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Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of a New World, with a new Preface
Marvelous Possessions is a study of the ways in which Europeans of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period represented non-European peoples and took possession of their lands, in particular the New World.
In a series of innovative readings of travel narratives, judicial documents, and official reports, Stephen Greenblatt shows that the experience of the marvelous, central to both art and philosophy, was cunningly yoked by Columbus and others to the service of colonial appropriation. He argues that the traditional symbolic actions and legal rituals through which European sovereignty was asserted were strained to the breaking point by the unprecedented nature of the discovery of the New World. But the book also shows that the experience of the marvelous is not necessarily an agent of in writers as different as Herodotus, Jean de Léry, and Montaigne—and notably in Mandeville's Travels, the most popular travel book of the Middle Ages—wonder is a sign of a remarkably tolerant recognition of cultural difference.
Marvelous Possession is not only a collection of the odd and exotic through which Stephen Greenblatt powerfully conveys a sense of the marvelous, but also a highly original extension of his thinking on a subject that has occupied him throughout his career. The book reaches back to the ancient Greeks and forward to the present to ask how it is possible, in a time of disorientation, hatred of the other, and possessiveness, to keep the capacity for wonder from being poisoned?
"A marvellous book. It is also a compelling and a powerful one. Nothing so original has ever been written on European responses to 'The wonder of the New World.'"—Anthony Pagden, Times Literary Supplement
"By far the most intellectually gripping and penetrating discussion of the relationship between intruders and natives is provided by Stephen Greenblatt's Marvelous Possessions ."—Simon Schama, The New Republic
"For the most engaging and illuminating perspective of all, read Marvelous Possessions ."—Laura Shapiro, Newsweek
In a series of innovative readings of travel narratives, judicial documents, and official reports, Stephen Greenblatt shows that the experience of the marvelous, central to both art and philosophy, was cunningly yoked by Columbus and others to the service of colonial appropriation. He argues that the traditional symbolic actions and legal rituals through which European sovereignty was asserted were strained to the breaking point by the unprecedented nature of the discovery of the New World. But the book also shows that the experience of the marvelous is not necessarily an agent of in writers as different as Herodotus, Jean de Léry, and Montaigne—and notably in Mandeville's Travels, the most popular travel book of the Middle Ages—wonder is a sign of a remarkably tolerant recognition of cultural difference.
Marvelous Possession is not only a collection of the odd and exotic through which Stephen Greenblatt powerfully conveys a sense of the marvelous, but also a highly original extension of his thinking on a subject that has occupied him throughout his career. The book reaches back to the ancient Greeks and forward to the present to ask how it is possible, in a time of disorientation, hatred of the other, and possessiveness, to keep the capacity for wonder from being poisoned?
"A marvellous book. It is also a compelling and a powerful one. Nothing so original has ever been written on European responses to 'The wonder of the New World.'"—Anthony Pagden, Times Literary Supplement
"By far the most intellectually gripping and penetrating discussion of the relationship between intruders and natives is provided by Stephen Greenblatt's Marvelous Possessions ."—Simon Schama, The New Republic
"For the most engaging and illuminating perspective of all, read Marvelous Possessions ."—Laura Shapiro, Newsweek
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
32 people are currently reading
629 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Greenblatt
132 books932 followersStephen Greenblatt (Ph.D. Yale) is Cogan University Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University. Also General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Eighth Edition, he is the author of nine books, including Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare; Hamlet in Purgatory; Practicing New Historicism; Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World; Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture; and The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. He has edited six collections of criticism, is the co-author (with Charles Mee) of a play, Cardenio, and is a founding coeditor of the journal Representations. He honors include the MLA's James Russell Lowell Prize, for Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England, the Distinguished Humanist Award from the Mellon Foundation, the Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Vermont.
Stephen Jay Greenblatt is a Pulitzer Prize winning American literary critic, theorist and scholar.
