in, that when others are
(172)
sleeping mine eyes are weeping.
Oh!
memories
of Indian captivity return to her at night, despite
Rowlandson's
the safety of others "fast about [her]," and resist the comfort and stability
in [her] thoughts" and "when
of typological readings. She has "workings
others are sleeping [her] eyes are weeping." Her experience deprives her of
a sense of home as a secure position, of the notion that home can ever be
"safe" from the disruptions of Indian attack or, more importantly, her own
of life "in the midst of thousands of enemies" are
thoughts. Her memories
reminders of a way of life outside the "home" of the Puritan world view.
The
"Place" of the Woman
Subject
273
that she
They displace her certainty. This passage defies that passivity
claims her experience has taught her: "Be still, and know that I am God."
that "outward things" are but "a
(Psalm 46:10). Despite her contention
a
a
cannot
she
bubble"
submit fully to the reassur
shadow,
blast,
(173),
ances of a "home" in scripture, nor can she be completely "restored" as her
narrative
attempts
to
suggest.
of the negotiations
for her release serves as a
tensions
between
the
limitations
of representation
and
for
these
metaphor
her own feelings. She recounts a scene inwhich her captors compel her to
name the price of her redemption:
Rowlandson's
account
They bid me speak what I thought he [her husband]
Now knowing that all we had was destroyed by the
in a great strait. I thought if I should speak of but a
be slighted, and hinder the matter; if of a great sum,
where itwould be procured. Yet at a venture I said
pounds," yet desired them to take less. (163)
would
give.
Indians, Iwas
little, itwould
I knew not
"Twenty
"They bid me speak ...": and in so speaking she affixes to her self a
value. In writing her narrative it is her "friends" who bid her to
monetary
American
Her
captors,
speak.
speech shows that, as with her Native
at
the limits of lan
is adept
within
Rowlandson
political maneuvering
guage.10 In writing her narrative, she adopts the Puritan idiom and in so
doing inscribes a social and spiritual value on her experience and on her
that will
each act, Rowlandson
body. With
struggles to find a position
satisfy both those who establish and sanction public value and her own
a sort of
private sense of value. In each case, her survival necessitates
compromise?neither
"a
little"
nor
"a great
sum."
Speaking and writing effects her reenclosure in structures of captivity as
well as her restoration to her family and friends. In estimating an appropri
ate value for both her experience in the wilderness
and her physical body,
as an object of
Rowlandson
strikes a good bargain; but she continues
she is maintained
barter. After
the negotiations,
by the town of
an
at
her
husband's
her
death
awards
annual pension
Wethersfield,
which,
"as long as she remained 'awidow
among us'" (cited inGreene 27). Upon
she
the publication
of her narrative,
becomes the object of exchange and
sale as textual self, circulated and consumed by the reading community.
The living Mary Rowlandson
virtually disappears and is replaced by the
woman
be
represented by her text.21 Finally, it seems that Rowlandson
comes a place herself, a corporeal and textual site for disputes over the
assignation, exchange, and control of the meaning of her experience.22 This
of Rowlandson's
objectification
body makes more difficult her struggle to
to
of the captivity narrative attempts
represent a self. The framework
Early American
274
Literature,
Volume
28, 1993
and erase her body (except as it is constituted
by language). It
of her body as symbol, as
requires her to be an emblem. The construction
can be assigned and controlled
space where meaning
by divines and
of captivity.
prefators, amounts to a double violation, another framework
text becomes a model
Rowlandson's
for the issues American women
displace
as subjects, they enter the arena of representation.
struggle with when,
While Rowlandson's
voice is not completely effaced, neither is she permit
ted authority. Puritan typology attempts to appropriate her textual and
corporeal body as a symbolic "home" from which to control the meaning
of her experience. Rowlandson's
narrative expresses her ambivalence about
those representations of women and their experience which are available to
her. Her work exhibits a tension between her desire for the stability of
"restoration"
and the need to resist its limitations. Mary Rowlandson's
"place" is perhaps those ever-shifting
conversion
leaves unrepresentable.
"removes"
that the narrative
of
NOTES
i.Mitchell Breitwieser makes the point that the Bible provides another plane of
security, a place of dwelling in the midst of change.
2. This phrase was suggested by Linda Hutcheon's
chapter, "Subject in/of/to
and His
Story."
here therefore
Breitwieser's
contention
that the Puri
3. My
thinking
interrogates
tan home,
as shelter,
a history
is like a concrete
and a subjectivity.
being, with
My
or made
is on what
is excluded
from
of
emphasis
unpresentable
by structures
"home."
History
4. For
pp.
a fuller
discussion
of Cotton's
response
to Hutchinson,
see Wendy
Martin,
58-63.
as
5. Kibbey's
argument,
at work
in Puritan
violence
6. Elizabeth Wade White
her
reflects,
language
women.
attitudes
toward
also
treats these prefatory materials
an
to
points
element
of
in detail. See especially
PP-
2-53-55
7. For a fuller discussion
treatments
of
including
Weld's
of
Puritan
Underbill's
culture's
narrative,
literalization
Winthrop's
of women's
"Short
see
"1637."
