Marvlous Possessions

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Rethinking the Modern Sense of Wonder

Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World by Stephen GreenblattReview by: David W. NobleAmerican Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Mar., 1994), pp. 77-80Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2713356 .

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BOOK REVIEWSRethinkingheModern enseofWonder

DAVID W NOBLEUniversityfMinnesota,Minneapolis

Marvelous Possessions: The Wonderof the New World.By StephenGreenblatt.Chicago: University f Chicago Press, 1992. 202 pages.$24.95 (cloth),$10.95 paper.IN MARVELOUSOSSESSIONS, TEPHEN GREENBLATT EXPLORES THE BENIGNand destructivespectsof the sense of wonderwithwhich RenaissanceEuropeansreacted o their discovery" f the Americas.He illuminatesthis sense of wonderby focusing n anecdotes."As is appropriate orvoyagerswhothought heyknewwhere heyweregoingandendedup ina place whose existence theyhad never imagined,"he writes, "thediscourse ftraveln the ateMiddleAges and theRenaissance s rarely,fever, nterestingtthe evel of sustained arrativendteleologicaldesign,butgrippingt the evelof anecdote.... Theypresent he worldnot nstatelyndharmonious rder ut n a success of brief ncounters,andomexperiences,solated necdotes ftheunanticipated"2).Greenblatts a leaderof a groupof "newhistoricists,"iterary riticswho are tryingo place texts n historical ontext.AmongGreenblatt'searlier ooks reRenaissanceSelf-Fashioning:romMore toShakespeareand ShakespeareanNegotiations. ome otherbooks associatedwith hisgroup rePower on Display: The PoliticsofShakespeare'sGenresbyLeonard ennenhousend orms fNationhood:TheElizabethanWritingof England byRichardHelgerson.1David W. Noble is a Professorof American studies at the Universityof Minnesota,Minneapolis. He is the authorof The End ofAmericanHistory Minneapolis, 1985).

American uarterly,ol.46,No. 1 March1994) 1994AmericantudiesAssociation77

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78 AMERICAN QUARTERLYPart f Greenblatt'smphasis n thecentralityfanecdote eems toberelated o his desire o assumethat ocieties re characterizedy an open-

endedness,which nsures hat ndividuals ave thecapacity o shape theirown ives.He insists hat it s importanto resistwhatwemay all a prioriideologicaldeterminism."e rejects thenotion hatparticularmodesofrepresentationare] nherentlyndnecessarily oundto a given ulture rclass orbelief system"4). But he contradictshispositionwhenhe alsoinsists hatnspite ftheProtestant eformationherewas a unifiedworldview-religious, political, and military-whichmade it possible forRenaissanceEuropeans oconquer he ndigenous eoplesof theAmericaseasily.Central o thisdynamic nd aggressive ulture, orGreenblatt,scapitalism. It is with apitalism," e declares, that heproliferationndcirculationfrepresentationsanddevicesfor hegenerationnd transmis-sionof representations)chieveda spectacular ndvirtuallynescapableglobal magnitude.This magnitude-thewill and the abilityto crossimmense distancesand, in the search forprofit, o encounter nd torepresentadically nfamiliaruman nd natural bjects-is theenablingconditionfor the particular xperiencewithwhich this book will beconcerned" 6).As a newhistoricistreenblatts participatingnthedifficultieshat llthe academics have experienced ince the 1960s in preserving heirdisciplinaryoundaries. ut one finds ittle vidence nhis narrativehathe has considered heways nwhichhistorians nd anthropologistsavebeen discussing ulturalhegemonyn order o explainhow there an beestablished owerand dissent rom hatpoweratthe sametime. nstead,Greenblatt ivesus the womajor xamples fMandeville ndColumbus.ForGreenblatt, andeville'ssenseof wonder esultedn "a renunciationofpossession, hecritical athwayn a circulationfplagiarized, nstablesignifiershrough hicha crusading rive oward he sacred roots t thecenter f the world s transformedntoa tolerant erambulationlongitsrim" 24).Mandeville, then,accordingto Greenblatt, onstructed personalnarrativeut ofhis sense ofwonder hat nabledhimtolivea life hat idnot oppressothers. olumbus lso constructed personalnarrative ut ofhis sense ofwonder, ut hiswas a storyhared ythedominant roups fEurope. "The possession of weapons and the will to use them ondefenselesspeople," Greenblattnsists,"are cultural matters hat areintimatelyoundup withdiscourse:withthestories hata culture ellsitself, ts conceptionsof personal boundaryand liability, ts whole



