
Unsettled Narratives
The Pacific Writings of Stevenson, Ellis, Melville and London
David Farrier(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 10. November 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-138-81393-9 (ISBN)
Description
In the nineteenth-century Pacific, the production of a text of encounter occurred in tandem with the production of a settled space; asserting settler presence through the control of the space and the context of the encounter. Indigenous resistance therefore took place through modes of representation that 'unsettled' the text. This book considers the work of four Western visitors to the Pacific-Robert Louis Stevenson, William Ellis, Herman Melville, and Jack London-and the consequences for the written text and the experience of cross-cultural encounter when encounter is reduced to writing. The study proposes a strong connection between settling and writing as assertions of presence, and, by engaging a metaphor of building dwellings and building texts, the study examines how each writer manipulates the process of text creation to assert a dominant presence over and against the indigenous presence, which is represented as threatening, and extra-textual.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
421 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-138-81393-9 (9781138813939)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
11/2006
1st Edition
Routledge
€232.00
Shipment within 15-20 days

E-Book
11/2006
1st Edition
Routledge
€69.99
Available for download

E-Book
11/2006
1st Edition
Routledge
€69.99
Available for download
Person
David Farrier
Content
Acknowledgments. Introduction: The Written Pacific 1. 'Talk Languished on the Beach': The Possibility of Reciprocity in Robert Louis Stevenson's In the South Seas 2. 'These Words are so Changed in a Native's Mouth': Contested Frames in William Ellis's Polynesian Researches 3. 'Typee or Happar?': The Unsettling Narrative of Typee 4. 'This is the Book I Write': Jack London's Strictly Limited Body Conclusion: Ambivalence and Authorship. Notes. Works Cited. Index