Greenblatt is regarded by many as one of the founders of New Historicism, a set of critical practices that he often refers to as "cultural poetics"; his works have been influential since the early 1980s when he introduced the term. Greenblatt has written and edited numerous books and articles relevant to new historicism, the study of culture, Renaissance studies and Shakespeare studies and is considered to be an expert in these fields. He is also co-founder of the literary-cultural journal Representations, which often publishes articles by new historicists. His most popular work is Will in the World, a biography of Shakespeare that was on the New York Times Best Seller List for nine weeks.
Stephen Jay Greenblatt is a Pulitzer Prize winning American literary critic, theorist and scholar.
Greenblatt is regarded by many as one of the founders of New Historicism, a set of critical practices that he often refers to as "cultural poetics"; his works have been influential since the early 1980s when he introduced the term. Greenblatt has written and edited numerous books and articles relevant to new historicism, the study of culture, Renaissance studies and Shakespeare studies and is considered to be an expert in these fields. He is also co-founder of the literary-cultural journal Representations, which often publishes articles by new historicists. His most popular work is Will in the World, a biography of Shakespeare that was on the New York Times Best Seller List for nine weeks.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 15, 2019
Stick to Shakespeare, lmao. Broad claims. Random evidence. Bizarre plethora of French texts in a world colonized principally by the Spanish and Portuguese, gee I wonder why. Typically postmodern unwillingness to engage with contents of text results in woke-stamping his fixation on Europeans and pardoning his own inability to perceive any Indigenous agency. It’s boring. It’s ‘90s. It’s not his finest work.
(Selección: introducción.)
(Selección: introducción.)
June 27, 2012
Wonderful essay in response to Todorov's post-modern analysis of the texts produced by participants in the conquest of the new world. Strangely enough, I happen to have read Todorov's book, and found it to be a fascinating read, opening up a fantastic vista to the application of critical theory to historical texts. Greenblatt challenges some of Todorov's conclusions, but affirms and expands on his method.
The subject matter, the conquest of the Americas, is inherently challenging, being so charged with political significance, but Greenblatt steers a careful course, focusing on the textual analysis, but giving the thorny political problems their just due. It's fascinating to compare something like this with the very crude approach of Howard Zinn, who tackles some of the same texts. Not to dismiss Zinn, who also played an important role in my education, but his is a very different undertaking. Reading Greenblatt felt like coming home. I can't wait to read more.
September 18, 2018
More academic, less accessible than a lot of greenblatt’s works; as much an interpretive framework for dealing with cultural encounters as an historical treatment of the meeting of Europeans with Americans. I’m not quite sure it actually deals with the subject of ‘wonders’ as it does with preconceptions, misconceptions, and incomprehension. The problem of language, for instance, was nearly insurmountable. The motives of the ‘Indians’ are neatly unknowable and the Europeans mostly seem to be projecting their own desires onto a not so virgin land; columbus’s attempt to impose a legal act of possession on uncomprehending natives is tragicomic.
June 25, 2020
Greenblatt's close study of "first encounters" is a linguistic, political, and philosophical journey back to the texts of the late 15th and early 16th century. Through these texts, Greenblatt explores the nature of European identity in the face of the other; what the language and rhetoric of letters and journal entries can tell us about these encounters; how the text reveals a working national, European identity unable to uphold the consciousness of an "other" and therefore setting off the events of extirpation, removal, and replacement of the New World.
There are some good nuggets here, to be sure. The titular chapter, "Marvellous Possessions" examines the role of language in Columbus' diarios to reveal larger religious and political forces at work in the European mind. To me, this was the clearest chapter-- one that follows the thesis of linguistic imperialism through the language of "wonder" and "marvel". This chapter will be useful for anyone teaching or discussing the works of Columbus.
The problem with Greenblatt's book, in my mind, is its inability to posit a clear thesis that is upheld through each chapter. I'm having a hard time grasping the unifying ideas, even though they are there. This is in part a style issue, but I think it also suggests a lack of clarity on the author's end. For example, the book begins with a personal anecdote of Greenblatt in Bali and finishes with his visit to a Oaxacan village colonial era church. The idea, I think, is to connect the idea of "representation", but Greenblatt does a disservice to the reader in not even attempting to close the circle. This happens, too, in many of the chapters, where Greenblatt will introduce a complex idea, jump around to different texts, and leave the reader in the lurch by the chapter's end.
