Marvlous Possessions
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Rethinking the Modern Sense of Wonder Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World by Stephen Greenblatt Review by: David W. Noble American Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Mar., 1994), pp. 77-80 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2713356 . Accessed: 05/08/2013 11:03
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BOOK REVIEWS
Rethinking theModernSense ofWonder
DAVID W NOBLE Minneapolis University ofMinnesota,
Marvelous Possessions: The Wonderof the New World. By Stephen of Chicago Press, 1992. 202 pages. Greenblatt. Chicago: University $24.95 (cloth),$10.95 paper.
IN MARVELOUS POSSESSIONS,STEPHEN GREENBLATT EXPLORES THE BENIGN
and destructive aspects of the sense of wonderwithwhichRenaissance Europeansreactedto their"discovery"of the Americas.He illuminates for this sense of wonderby focusingon anecdotes."As is appropriate who thought theyknewwheretheywere goingand ended up in voyagers a place whose existence they had never imagined,"he writes, "the in thelateMiddleAges andtheRenaissanceis rarely, if discourseof travel and teleologicaldesign, at thelevel of sustained narrative ever,interesting the worldnot in at the level of anecdote.... They present but gripping orderbutin a success of brief random and harmonious encounters, stately isolatedanecdotesof theunanticipated" (2). experiences, critics literary is a leader of a groupof "new historicists," Greenblatt context. to place textsin historical Among Greenblatt's who are trying FromMore to Shakespeare earlier booksareRenaissanceSelf-Fashioning: Some otherbooks associatedwiththis and ShakespeareanNegotiations. groupare Power on Display: The Politics of Shakespeare's Genres by andFormsofNationhood:TheElizabethanWriting Tennenhouse Leonard of England by RichardHelgerson.1
David W. Noble is a Professor of American studies at the Universityof Minnesota, Minneapolis. He is the authorof The End of American History(Minneapolis, 1985). Studies Vol.46, No. 1 (March1994) i 1994American Association American Quarterly, 77
This content downloaded from 193.227.1.43 on Mon, 5 Aug 2013 11:03:45 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
78
AMERICAN QUARTERLY
of anecdoteseems to be emphasison thecentrality Partof Greenblatt's by an openthat societies are characterized to his desireto assume related have thecapacityto shape their thatindividuals whichensures endedness, whatwe maycall a priori that "itis important to resist own lives.He insists modes of He rejects"thenotionthatparticular ideological determinism." or and necessarily boundto a givenculture [are] inherently representation thispositionwhenhe also (4). But he contradicts class or beliefsystem" world in spiteof theProtestant Reformation there was a unified that insists view-religious, political, and military-which made it possible for to conquertheindigenous peoplesoftheAmericas RenaissanceEuropeans forGreenblatt, is culture, easily. Centralto thisdynamicand aggressive and he declares,"thattheproliferation capitalism."It is withcapitalism," andtransmisof representations (and devicesforthegeneration circulation achieveda spectacular and virtually inescapable sion of representations) global magnitude.This magnitude-the will and the abilityto cross to encounterand to immense distances and, in the search for profit, human and natural theenabling unfamiliar objects-is radically represent experiencewith which this book will be conditionfor the particular concerned"(6). in thedifficulties thatall is participating Greenblatt As a newhistoricist their in since the 1960s have preserving the academics experienced that But one findslittleevidencein his narrative boundaries. disciplinary have and anthropologists the ways in whichhistorians he has considered in orderto explainhow therecan be been discussingcultural hegemony from thatpower at the same time.Instead, and dissent established power Greenblatt givesus thetwo majorexamplesof Mandevilleand Columbus. in "a renunciation Mandeville'ssense of wonderresulted For Greenblatt, in a circulation of plagiarized, unstable of possession,thecritical pathway toward which a drive the sacred roots at the crusading through signifiers intoa tolerant along its of theworldis transformed perambulation center rim"(24). a personal constructed Mandeville, then, according to Greenblatt, a him to thatdid wonder that enabled live life his sense of out of narrative a personalnarrative out of Columbusalso constructed notoppressothers. sharedby thedominant groupsof butthiswas a story his sense of wonder, Europe. "The possession of weapons and the will to use them on defenselesspeople," Greenblatt insists,"are culturalmattersthat are bound up withdiscourse:withthe storiesthata culturetells intimately itself, its conceptions of personal boundary and liability,its whole
This content downloaded from 193.227.1.43 on Mon, 5 Aug 2013 11:03:45 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
RETHINKINGTHE MODERN SENSE OF WONDER
79
