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Review of Ponteach, or the Savages of America, A Tragedy

Richardson, Robbie J. (2012) Review of Ponteach, or the Savages of America, A Tragedy. Review of: Robert Rogers, "Ponteach: or the savages of America. A tragedy", Gale ECO, Print Editions, 2012, ISBN 978-1508972969 by Rogers, Robert. Eighteenth-Century Fiction, 25 (2). pp. 477-478. ISSN 0840-6286. (doi:10.1353/ecf.2012.0075) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:54970)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ecf.2012.0075

Abstract

Robert Rogers was more renowned in his own time as a military leader than as a writer, leading a successful colonial militia known as "Rogers' Rangers" during the French and Indian War (1754-63). Off the battlefield, his forays into authorship were primarily dedicated to cultivating this image of martial achievement; he wrote two reasonably successful books on North America, one a broad historical account of the land and the Indigenous people and the other a collection of his own journals and firsthand observations. The review of his A Concise Account of North America (1765) in the Critical Review suggests that "the picture which Mr. Rogers has exhibited of the emperor Ponteack is new and curious, and his character would appear to vast advantage in the hands of a great dramatic genius." His subsequent dramatic work Ponteach, or the Savages of America: A Tragedy (1766) was panned by critics and was most likely never performed. This work has received increased attention in recent years because of its singular and sympathetic depiction of its First Nations hero, a fictionalized version of the real-life Ottawa leader Pontiac. This edition, edited by Tiffany Potter, is an important resource for studies in eighteenth-century British colonial representations, Indigenous studies, and work on transatlantic culture and literature.

Item Type: Review
DOI/Identification number: 10.1353/ecf.2012.0075
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English
Depositing User: Robbie Richardson
Date Deposited: 13 Apr 2016 16:09 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:22 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/54970 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Richardson, Robbie J..

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2603-3586
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