Imagining Columbus: The Literary Voyage

186 Pages·1993·10.823 MB·English

by  Ilan Stavans (auth.)

IMAGINING COLUMBUS
THE LITERARY VOYAGE
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IMAGINING COLUMBUS
THE LITERARY VOYAGE
Han Stavans
Palgrave
*
IMAGINING COLUMBUS
Copyright © llan Stavans, 1993. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in hardcover in 1993 by Twayne Publishers
First PALGRAVE™ edition: September 2001
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
PALGRAVE is the new global publishing imprint of St. Martin's Press LLC
Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd
(formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 978-0-312-24032-5 ISBN 978-1-137-10460-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-10460-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
upon request from the Library of Congress
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
First paperback edition: September 2001
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To
Miriam Slomianski
(1911-1991)
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CONTENTS
Preface xi
Part 1 Mapmaking
1. Discovery or Encounter? 3
2. Biographical Sketches 15
3. Facts on File 31
Part 2 Lives of a Literary Character
4. Masquerade 49
5. The Man 58
6. The Villain 78
7. The Symbol 92
8. Conclusion: In Search of the Future 115
Vll
Vlll CONTENTS
Chronology 121
Notes and References 129
Selected Bibliography 148
Index 159
The practice of literature sometimes fosters the ambition to construct
an absolute book, a book of books that includes all the others like a
Platonic archetype, an object whose virtue is not lessened by the
years.
-Jorge Luis Borges,
"Note on Walt Whitman" (1947)
He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision-he cried
out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath-"The horror! The
horror!"
-Joseph Conrad,
"Heart of Darkness" (1902)
Paradise anew
Shall flourish, by no second Adam lost ...
A Canaan here,
Another Canaan shall excel the old.
-Philip Freneau,
"The Pictures of Columbus:
The Genoese" (1788)