Kibbey's
chapter,
that women's
narratives
argues
captivity
Fitzpatrick
the redeemed
themselves
and the ministers
who
captives
bodies,
and
preface,
8. Tara
narrators:
captives' histories for didactic purposes of their own." While
women's
voice,"
Story,"
voices
my
as
argument
and
undermining
ismore
cautious.
even
I argue
this
overcoming
that Rowlandson's
"relied
on
two
propagated
the
Fitzpatrick views
textual
text
"corporate
articulates
a
tension between her own voice and those of the church authorities.
9. For the text of the preface, see A True History of the Captivity and Restoration
of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. The Garland Library of Narratives of North American
Indian Captivities. Comp. Wilcom E.Washburn. New York: Garland, 1977, Vol.
2.
10. Diebold's introduction treats both published and unpublished rumors about
The
"Place" of the Woman
275
Subject
Rowlandson's
captivity as well as historical evidence that Native Americans did
not
female
their
rape
captives.
ii. Richard Siotkin argues that Cotton Mather and other New England religious
and political authorities used the captivity experiences of Rowlandson and Hannah
Dustin
12. Most
the
in this way.
readers
See pp. 94-115.
the suggestion
of David
accept
Amicum"
("By a Friend"),
"Per
preface,
to Breitwieser,
Richards
Increase
is cited inMinter.)
unpublished Yale Honors Thesis
Derounian (240).
13. According
A.
is
the
author
of
(Richards's
See also, Breitwieser
investment
Mather's
that
Mather.
in Rowlandson's
(6) and
stems
work
from his own desire to police the interpretation of King Philip's War, as shown in
his work, Brief History of theWARR with the INDIANS inNew England (1676).
(Breitwieser 83-87). According to David Downing, "Mather and other Puritan
divines explained the Indian uprising as a sign of God's displeasure, exhorting their
congregations about the dangers of 'backsliding'" (Downing 254).
that the work's
14. Greene
argues
1682
survive
edition
(25).
popularity
may
why
explain
no
of
copies
the
Boston,
15.1 am indebted to Ulrich's work on the Puritan conception of mothering.
Ulrich claims that the mother's role extended into the community in the form of
over
watching
ers were
often
children
others'
and
instructing
to as "tender
referred
parent[s]."
servants.
Rowlandson's
treatment
and
"proven"
act of
capable
can
authorship
enactment
of Rowlandson's
of
and
she writes,
older
in the community?they
derived authority from their established position
considered
Grandmothers
Further,
In
sin
teach
women
were
this
context,
a more
recent
recognizing
(103).
as
For
viewed
motherly.
see Davis.
of the role of goodwife,
be
16. Diebold notes that the Boston edition of 1720 is the only known early edition
not to reprint the sermon (clvii).
17. Breitwieser
also
Rowlandson's
explores
resistance
growing
to
the
Indian
stereotype (132).
18. David
as
style
she
Downing
recounts
notes
that Rowlandson
of her captivity,
the events
a
adopts
but when
and homely"
"vigorous
to consider
she pauses
the significance of these events, she employs biblical quotations
(Downing 252).
and metaphors
that Rowlandson's
of the Puritan
is a disruption
19. Breitwieser
argues
grief
a "wildness"
world
outside
of control.
His
of Puritan
funeral
view,
analysis
sermons
was
shows
how
and replaced
grief
by other
discouraged
"techniques,"
such as typology,
"lift grief to sanctity."
Breitwieser
that would
suggests,
therefore,
recourse
that Rowlandson's
to mourning
her
represents
of Puri
"transcendence"
tan typology. See Breitwieser (60). I argue, however, that Rowlandson's weeping
and insomnia represents her struggle with the inadequacy of language and typol
ogy to account for her experience that continues to stay with her physically, in her
thoughts,
eyes,
memories,
tears.
This
incapacity
of
language
to
incorporate
this
aspect of her experience is part of the larger failure of patriarchal language tomake
women's
experience
expressible.
20. The role that Increase Mather played in encouraging the publication of her
narrative is the subject of much debate (Derounian 240).
21. It is perhaps worth mentioning here that Rowlandson disappears from his
tory
once
she writes
her
narrative.
Greene
notes
that
the Dictionary
of American
Biography lists the date of her death as 1678, although no historical evidence
exists to verify the fact. According to Greene, scholars assumed that Rowlandson
died soon after her husband, when in fact she remarried and lived in the colony
Early American
276
until
her
death
28, 1993
more
to the point
is that Mary
Rowlandson
Perhaps
once
her
fictional
of
self circulates.
Mary
import
of God's
and good
the text,
that
(knowable)
sovereignty
example
not only
who
anomalous
the (unknowable)
woman,
Rowlandson,
in 1710/11.
to be
ceases
the
person
Rowlandson
ness,
Volume
Literature,
replaces
survived Indian captivity but wrote about it. Her new identity affording her no
position from which to write, she is reabsorbed into obscurity?the proper place
for a Puritan
22.
wife.
According
cultural
process
where
to Teresa
of
de Lauretis,
representing
constructions
gender,
she
argues,
of gender
the woman
the social forces battle for control over meaning
Lauretis's
the wages
I view
of Rowlandson
the representation
model,
of this violence.
of sin as an example
WORKS
are
In the
violent.
becomes
a
place
and ideas. Following de
as a
living
emblem
of
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