Decentring the Renaissance : Canada and Europe in multidisciplinary perspective, 1500-1700 ; [based on papers presented at a Conference held at Victoria College, Univ. of Toronto, in March 1996

In 1497, explorers from the confident world of Renaissance Europe sailed, under Captain Giovanni Caboto, into what are now Canadian waters. This significant encounter brought into contact two worlds equally ignorant of each other and set in motion a number of events that culminated in the birth of a new nation. The Renaissance, ordinarily thought of as an entirely European-centred phenomenon is 'de-centred' in these eighteen innovative essays. They explore not only how the European Renaissance helped form Canada, but also how more significantly the experience of Canada touched the Renaissance and those who first came to the shores of North America. Representing a range of disciplines, including literature, anthropology, biology, history, linguistics, and anthropology, this work re-thinks traditional notions of Canada and of the Renaissance. The essays examine both the interaction between the two worlds as well as the ways that this interaction has traditionally been interpreted. As distinct from the rapid transformation of South and Central America, the focus is on the slower northern experience, questioning the European monopoly on history, politics, and science, as well as the misrepresentation of Canada's Aboriginal peoples. Originally presented at a 1996 conference at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, University of Toronto, these essays provide a wealth of new information and a variety of new perspectives on the collision of the Old World with the New. MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Contents 6 Illustrations 10 Preface 12 Introduction: 'Other Land Existing' 16 Part I: Methods 30 Polarities, Hybridities: What Strategies for Decentring? 32 Inclusive and Exclusive Perceptions of Difference: Native and Euro-Based Concepts of Time, History, and Change 46 Plunder or Harmony? On Merging European and Native Views of Early Contact 61 Memoria as the Place of Fabrication of the New World 81 Part II: Mentalités / Debwewin 98 The Sixteenth-Century French Vision of Empire: The Other Side of Self-Determination 100 The Mentality of the Men behind Sixteenth-Century Spanish Voyages to Terranova 123 Relocating Terra Firma: William Vaughan's Newfoundland 138 Images of English Origins in Newfoundland and Roanoke 154 From the Good Savage to the Degenerate Indian: The Amerindian in the Accounts of Travel to America 172 Part III: Translatio fide 184 Few, Uncooperative, and Ill Informed? The Roman Catholic Clergy in French and British North America, 1610–1658 186 Canada in Seventeenth-Century Jesuit Thought: Backwater or Opportunity? 199 'A New Loreto in New France': Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot, SJ, and the Holy House of Loreto 213 Part IV: Decentring at Work 234 The Delights of Nature in This New World: A Seventeenth-Century Canadian View of the Environment 236 The Beginning of French Exploration out of the St Lawrence Valley: Motives, Methods, and Changing Attitudes towards Native People 249 The Earliest European Encounters with Iroquoian Languages 265 Decentring Icons of History: Exploring the Archaeology of the Frobisher Voyages and Early European–Inuit Contact 275 Sir William Phips and the Decentring of Empire in Northeastern North America, 1690–1694 300 Part V: Afterword 316 Amerindians and the Horizon of Modernity 318 Works Cited 332 Contributors 368 Index 374 Polarities, hybridities: what strategies for decentring? -- Natalie Zemon Davis Inclusive and exclusive perceptions of difference: native and Euro-based concepts of time, history, and change -- Deborah Doxtator Plunder or harmony?: On merging European and native views of early contact -- Toby Morantz Memoria as the place of fabrication of the New World -- Gilles Thérien The sixteenth-century French vision of empire: the other side of self-determination -- Olive Patricia Dickason The mentality of the men behind sixteenth-century Spanish voyages to Terranova -- Selma Huxley Barkham Relocating Terra Firma: William Vaughn's Newfoundland -- Anne Lake Prescott Images of English origins in Newfoundland and Roanoke -- Mary C. Fuller From the good savage to the degenerate Indian: the Amerindian in the accounts of travel to America -- Réal Ouellet with Mylene Tremblay Few, uncooperative, and ill informed?: The Roman Catholic clergy in French and British North America, 1610-1658 -- Luca Codignola Canada in seventeenth-century Jesuit thought: backwater or opportunity? -- Peter A. Goddard 'A new Loreto in New France': Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot, SJ, and the Holy House of Loreto -- André Sanfac̦on The delights of nature in this New World: a seventeenth-century Canadian view of the environment -- Lynn Berry The beginning of French exploration out of the St. Lawrence Valley: motives, methods, and changing attitudes towards native people -- Conrad E. Heidenreich The earliest European encounters with Iroquoian languages -- Wallace Chafe Decentring icons of history: exploring the archaeology of the Frobisher voyages and early European-Inuit contact -- Réginald Auger ... [et al.] Sir William Phips and the decentring of empire in Northeastern North America, 1690-1694 -- Emerson W. Baker and John G. Reid Amerindians and the horizon of modernity -- Denys Delâge and Jean-Philippe Warren.