RHETOR 151 Chapter 5: R151 Reading 2.2.2017 (3)
5 Feb 2017
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Marvelous possessions: the wonder of the new world. Argument: columbus had a highly self-conscious interest in the marvellous. Objective of c"s mission notoriously difficult to determine - more than a diplomatic or commercial voyage. Important to resist normalizing what was not normal. Display of royal standard after landing shows the formality of the occasion and designates the sovereign on whose behalf columbus" speech acts are performed. For c, taking possession is principally performing a set of linguistic acts > his stakes in this possession is also high > enacts ritual for himself as well as the sovereigns in spain. Different positions of the spaniards and the natives. Not only are the natives denied the opportunity to dispute the claim of spanish, they live in a different universe of discourse. Answer lies in c"s linguistic acts and their formalism - c is observing a form that evidently calls for the possibility of a contradiction.