There's a lot here worth thinking about and so the book is worth reading. I just wish Greenblatt cared about his audience a little more.
There are some good nuggets here, to be sure. The titular chapter, "Marvellous Possessions" examines the role of language in Columbus' diarios to reveal larger religious and political forces at work in the European mind. To me, this was the clearest chapter-- one that follows the thesis of linguistic imperialism through the language of "wonder" and "marvel". This chapter will be useful for anyone teaching or discussing the works of Columbus.
The problem with Greenblatt's book, in my mind, is its inability to posit a clear thesis that is upheld through each chapter. I'm having a hard time grasping the unifying ideas, even though they are there. This is in part a style issue, but I think it also suggests a lack of clarity on the author's end. For example, the book begins with a personal anecdote of Greenblatt in Bali and finishes with his visit to a Oaxacan village colonial era church. The idea, I think, is to connect the idea of "representation", but Greenblatt does a disservice to the reader in not even attempting to close the circle. This happens, too, in many of the chapters, where Greenblatt will introduce a complex idea, jump around to different texts, and leave the reader in the lurch by the chapter's end.
There's a lot here worth thinking about and so the book is worth reading. I just wish Greenblatt cared about his audience a little more.
December 23, 2021
Not as enjoyable as Will in the World, but still an interesting and illuminating read about the rhetoric of first encounters. A little underdeveloped in some places and pedantic in others, it was nonetheless definitely worth reading.
May 30, 2025
Stephen Greenblatt, "Learning to Curse: Aspects of Linguistic Colonialism in the Sixteenth Century," in Greenblatt, Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture (N.Y., 1990), 16-39.
Examining European literary texts from the late 16thC, Greenblatt uncovers an imperialism that is linguistic in nature. The propagation of the English language became, early on, a primary goal of the colonial project. Analyzing cultural symbols, Greenblatt discovers that "to a ruling class obsessed with the symbolism of dress, the Indians' physical appearance was a token of a cultural void. In the eyes of Europeans, the Indians were culturally naked." (p. 17). Kidnapping of interpreters also provides evidence for the centrality of language. Gregorio Garcia, author of a history of the Indians, viewed the cacophony of Indian tongues as the work of Satan intended to impede the progress of Christianity. Though people like Las Casas viewed Indian language as important and meaningful, they were the exceptions.
Indians Had No Language
The prejudice of the learned was far more pervasive than amongst the rude sea captains, who had to deal directly with the "savages." Amongst the educated elite of Europe, mastery of language as evidenced by eloquence was powerfully linked to civilization. In addition, the Medieval figure of the Wildman lingered on in the Renaissance Humanist imagination. Educated Europe viewed the Indians as the lost descendants of Trojans, Hebrews, Carthaginians, etc. who had lost their power of language. (p. 21). The legacy of the Wild Man acted powerfully as a "rehearsal" for the encounter in the new world. Indeed, where other scholars have seen Shakespeare's Caliban as a noble savage, Greenblatt casts him as the Medieval Wild Man without civilization because he is without speech.
No Real Barrier to Speech
Yet, once the natives gained the gift of speech it was thoroughly European that they obtained. Writing of speeches delivered by native peoples, Europeans cast the speech in familiar terms -- putting words in their mouths that they would never have spoken. Speech, as truth, was universal. Once attained, eloquence in the mouths of natives was very like that of their conquerors. Even the Requerimiento becomes more intelligible in this light. Speech, for the Europeans, is universal.
The larger point that Greenblatt is making - Medieval and Renaissance Europe was conceptually unable to grasp the value of diversity, and this tendency was made even worse by the Enlightenment Liberalism to come. Claims of universality render unimportant the diversity of languages and of peoples. Liberal humanism discards people along with languages.
