Full Description
When it first appeared in 1767, this novel was called a "sort of second Robinson Crusoe; full of wonders." Indeed, The Female American is an adventure novel about an English protagonist shipwrecked on a deserted isle, where survival requires both individual ingenuity and careful negotiations with visiting local Indians. But what most distinguishes Winkfield's novel is her protagonist, a woman who is of mixed race. Though the era's popular novels typically featured women in the confining contexts of the home and the bourgeois marriage market, Winkfield's novel portrays an autonomous and mobile heroine living alone in the wilds of the New World, independently interacting with both Native Americans and visiting Europeans. The Female American is also one of the earliest novelistic efforts to articulate an American identity.
This second edition has been updated throughout and includes a greatly expanded selection of historical materials on castaway narratives and on the cultural context of colonial America.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Female American in Literary Context: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
The Female American
Appendix A: The Colonial Americas and Its Native Peoples
From Thomas Harriot, A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1590)
From George Percy, "Percy's Discourse of Virginia" (1625)
From John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia (1624)
From Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (1688)
Appendix B: Ibn Tufayl and Autodidactic Castaways
From The History of Josephus the Indian Prince (1696)
From George Keith, The Woman-Preacher of Samaria (1674)
From Simon Ockley, The Improvement of Human Reason (1708)
From The Life and Surprizing Adventures of Don Juliani de Trezz (1720)
From The History of Autonous (1736)
From John Kirkby, The Capacity and Extent of the Human Understanding (1745)
Appendix C: Isolated Castaways
From William Dampier, New Voyage Round the World (1697)
From Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712)
From Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719)
From Daniel Defoe, Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1720)
From Peter Longueville, The Hermit (1727)
Appendix D: Castaway Communities
From [Ambrose Evans], The Adventures and Surprizing Deliverances, of James Dubourdieu, and his Wife (1719)
From Penelope Aubin, The Life of Charlotta Du Pont, An English Lady (1723)
From "A Remarkable Voyage in the South Sea," Edinburgh Magazine (1760)
Appendix E: Reviews of The Female American
The Monthly Review (1767)
The Critical Review (1767)
Works Cited and Recommended Reading
