In Search of First Contact

[Dave Monroe]

In Search of First Contact: The Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of the
Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery
Author(s): Annette Kolodny
Published: 2012
Pages: 448
Illustrations: 10 illustrations

In Search of First Contact is a monumental achievement by the
influential literary critic Annette Kolodny. In this book, she offers
a radically new interpretation of two medieval Icelandic tales, known
as the Vinland sagas. She contends that they are the first known
European narratives about contact with North America. After carefully
explaining the evidence for that conclusion, Kolodny examines what
happened after 1837, when English translations of the two sagas became
widely available and enormously popular in the United States. She
assesses their impact on literature, immigration policy, and concepts
of masculinity.

Kolodny considers what the sagas reveal about the Native peoples
encountered by the Norse in Vinland around the year A.D. 1000, and she
recovers Native American stories of first contacts with Europeans,
including one that has never before been shared outside of Native
communities. These stories contradict the dominant narrative of "first
contact" between Europeans and the New World. Kolodny rethinks the
lingering power of a mythic American Viking heritage and the
long-standing debate over whether Leif Eiriksson or Christopher
Columbus should be credited as the first discoverer. With this
paradigm-shattering work, Kolodny shows what literary criticism can
bring to historical and social scientific endeavors

http://www.dukeupress.edu/Catalog/ViewProduct.php?productid=9551