Marvellous possessions

• Autor(a) principal: Greenblatt, Stephen
• Data de Publicação: 1989
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Históricos (Rio de Janeiro)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/reh/article/view/2276

The actions which Christopher Columbus reported following his travels are examined as discursive acts. His proclamation taking possession of the "discovered" land is a linguistic act which is assumed to be efficacious since it was not contradicted by the natives to whom it was addressed. The extreme formalism of this act is characterized by the observance of a pre-conceived form and by complete indifference to the consciousness of the other. Granted that what matters about the European presence in America is the brutal reality of power and, further, that words follow events, the author shows how the Europeans attempted to place their experience under the control of discourse, i.e., lend it ethical justification and legitimation. Columbus employed the term "marvellous" - omnipresent in his writings - not only to express an aesthetic sense about the American land but also as a calculated rhetorical strategy placed at the service of a legitimation process. This "marvellous" legitimized and transcended the legal act of possession, allowing him to christen the new land (to re-christen it, actually) in the name of the kings of Spain. To name is to appropriate, and this hopeful claim of possession followed Columbus to the end of his days.