And you can also check out an interesting interview with Stephen Greenblatt from 1992 in which a journalist recounts a trip driving with Greenblatt along Interstate 91 from Cambridge to New Haven.
Examining European literary texts from the late 16thC, Greenblatt uncovers an imperialism that is linguistic in nature. The propagation of the English language became, early on, a primary goal of the colonial project. Analyzing cultural symbols, Greenblatt discovers that "to a ruling class obsessed with the symbolism of dress, the Indians' physical appearance was a token of a cultural void. In the eyes of Europeans, the Indians were culturally naked." (p. 17). Kidnapping of interpreters also provides evidence for the centrality of language. Gregorio Garcia, author of a history of the Indians, viewed the cacophony of Indian tongues as the work of Satan intended to impede the progress of Christianity. Though people like Las Casas viewed Indian language as important and meaningful, they were the exceptions.
Indians Had No Language
The prejudice of the learned was far more pervasive than amongst the rude sea captains, who had to deal directly with the "savages." Amongst the educated elite of Europe, mastery of language as evidenced by eloquence was powerfully linked to civilization. In addition, the Medieval figure of the Wildman lingered on in the Renaissance Humanist imagination. Educated Europe viewed the Indians as the lost descendants of Trojans, Hebrews, Carthaginians, etc. who had lost their power of language. (p. 21). The legacy of the Wild Man acted powerfully as a "rehearsal" for the encounter in the new world. Indeed, where other scholars have seen Shakespeare's Caliban as a noble savage, Greenblatt casts him as the Medieval Wild Man without civilization because he is without speech.
No Real Barrier to Speech
Yet, once the natives gained the gift of speech it was thoroughly European that they obtained. Writing of speeches delivered by native peoples, Europeans cast the speech in familiar terms -- putting words in their mouths that they would never have spoken. Speech, as truth, was universal. Once attained, eloquence in the mouths of natives was very like that of their conquerors. Even the Requerimiento becomes more intelligible in this light. Speech, for the Europeans, is universal.
The larger point that Greenblatt is making - Medieval and Renaissance Europe was conceptually unable to grasp the value of diversity, and this tendency was made even worse by the Enlightenment Liberalism to come. Claims of universality render unimportant the diversity of languages and of peoples. Liberal humanism discards people along with languages.
And you can also check out an interesting interview with Stephen Greenblatt from 1992 in which a journalist recounts a trip driving with Greenblatt along Interstate 91 from Cambridge to New Haven.
February 9, 2022
"How does one read the signs of the other? How does one make signs to the other? How does one move from mute wonder to communication?" (pg. 91).
This book focuses on the semiotics of encounter, communication, and possession between Native Americans and Europeans during episodes of first contact. Ch. 2 (From the Dome of the Rock to the Rim of the World) focuses on the meaning of wonder, centrality, and the view of foreign cultures in Mandeville's Travels, and how that was both influenced by and later influenced Western reactions to the profoundly Other. Ch. 3 (Marvelous Possessions) explores the absurdities of the Spanish Requirimiento, of how the Spanish expressed wonder, confusion, and unintelligibility in their accounts only to immediately claim to take part in meaningful speech acts, arrange for treaties and legal possession, and take part in barter and trade. What was wonder, and what was the difference between marvel, miracle, and monster? How did Europeans interpret Native American cultures through the signs of their own cultures? How and why did they attempt to carry out formal acts of possession or conversion for people who had no idea what was being said? Ch. 4 (Kidnapped Languages) focuses on the on the role of barter, trade, and kidnapping in these cross-cultural interactions. Finally, Ch. 5 (The Go-Between) focuses on the unique role and power of interpreters and other middlemen.
I have no background in semiotics, and am not familiar with literary criticism. Even so, while I think the significance of some parts went completely over my head, I still really enjoyed both the subject and the writing. The author draws elegant parallels and comparisons, and powerfully and directly communicates their points.
