EXTRA CAPTIVITAS NULLA SALUS: THE SECULARIZATION OF SPACE IN THE EARLY AMERICAN BARBARY CAPTIVITY NARRATIVE

Hamza LADJROUD, Mohamed GARITI

Abstract

A number of American female writers devised their textual narratives for the mere purpose of emancipating their sex from the unjustifiable domination of their male compatriots. This paper compares Mary Rowlandson’s factual narrative account of Indian captivity with Susanna Haswell Rowson’s fictional narrative of barbary captivity in a bid to fathom the power of religion, as a societal drive, in shaping the structure of the Puritan family/society, and further ascertain how that power was later challenged, by some female writers, by creating a narrative space devoid of any theological shackles that would restrict their participation in the intellectual and political life of the nation. To argue that Rowson’s project of secularizing the American landscape was successful, to a fair extent, this paper will draw upon the theoretical insights of the secularization thesis; mainly in the works of Peter L. Berger and Steve Bruce; as well as Doreen Massey’s seminal contributions to the relationships between identity and geographical space.

Pages: 88 - 101