the allphenomenon, of rules.And if gold is a natural collectivesystem in Greenblatt's difference forgoldis not"(64). The great craving consuming of Mandeville'sand Columbus'ssenses of analysisbetweenthedynamics wonderis thatMandeville used wonderto renouncepossession of the Medieval world while Columbus used wonderto possess a new world. is trying to say aboutColumbus understand whatGreenblatt Readersmight themen themultifaceted senseof wonder ifGreenblatt had explored better as theyrejectedtheold and Renaissanceexperienced of the Reformation worldof the Middle Ages and began to imaginenew worlds.What was the bourgeois theirsense of wonderwhentheydiscoveredand invented and invented theProtestant discovered whenthey selfandthemarketplace, whentheydiscoveredand to the divinity, individualand his relationship and when they landscapeof Renaissancepainting, invented the limitless discovered and inventedthe natural world of Galileo? All of these were characterized by possessive individualism. inventions-discoveries oftheAmericasas a new worldwas one aspectof The invention-discovery sense of wonderthatwas experiencedas the Renaissance-Reformation possessionand domination. of all book as an implicitendorsement One can read Greenblatt's of all discoursesthat discoursesthatrenounce possessionand a rejection of his fromthe beginning argument encouragepossession. Greenblatt's that of choice. He beginsby insisting book is thatwe have thepossibility imaginationprecedes reason, that wonder precedes logic. If we find was begunby thecapitalist ourselvestodayin a worldwhoseconstruction assuresus, we can imaginean elite of the Renaissance,still,Greenblatt thispossessiveuse of the marvelousis world."I do notthink alternative "the experienceof wonder decisive or final,"he concludes,but rather, of the world is incomplete" us that our reminds (24). We grasp continually in our own practices, a thewonderthatis latent "recover can, he exhorts, and yokeddepressingly to thathas becomeflattened wonder by familiarity in whichmuseums, ofclass and status half-visible theordinary, regulations movies,paperbackbooks,and schools all play a part"(25). in narrative years,academicshave lostconfidence Duringthelastthirty in whichthe wonder because theyhave lost theirabilityto see a future will be replaced of capitalist possessionand themagicof themarketplace a more democratic by a more socially generous,a more ecological, ourattempt suchas Greenblatt, represent wonder. Perhapsnewhistoricists, of themodern worldand to imaginehow the to go back to thebeginning rather than a destructive new world mighthave become a constructive
This content downloaded from 193.227.1.43 on Mon, 5 Aug 2013 11:03:45 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
80
AMERICAN QUARTERLY
one thatnurtured rather thandestroyed humanbeings.I find environment, in lookingto eccentric littlehope,however, personalities like Mandeville sense of wonderto thatof a capitalistclass. But it is for an alternative a private from possible thatmanyacademicsare finding refuge capitalist power withthe sense of wonderthatenables us to possess our personal careers. scholarly
NOTES
1. Stephen Greenblatt,Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare (Chicago, 1983); Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England (Berkeley, 1988); Leonard Tennenhouse, Power on Display: The Politics of Shakespeare's Genres (London, 1986); Richard Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan Writingof England (Chicago, 1992).
This content downloaded from 193.227.1.43 on Mon, 5 Aug 2013 11:03:45 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Quarterly.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 193.227.1.43 on Mon, 5 Aug 2013 11:03:45 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
BOOK REVIEWS
Rethinking theModernSense ofWonder
DAVID W NOBLE Minneapolis University ofMinnesota,
Marvelous Possessions: The Wonderof the New World. By Stephen of Chicago Press, 1992. 202 pages. Greenblatt. Chicago: University $24.95 (cloth),$10.95 paper.
IN MARVELOUS POSSESSIONS,STEPHEN GREENBLATT EXPLORES THE BENIGN
and destructive aspects of the sense of wonderwithwhichRenaissance Europeansreactedto their"discovery"of the Americas.He illuminates for this sense of wonderby focusingon anecdotes."As is appropriate who thought theyknewwheretheywere goingand ended up in voyagers a place whose existence they had never imagined,"he writes, "the in thelateMiddleAges andtheRenaissanceis rarely, if discourseof travel and teleologicaldesign, at thelevel of sustained narrative ever,interesting the worldnot in at the level of anecdote.... They present but gripping orderbutin a success of brief random and harmonious encounters, stately isolatedanecdotesof theunanticipated" (2). experiences, critics literary is a leader of a groupof "new historicists," Greenblatt context. to place textsin historical Among Greenblatt's who are trying FromMore to Shakespeare earlier booksareRenaissanceSelf-Fashioning: Some otherbooks associatedwiththis and ShakespeareanNegotiations. groupare Power on Display: The Politics of Shakespeare's Genres by andFormsofNationhood:TheElizabethanWriting Tennenhouse Leonard of England by RichardHelgerson.1
David W. Noble is a Professor of American studies at the Universityof Minnesota, Minneapolis. He is the authorof The End of American History(Minneapolis, 1985). Studies Vol.46, No. 1 (March1994) i 1994American Association American Quarterly, 77
This content downloaded from 193.227.1.43 on Mon, 5 Aug 2013 11:03:45 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
78
AMERICAN QUARTERLY