This book focuses on the semiotics of encounter, communication, and possession between Native Americans and Europeans during episodes of first contact. Ch. 2 (From the Dome of the Rock to the Rim of the World) focuses on the meaning of wonder, centrality, and the view of foreign cultures in Mandeville's Travels, and how that was both influenced by and later influenced Western reactions to the profoundly Other. Ch. 3 (Marvelous Possessions) explores the absurdities of the Spanish Requirimiento, of how the Spanish expressed wonder, confusion, and unintelligibility in their accounts only to immediately claim to take part in meaningful speech acts, arrange for treaties and legal possession, and take part in barter and trade. What was wonder, and what was the difference between marvel, miracle, and monster? How did Europeans interpret Native American cultures through the signs of their own cultures? How and why did they attempt to carry out formal acts of possession or conversion for people who had no idea what was being said? Ch. 4 (Kidnapped Languages) focuses on the on the role of barter, trade, and kidnapping in these cross-cultural interactions. Finally, Ch. 5 (The Go-Between) focuses on the unique role and power of interpreters and other middlemen.
I have no background in semiotics, and am not familiar with literary criticism. Even so, while I think the significance of some parts went completely over my head, I still really enjoyed both the subject and the writing. The author draws elegant parallels and comparisons, and powerfully and directly communicates their points.
December 9, 2008
Greenblatt's argument is that most of the early world transactions were motivated by complicated desires of wonder, rather than the typical disparaging white-man greed usually attributed to them. He makes an interesting case, even when examining the most complicated of self-promoters (Columbus, Mandeville) and those who are normally not canonical in these early travel writings. Where Greenblatt is helpful is in looking at the specific language of the narratives he analyzes and finding an archetypal condition for these encounters; yet there is also a sense that in creating an "archetype" he also assumes a type based on a few narratives. Like the explorers he describes, Greenblatt's imagination is large, but it seems that in his recognition of a creation of a colonial self, he ignores some larger issues of emergent and submerging psychological selves that need to be considered.
Nonetheless, as with all Greenblatt, a fascinating read.
Nonetheless, as with all Greenblatt, a fascinating read.
March 31, 2016
Unfinished, and not that sorry about it.
Greenblatt's Will In The World is a wonderfully engaging biography of the bard, but Marvelous Possessions is unbearable academic fluff, reminiscent of a college student's attempts to use as many big words as possible to fill the page count.
The substance, if you will, is about the way Western Europeans in the late Middle Ages, having begun expanding across the world and encountering its other inhabitants, engaged with the material cultures they encountered. (In non-Greenblattian terms, what they did with the stuff they found.) I have no reason to believe that the research is flawed in any way, but I gave up on the presentation very quickly.
Greenblatt's Will In The World is a wonderfully engaging biography of the bard, but Marvelous Possessions is unbearable academic fluff, reminiscent of a college student's attempts to use as many big words as possible to fill the page count.
The substance, if you will, is about the way Western Europeans in the late Middle Ages, having begun expanding across the world and encountering its other inhabitants, engaged with the material cultures they encountered. (In non-Greenblattian terms, what they did with the stuff they found.) I have no reason to believe that the research is flawed in any way, but I gave up on the presentation very quickly.
February 17, 2010
Argues that European interaction with the New World, in the late 15th and 16th centuries, was informed largely by their wonderment at the peoples and things that they discovered there. Builds the case on, perhaps, too slender a definition of "wonder", ascribing cultural meaning to it that was not necessarily a shared European one.
October 14, 2007
Greenblatt's range of subject matter is staggering. In this book, he takes on a subject that has received lots of attention, but relatively little clear analysis: What in the hell were the conquistadors thinking??
August 3, 2007
This is Greenblatt's reading of, and response to, Todorov's Conquest of America. A tremendously good book, with a slightly different interpretation than Todorov's.
August 10, 2007
Great read of the Columbus travel diaries and the initial linguistic encounter between Europeans and Native Peoples
July 26, 2011
well written and well thought out approach to the meeting of two distinct cultures
Read
June 3, 2013more academic than I was expecting, didn't get through it
April 25, 2009
fascinating!
900-999-geography-history
March 25, 2019GRE
FIC
FIC
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews