Select annotated bibliography entry
Stevens, Scott Manning. "New World Contacts and the Trope of the 'Naked Savage.'" In Sensible Flesh: On Touch in Early Modern Culture, edited by Elizabeth D. Harvey, 125-140. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020.
Stevens examines the encounter between the inhabitants of the Old World and New during the early modern period through Walter Ong’s visual metaphors and tropes. He explores the naked body as a problematic signifier since a recurring figure within the many narrative accounts of the New World encounters is that of the “naked savage.” This article traces the discourse of self and the naked body of the Native as trope to understand that the signification of this body did not always imply a person.
