Capturing Captivity: Methodological Approaches to Captivity Studies

Captivity is among the prevalent forms of traumatic experiences that traverses culture, place, and time. It is also one of the least explored historically. While the historiography has grown recently, there appears to be little methodological conformity and scholars often grapple with definitions, categorizations, and a sense of academic confidence when attempting to analyze captivity tales and experiences. The problems are sobering considering that primary and secondary captivity narratives blur the lines between fictive literature and history—should they be read as fiction or are they reliable historical sources? I posit that they are both and more, and as such require a very broad approach. Through examination of various aspects of captivity narratives originating from colonial cultures—Spanish, English, French, Portuguese—I seek a middle ground and advance acceptable methodological frameworks (e.g. contextualization) whereby the nuances of the captivity experience and its relation to the larger society may be juxtaposed and assessed through literary, historical, and cultural prisms and in light of post-colonial and postmodern criticisms.  

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