Jimmy's Paper Outline

Outline for Paper

I. Introduction

A. grabber about James Frey’s fictionalized “A Million Little Pieces”

i. sensationalized/fictionalized aspects to sweeten his story’s melodramatic power and impact on his reader

B. not a new phenomenon—several early modern Europeans have false narratives

C. thesis: there are a variety of motivations (fame, money, or a desire to make known some societal commentary or point of view) behind these false narratives which have a certain set of common characteristics (author is dead, justifications for the veracity of the piece, lack of specific locations, etc). using this catalogue of traits, my hypothesis is that the primary source by T.S. seems of doubtful authenticity

*(this is my hypothesis but may not necessarily be my final thesis…I’m still in the research phase and so need to conduct more thorough readings of the other primary sources that I know are “false narratives”)

II. Overview of “The Adventures of an English Merchant, Taken Prisoner by the Turks of Argiers, and Carried into the Inland Countries of Africa”

A. name will be useless to the “judicious” reader and had an aversion from learning early on prompted him to become a solo traveler

B. eventually served as a slave for various Ottoman masters

C. secondary source, The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire, raises some doubt but is inconclusive

i. therefore, this should piece should be examined

III. Examination of Known Travel Lies

A. definition: a tale told by a traveler or pseudo traveler with intent to deceive

B. Traits and Motivations from Joseph Marshall’s Travels through Holland, Flanders, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Lapland, Russia, the Ukraine and Poland in the Years 1768, 1769, and 1770

i. analysis primarily from secondary sources (e.g. “The Armchair Traveler”) *but work still needs to be done on secondary sources

C. Traits and Motivations from Sir Walter Raleigh’s Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Bewtifull Empire of Guiana;

i. analysis primarily from secondary sources *but work still needs to be done on secondary sources

D. Analysis from Adams’ Travelers and Travel Liars

i. in the 18^th century, the age of geographic exploration and scientific curiosity, may have meant that people wrote their travel accounts to satisfy the scientific curiosity or to satisfy the “idle curiosity and the escapism” in certain countries

ii. motivations may have been vanity, monetary, and propagating point of view

E. catalogue of characteristics of false narratives

IV. Analysis of “The Adventures of an English Merchant”

A. characteristics of this piece

B. possible motivations?

C. juxtaposition of these traits with “known” travel lies

V. Conclusion

A. educated judgment on veracity of “The Adventures of an English Merchant”

B. description and possible explanation of the English slave narrative

i. other known English slave narratives to the Ottoman Empire

a. I want to explore the book “Ransom Slavery along the Ottoman Borders”. It’s twelve studies are organized around connected themes: the hunt for, the trade in and the treatment of captives in the Balkans and in Central Europe. While the focus of concern is on Hungary, ad some other border regions extending from the Crimea to Malta, it offers an analytic approach based on a great deal of so far unpublished Ottoman and … read moreEuropean archival material. It will help me in my examination of Christian slavery in the Ottoman Empire. Also the time period of focus is from the early 15^th-early 18^th centuries.

b. I also want to look at the book “Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800”. The author calculates that roughly 1 to 1.25 million European Christians were captured and forced to work in North Africa from the 16^th to 18^th centuries. In fact, what caught my attention was the fact that the author argues that “through most of the 17^th century the English lost at least 400 sailors a year to the slave traders” which could mean that my primary source may be telling the truth.

C. does this narrative reveal anything about English or Ottoman society? is this part of a sub genre of “Providential” rescue of Christians from the hands of an infidel? does this shed any light on the status of religion in England or the Ottoman Empire?

D. effects of false travel narratives on society?

i. affected national politics (230 Adams)

ii. influenced religion and philosophy

iii. affected natural sciences

E. if this is proven false, what shall we do with travel accounts that contain errors and report legends, that give false impressions through ignorance or bad judgments?

F. further research