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RETHINKINGTHE MODERN SENSE OF WONDER 79collective ystem f rules.And if gold is a natural henomenon,heall-consumingraving or old s not" 64). The great ifferencen Greenblatt'sanalysisbetween hedynamics fMandeville's nd Columbus's ensesofwonder s thatMandeville used wonderto renouncepossessionof theMedievalworld while Columbus used wonder o possess a new world.Readersmight nderstand hatGreenblattstryingosayaboutColumbusbetterf Greenblatt ad explored hemultifacetedense ofwonder hemenof the Reformationnd Renaissance xperienced s they ejected heoldworldof the MiddleAges and began to imaginenewworlds.Whatwastheir ense of wonderwhentheydiscovered nd invented he bourgeoisself nd themarketplace, hen hey iscoverednd nventedheProtestantindividual nd his relationshipo the divinity, hen theydiscovered ndinvented he imitlessandscapeof Renaissancepainting,nd whentheydiscoveredand invented he naturalworld of Galileo? All of theseinventions-discoveriesere characterized y possessive individualism.The invention-discoveryf theAmericas s a newworldwas one aspectofthe Renaissance-Reformationense of wonder hatwas experienced spossessionand domination.One can read Greenblatt's ook as an implicit ndorsement f alldiscourses hat enounce ossessionanda rejection f all discourses hatencouragepossession.Greenblatt'srgumentrom hebeginning f hisbook is thatwe have thepossibilityf choice. He beginsby insistinghatimagination recedes reason,that wonderprecedes logic. If we findourselves oday n a worldwhose constructionas begunbythecapitalisteliteof theRenaissance, till,Greenblatt ssuresus, we can imagineanalternative orld. I do not think hispossessiveuse of themarveloussdecisiveor final,"he concludes,butrather,theexperience f wondercontinuallyeminds s that urgrasp f theworld s incomplete"24). Wecan,he exhorts,recover hewonder hat s latentnourownpractices,wonder hathas becomeflattenedyfamiliarityndyokeddepressinglyotheordinary,alf-visibleegulationsf class andstatusnwhichmuseums,movies,paperback ooks,and schoolsall playa part" 25).

During he astthirty ears, cademicshave ostconfidencennarrativebecause theyhave losttheir bility o see a futuren whichthewonderofcapitalist ossession ndthemagicof themarketplace illbe replacedby a more socially generous,a more ecological, a more democraticwonder. erhapsnewhistoricists,uchas Greenblatt,epresenturattemptto go back to thebeginningfthemodernworld ndto imaginehowthenew worldmighthave become a constructiveather han a destructive



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80 AMERICANQUARTERLYenvironment,nethatnurturedather handestroyed uman eings. findlittlehope, however,n looking o eccentric ersonalitiesike Mandevillefor an alternativeense of wonder o thatof a capitalist lass. But it ispossible thatmany cademicsarefinding private efuge rom apitalistpowerwith he senseofwonder hat nables us to possess ourpersonalscholarly areers.

NOTES1. Stephen Greenblatt,Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare(Chicago, 1983); Stephen Greenblatt, hakespearean Negotiations:The Circulation ofSocial Energy in Renaissance England (Berkeley, 1988); Leonard Tennenhouse,Power on Display: The Politics of Shakespeare's Genres (London, 1986); RichardHelgerson, Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan Writingof England (Chicago,1992).


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