Columbus And The Ends Of The Earth: Europe's Prophetic Rhetoric As Conquering Ideology

Columbus and the Ends of the Earth 1 of 154 http://content-backend-a.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft1n39n7x0&chunk.i... Preferred Citation: Kadir, Djelal. Columbus and the Ends of the Earth: Europe's Prophetic Rhetoric as Conquering Ideology. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1992 1992. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft1n39n7x0/ Columbus and the Ends of the Earth Europe's Prophetic Rhetoric as Conquering Ideology Djelal Kadir UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley · Los Angeles · Oxford © 1992 The Regents of the University of California Preferred Citation: Kadir, Djelal. Columbus and the Ends of the Earth: Europe's Prophetic Rhetoric as Conquering Ideology. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1992 1992. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft1n39n7x0/ ― ix ― Preface In the historical plot of the European tradition, Columbus is the finder of a New World. This World was dubbed "New" because until 1492 it was generally known only in the cosmological desires and philosophical speculations of Europe's imaginative and visionary savants. But besides being a "finder," Columbus is also a founder and, like most founders, he personifies an intricate web of convictions that determine his vision, his actions, and his reactions. This same set of beliefs also sustains his determination and his tenacity. As such a personification Columbus is more than a "biographical" subject. He is a dramatic character in the plot of a particular historical drama. In that capacity, he is an emphatic embodiment of the conceptions, goals, desires, and ambitions of the cultural complex that constitutes the theater in which, and on behalf of which, he acts and reacts. Since he also carries with and within him those particular precepts and principles that give legitimacy to particular courses of action and authorize specific moves, gestures, and articulations, I shall often range beyond the immediacy of Columbus in an attempt to convey the context he exemplifies. To extend my theatrical metaphor just a bit, Columbus was a consummate actor within the particular historical drama in which he found himself. In fact, he was a better actor than he consciously knew, inasmuch as he acted out of the un―x― shakable conviction that he was the protagonist of a drama that was the universal and ultimate production in the cosmos. He was also convinced that the Ultimate Playwright of all dramas had cast him as the elect hero and privileged emissary to play out the last and climactic act of this cosmic 7/9/2006 11:41 AM Columbus and the Ends of the Earth 2 of 154 http://content-backend-a.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft1n39n7x0&chunk.i... theater. To serve as protagonist in the plot of a particular drama means to epitomize the values, language, and other expressive modes of that drama. An epitome of something is the most emphatic symptom of it. Columbus is indeed such a blatant representation and, as such, he personifies not only the history of the drama in which he acts, but he epitomizes, as well, the actors and the actions of those acts that, unexpectedly, come after him. The drama, in other words, extended well beyond what was thought to have been the last act with Columbus as its final protagonist. In this expectation and unexpected extension, Columbus foreshadows those who would see themselves also as the culmination of the cosmic plot. Our study, therefore, will also focus on those who followed Columbus to the New World impelled by the same convictions. Now, to see yourself as occupying the first and foremost position on a world stage and, at the same time, to be convinced that you are also playing out the last role in the grand finale could lead you to the certainty of enjoying a uniquely privileged position in the cosmic scheme. That certainty, in turn, could enable you to undertake certain projec