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CANNIBAL DEMOCRACY: RACE AND REPRESENTATION IN THE LITERATURE OF THE AMERICAS

CANNIBAL DEMOCRACY: RACE AND REPRESENTATION IN THE LITERATURE OF THE AMERICAS There are plenty of other equally egregious examples. Slavitt’s narrator is often condescending to his reader even when he praises him: for instance, when he closes a stanza with “Get it? Got it?, Good!” (29.73) and when he addresses the reader in the lines “Samson begs / to be mentioned at least. Go to the head of the class / if you’ve thought of him and the jawbone of the ass” (14.47). (Only the reference to Comparative Literature 62:4 © 2010 by University of Oregon BOOK REVIEWS / 421 Samson, not the address to the reader, comes from Ariosto.) The narrator repeatedly fears that his reader may have been inattentive: “You do remember the plot?” (2.11). He also likes to demean his characters. The troops that flee from Mandricardo in the siege of Paris become “all these useless yeggs” (14.47); the terrifying reappearance of Rodomonte in the last canto prompts the narrator to express the thoughts of the crowd at the wedding of Ruggiero and Bradamante by asking “What is he, some kind of nut?” (46.104); and Olympia’s breasts are said to be “snowy white, like cheeses on display” (11.67). The narrator is often crudely salacious: for example, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

CANNIBAL DEMOCRACY: RACE AND REPRESENTATION IN THE LITERATURE OF THE AMERICAS

Comparative Literature , Volume 62 (4) – Jan 1, 2010

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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2010 by University of Oregon
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/00104124-2010-029
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

There are plenty of other equally egregious examples. Slavitt’s narrator is often condescending to his reader even when he praises him: for instance, when he closes a stanza with “Get it? Got it?, Good!” (29.73) and when he addresses the reader in the lines “Samson begs / to be mentioned at least. Go to the head of the class / if you’ve thought of him and the jawbone of the ass” (14.47). (Only the reference to Comparative Literature 62:4 © 2010 by University of Oregon BOOK REVIEWS / 421 Samson, not the address to the reader, comes from Ariosto.) The narrator repeatedly fears that his reader may have been inattentive: “You do remember the plot?” (2.11). He also likes to demean his characters. The troops that flee from Mandricardo in the siege of Paris become “all these useless yeggs” (14.47); the terrifying reappearance of Rodomonte in the last canto prompts the narrator to express the thoughts of the crowd at the wedding of Ruggiero and Bradamante by asking “What is he, some kind of nut?” (46.104); and Olympia’s breasts are said to be “snowy white, like cheeses on display” (11.67). The narrator is often crudely salacious: for example,

Journal

Comparative LiteratureDuke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2010

There are no references for this article.