Entering the Conversation

1. Much of what we read and see about “Pocahontas” is hagiographic; that is, it idealizes her as a mythic figure. In the American conciousness, Pocahontas, or Matoaka, is a person more mythic than real. As historians William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton state, “She has been called America’s Joan of Arc because of her saintlike virtue and her courage to risk death for a noble cause. She has even been revered as the ‘mother’ of the nation, the female counterpart to George Washington.” Why has she been so mythologized? Why has she become such an important figure to Americans? How do the texts in the Conversation contribute to or interrogate this hagiographic portrayal?

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - Much of what we read and see about “Pocahontas” is hagiographic; that is, it idealizes her as a mythic figure. In the American conciousness, Pocahontas, or Matoaka, is a person more mythic than real. As historians William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton state, “She has been called America’s Joan of Arc because of her saintlike virtue and her courage to risk death for a noble cause. She has even been revered as the ‘mother’ of the nation, the female counterpart to George Washington.” Why has she been so mythologized? Why has she become such an important figure to Americans? How do the texts in the Conversation contribute to or interrogate this hagiographic portrayal?
2. In his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell writes, “Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed.” Write an essay about Pocahontas in which you support, refute, or qualify Campbell’s statement.

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - In his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell writes, “Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed.” Write an essay about Pocahontas in which you support, refute, or qualify Campbell’s statement.
3. Historian and critic Charles Larson, in his 1978 book, American Indian Fiction, writes of Pocahontas: “She was an Indian we created solely out of our ethnocentric imaginations. She was the shadow of the great forest.” Consider what he means by “our ethnocentric imaginations” and by “the shadow of the great forest.” Then write an essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies the validity of Larson’s statement.

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - Historian and critic Charles Larson, in his 1978 book, American Indian Fiction, writes of Pocahontas: “She was an Indian we created solely out of our ethnocentric imaginations. She was the shadow of the great forest.” Consider what he means by “our ethnocentric imaginations” and by “the shadow of the great forest.” Then write an essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies the validity of Larson’s statement.
4. Regarding Pocahontas and others, historian Daniel Richter writes, “It is much easier to reconstruct the abstract forces that constrained the seventeenth-century Native world than it is to recover the personal experiences of the people who struggled to give that world human shape… . Verifiable evidence about these figures is so scant that it may never be possible to determine the ‘truth’ about their lives… .” Write an essay about Pocahontas that explores the validity of Richter’s statement.

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - Regarding Pocahontas and others, historian Daniel Richter writes, “It is much easier to reconstruct the abstract forces that constrained the seventeenth-century Native world than it is to recover the personal experiences of the people who struggled to give that world human shape… . Verifiable evidence about these figures is so scant that it may never be possible to determine the ‘truth’ about their lives… .” Write an essay about Pocahontas that explores the validity of Richter’s statement.
5. In his 1981 book, Simulacra and Simulation, French philosopher Jean Beaudrillard analyzes the progression of an image in four stages: “It is the reflection of a profound reality; it masks and denatures a profound reality; it masks the absence of a profound reality; it has no relation to any reality whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum.” A simulacrum differs from a representation or a simulation in that it may be considered a copy without an original, producing what Beaudrillard calls a “hyperreality.” Consider the implications of Beaudrillard’s ideas as they relate to our conception of Pocahontas. Are we dealing with reality or hyperreality if what we “know” about Pocahontas comes mainly from an animated Disney movie?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Entering the Conversation: - In his 1981 book, Simulacra and Simulation, French philosopher Jean Beaudrillard analyzes the progression of an image in four stages: “It is the reflection of a profound reality; it masks and denatures a profound reality; it masks the absence of a profound reality; it has no relation to any reality whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum.” A simulacrum differs from a representation or a simulation in that it may be considered a copy without an original, producing what Beaudrillard calls a “hyperreality.” Consider the implications of Beaudrillard’s ideas as they relate to our conception of Pocahontas. Are we dealing with reality or hyperreality if what we “know” about Pocahontas comes mainly from an animated Disney movie?
6. View the 2009 film Avatar, and write an essay that compares and contrasts it with the Disney film Pocahontas and with the mythic figure you have learned about throughout this Conversation.

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - View the 2009 film Avatar, and write an essay that compares and contrasts it with the Disney film Pocahontas and with the mythic figure you have learned about throughout this Conversation.