Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T17:42:30.172Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Naturalism from Forest to Village in William Gilmore Simms's “The Arm-chair of Tustenuggee”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Peter Murphy
Get access

Extract

William Gilmore Simms's “The Arm-chair of Tustenuggee: A Legend of the Catawba” (1840) frames the lives of colonial Catawba Indians in a naturalistic environment extending from the wild to the domestic; nonetheless, Simms also manages to incorporate elements of realism and romanticism in the tale to provide a blend of perspectives that complement one another. Perhaps most importantly in the context of 19th-century Native American literary studies, the story humanizes the native, providing a tale that realistically and humorously points out aspects of human conflict to which all people are susceptible. This work, among others by Simms dealing with the Native American that are discussed in this essay, effectively counters the generalization that colonial works invariably stereotype the native as noble savage.

Type
Research Article
Information
Prospects , Volume 28 , October 2004 , pp. 73 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

WORKS CITED

Barnett, Louise K. The Ignoble Savage: American Literary Racism, 1790–1890. London: Greenwood, 1975.Google Scholar
Brown, Douglas Summers. The Catawba Indians: The People of the River. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1966.Google Scholar
Keen, Butterworth, and Kibler, James E. Jr William Gilmore Simms: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1980.Google Scholar
Chapman, Abraham, ed. Literature of the American Indian: Views and Interpretations — A Gathering of Indian Memories. New York: New American Library, 1975.Google Scholar
Charles, Allan D. The Narrative History of Union County, South Carolina. 3rd ed. Greenville, S.C.: Press Printing, 1997.Google Scholar
Current-García, Eugene. “Simms's Short Stories: Art or Commercialism?” Mississippi Quarterly 15 (Winter 1962): 56–67.Google Scholar
Curtin, Jeremiah. Seneca Indian Myths. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 2001.Google Scholar
Guilds, John C, ed. Introduction to The Wigwam and the Cabin. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Howell, Elmo. “William Gilmore Simms and the American Indian.” South Carolina Review 5, no. 2 (06 1973): 57–64.Google Scholar
Hudson, Charles M. The Catawba Nation. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Meriwether, Nicholas. “Simms's The Lily and the Totem: History for the Purposes of Art.” Long Years of Neglect: The Work and Reputation of William Gilmore Simms. Ed. Guilds, John C.. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Parrington, Vernon Louis. The Romantic Revolution in America. 1927; rept. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1954.Google Scholar
Ruppert, James. Indians in Anglo-American Literature, 1492–1990. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Scheick, William. The Half-blood: A Cultural Symbol in 19th-century Fiction. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1979.Google Scholar
Simms, William Gilmore. Tales of the South. Ed. and intro. Wimsatt, Mary Ann. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Simms, William Gilmore. The Letters of William Gilmore Simms. 5 vols. Ed. Oliphant, Mary C. Simms, Odell, Alfred Taylor, and Eaves, T. C. Duncan. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1952–1956.Google Scholar
Simms, William Gilmore. The Wigwam and the Cabin. New York: Belford, Clarke, 1888.Google Scholar
Wimsatt, Mary Ann, ed. Introduction to Tales of the South. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996.Google Scholar