문명 접촉의 세 양상: 콜롬버스, 롤리, 몽테뉴의 신세계 담론

Abstract

This paper is informed by an attempt to classify the ways in which the West meets the New World in its initial stage of contact by examining "Columbus's Letter on His First Voyage," Walter Ralegh's The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Bewtiflll Empyre of Guiana, and Michel de Montaigne's essay, "Of Cannibals." These three texts, written during the period of the first century of the European encounter with the New World, show different perspectives of describing, comprehending, and handling the "marvelous" practices and cultures of the "Other." Columbus seeks to explain and incorporate the "new" world he encounters into Europe's cultural preconceptions and fantasies about the exotic Other, providing a typical Eurocentric attitude which most later comers will follow. Walter RaJegh, whose expedition to Guiana happened about a century after Columbus's arrival, does not seek to prove his own selfgenerated images of the New World but tries to perceive the native people and their customs in their own terms. Although his efforts to see through the dense veil of preconceptions are not always successful , he leaves a rare precedent of an exemplary cultural dialogue on an equal footing between the West and the non-Western world. European encounters with the New World not only registered a shattering experience for the natives but also exerted a subtle but clearly influential impact on European people . The contac t with the Other forced Europeans to question and reassess their own practices, values, and world views. Montaigne provides such an example of finding the Other in the heart of their own cultures, thereby reappraising their received canons and traditions considered otherwise tightly held.