ABSTRACT
In a selective tradition that dates to the seventeenth century, Anglo-American identity is represented as the product of struggles in and against the wild. Initially more influential in the development of a selective tradition of captivity, however, was a late seventeenth-century spiritual autobiography recounting the wilderness trials and redemption of a clergyman's wife, Mary White Rowlandson, who was taken captive in 1676 during Metacom's War. The selective tradition of captivity has expanded from print to drama, public sculpture, children's games, film, and television, remaining an implicit model for representations of threatening otherness. For Raymond Williams a tradition is a "radically selective" and "actively shaping force" that is "intended to connect with and ratify the present. The captivity tradition is a privileged arena for considering how identification with an Other underlies and complements even the most extreme opposition to that other. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