of anecdoteseems to be emphasison thecentrality Partof Greenblatt's by an openthat societies are characterized to his desireto assume related have thecapacityto shape their thatindividuals whichensures endedness, whatwe maycall a priori that "itis important to resist own lives.He insists modes of He rejects"thenotionthatparticular ideological determinism." or and necessarily boundto a givenculture [are] inherently representation thispositionwhenhe also (4). But he contradicts class or beliefsystem" world in spiteof theProtestant Reformation there was a unified that insists view-religious, political, and military-which made it possible for to conquertheindigenous peoplesoftheAmericas RenaissanceEuropeans forGreenblatt, is culture, easily. Centralto thisdynamicand aggressive and he declares,"thattheproliferation capitalism."It is withcapitalism," andtransmisof representations (and devicesforthegeneration circulation achieveda spectacular and virtually inescapable sion of representations) global magnitude.This magnitude-the will and the abilityto cross to encounterand to immense distances and, in the search for profit, human and natural theenabling unfamiliar objects-is radically represent experiencewith which this book will be conditionfor the particular concerned"(6). in thedifficulties thatall is participating Greenblatt As a newhistoricist their in since the 1960s have preserving the academics experienced that But one findslittleevidencein his narrative boundaries. disciplinary have and anthropologists the ways in whichhistorians he has considered in orderto explainhow therecan be been discussingcultural hegemony from thatpower at the same time.Instead, and dissent established power Greenblatt givesus thetwo majorexamplesof Mandevilleand Columbus. in "a renunciation Mandeville'ssense of wonderresulted For Greenblatt, in a circulation of plagiarized, unstable of possession,thecritical pathway toward which a drive the sacred roots at the crusading through signifiers intoa tolerant along its of theworldis transformed perambulation center rim"(24). a personal constructed Mandeville, then, according to Greenblatt, a him to thatdid wonder that enabled live life his sense of out of narrative a personalnarrative out of Columbusalso constructed notoppressothers. sharedby thedominant groupsof butthiswas a story his sense of wonder, Europe. "The possession of weapons and the will to use them on defenselesspeople," Greenblatt insists,"are culturalmattersthat are bound up withdiscourse:withthe storiesthata culturetells intimately itself, its conceptions of personal boundary and liability,its whole
This content downloaded from 193.227.1.43 on Mon, 5 Aug 2013 11:03:45 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
RETHINKINGTHE MODERN SENSE OF WONDER
79
the allphenomenon, of rules.And if gold is a natural collectivesystem in Greenblatt's difference forgoldis not"(64). The great craving consuming of Mandeville'sand Columbus'ssenses of analysisbetweenthedynamics wonderis thatMandeville used wonderto renouncepossession of the Medieval world while Columbus used wonderto possess a new world. is trying to say aboutColumbus understand whatGreenblatt Readersmight themen themultifaceted senseof wonder ifGreenblatt had explored better as theyrejectedtheold and Renaissanceexperienced of the Reformation worldof the Middle Ages and began to imaginenew worlds.What was the bourgeois theirsense of wonderwhentheydiscoveredand invented and invented theProtestant discovered whenthey selfandthemarketplace, whentheydiscoveredand to the divinity, individualand his relationship and when they landscapeof Renaissancepainting, invented the limitless discovered and inventedthe natural world of Galileo? All of these were characterized by possessive individualism. inventions-discoveries oftheAmericasas a new worldwas one aspectof The invention-discovery sense of wonderthatwas experiencedas the Renaissance-Reformation possessionand domination. of all book as an implicitendorsement One can read Greenblatt's of all discoursesthat discoursesthatrenounce possessionand a rejection of his fromthe beginning argument encouragepossession. Greenblatt's that of choice. He beginsby insisting book is thatwe have thepossibility imaginationprecedes reason, that wonder precedes logic. If we find was begunby thecapitalist ourselvestodayin a worldwhoseconstruction assuresus, we can imaginean elite of the Renaissance,still,Greenblatt thispossessiveuse of the marvelousis world."I do notthink alternative "the experienceof wonder decisive or final,"he concludes,but rather, of the world is incomplete" us that our reminds (24). We grasp continually in our own practices, a thewonderthatis latent "recover can, he exhorts, and yokeddepressingly to thathas becomeflattened wonder by familiarity in whichmuseums, ofclass and status half-visible theordinary, regulations movies,paperbackbooks,and schools all play a part"(25). in narrative years,academicshave lostconfidence Duringthelastthirty in whichthe wonder because theyhave lost theirabilityto see a future will be replaced of capitalist possessionand themagicof themarketplace a more democratic by a more socially generous,a more ecological, ourattempt suchas Greenblatt, represent wonder. Perhapsnewhistoricists, of themodern worldand to imaginehow the to go back to thebeginning rather than a destructive new world mighthave become a constructive
This content downloaded from 193.227.1.43 on Mon, 5 Aug 2013 11:03:45 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
80
AMERICAN QUARTERLY
one thatnurtured rather thandestroyed humanbeings.I find environment, in lookingto eccentric littlehope,however, personalities like Mandeville sense of wonderto thatof a capitalistclass. But it is for an alternative a private from possible thatmanyacademicsare finding refuge capitalist power withthe sense of wonderthatenables us to possess our personal careers. scholarly
NOTES
1. Stephen Greenblatt,Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare (Chicago, 1983); Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England (Berkeley, 1988); Leonard Tennenhouse, Power on Display: The Politics of Shakespeare's Genres (London, 1986); Richard Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan Writingof England (Chicago, 1992).
This content downloaded from 193.227.1.43 on Mon, 5 Aug 2013 11:03:45 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
