Imagining the Arctic
Heroism, Spectacle and Polar Exploration
Published on 13. March 2017
Book
Hardback
448 pages
978-1-78453-658-9 (ISBN)
Description
Imagining the Arctic explores the culture and politics of polar exploration and the making of its heroes. Leading explorers, the celebrity figures of their day, went to great lengths to convince their contemporaries of the merits of polar voyages. Much of exploration was in fact theatre: a series of performances to capture public attention and persuade governments to finance ambitious proposals. The achievements of explorers were promoted, celebrated, and manipulated, whilst explorers themselves became the subject of huge attention. Huw Lewis-Jones draws upon recovered texts and striking images, many reproduced for the first time since the nineteenth century, to show how exploration was projected through a series of spectacular visuals, helping us to reconstruct the ways that heroes and the wilderness were imagined. Elegantly written and richly illustrated, Imagining the Arctic offers original insights into our understanding of exploration and its pull on the public imagination.
Reviews / Votes
[T]his is a valuable and interesting perspective on the construction of the Arctic as a region in the nineteenth-century British imagination, as well as having wider significance and interest for considering the importance of reception and performance when thinking about travel texts. * Nordicum-Mediterraneum *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
96 bw integrated
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
826 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78453-658-9 (9781784536589)
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
E-Book
03/2017
1st Edition
I.B. Tauris
€38.49
Available for download
Person
Huw Lewis-Jones is an award-winning historian of exploration, photo-editor and polar guide with a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He was a Fellow at Harvard University and Curator of both the National Maritime Museum in London and the Scott Polar Research Institute. He has travelled widely across the Arctic regions, also voyaging to the North Pole. His many books include Explorers' Sketchbooks (2016), The Crossing of Antarctica (2014), In Search of the South Pole (2011) and Face to Face: Ocean Portraits (2010). In 2015 Huw won the Leif Erikson History Award for his ongoing heritage advocacy.
Content
CONTENTS
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION: THE INVISIBLE THRONE
Exploring Heroism | Attractive Performances | A Hagiography of Action | Realms of Representation | Polar Celebrity | Newfangled Technology | Spectacles and Showmen
1 IMAGINING NAVAL HEROES
Navy and Nation | A Century of Change | Tars of the Future | Chivalry of the Sea | I will be a Hero | A New Patriotism | Muscular Christianity | Brave Spirits | Duty and Daring | Noble Failure | Curious Cultures of Exploration | Geographies of the Imagination | Arctic Dreams
2 NELSON AND THE BEAR
The Making of a Myth | The Expedition and the Anecdote | Fact and Fiction | Southey and an Arctic Image | Polar Performance | Continuing the Tale | Nelsons of Discovery | A School for Future Nelsons | Creative Travels | Distorted Truths | Inventing Things
3 THE PERILS OF CELEBRITY
Hero of the Arctic Regions | The Frenzy of Renown | Controversial Beginnings | Reporting Exploration | A Hero in Print | Miscellaneous Missions | Lion of the Season | The Hero Performs | Pub Songs and Ship Ballads | Acts of Discovery | Nautical Melodrama | Reconsidering Re-enactments | Polar Portraits | Panoramic Depictions | Arctic Extravaganza | Reward and Recrimination | The Book | Bitter Criticism | Reputations
4 A FLIGHT OF FANCY
Transforming Technologies | Reconstructing the Life of a Showman-Explorer | Searching for Franklin | First Ascents | Lectures and Lobbying | Balloonacy | Daring to be Different | Flights of the Imagination | Perfect Madness | To the Limits
5 EXHIBITING THINGS
The New Navalism | Revisiting the Royal Naval Exhibition of 1891 | Appealing Visions | Displaying the Arctic | Propagating Heroic Myths | The End of an Epic | Heroic Sailor-Soul | Inscriptions | Remembering Franklin | Conjecture and Reality | Imaginative Resource
6 FRANKLIN'S GHOST
Crushed Geographies | Half-Truths | London Stories | Follow After | Durable Illusions | National Diversions | On the Use of Ships | Glimpses of a Marvel | Who Needs Heroes? | Look Again | Chasing Bears
Notes
Index
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION: THE INVISIBLE THRONE
Exploring Heroism | Attractive Performances | A Hagiography of Action | Realms of Representation | Polar Celebrity | Newfangled Technology | Spectacles and Showmen
1 IMAGINING NAVAL HEROES
Navy and Nation | A Century of Change | Tars of the Future | Chivalry of the Sea | I will be a Hero | A New Patriotism | Muscular Christianity | Brave Spirits | Duty and Daring | Noble Failure | Curious Cultures of Exploration | Geographies of the Imagination | Arctic Dreams
2 NELSON AND THE BEAR
The Making of a Myth | The Expedition and the Anecdote | Fact and Fiction | Southey and an Arctic Image | Polar Performance | Continuing the Tale | Nelsons of Discovery | A School for Future Nelsons | Creative Travels | Distorted Truths | Inventing Things
3 THE PERILS OF CELEBRITY
Hero of the Arctic Regions | The Frenzy of Renown | Controversial Beginnings | Reporting Exploration | A Hero in Print | Miscellaneous Missions | Lion of the Season | The Hero Performs | Pub Songs and Ship Ballads | Acts of Discovery | Nautical Melodrama | Reconsidering Re-enactments | Polar Portraits | Panoramic Depictions | Arctic Extravaganza | Reward and Recrimination | The Book | Bitter Criticism | Reputations
4 A FLIGHT OF FANCY
Transforming Technologies | Reconstructing the Life of a Showman-Explorer | Searching for Franklin | First Ascents | Lectures and Lobbying | Balloonacy | Daring to be Different | Flights of the Imagination | Perfect Madness | To the Limits
5 EXHIBITING THINGS
The New Navalism | Revisiting the Royal Naval Exhibition of 1891 | Appealing Visions | Displaying the Arctic | Propagating Heroic Myths | The End of an Epic | Heroic Sailor-Soul | Inscriptions | Remembering Franklin | Conjecture and Reality | Imaginative Resource
6 FRANKLIN'S GHOST
Crushed Geographies | Half-Truths | London Stories | Follow After | Durable Illusions | National Diversions | On the Use of Ships | Glimpses of a Marvel | Who Needs Heroes? | Look Again | Chasing Bears
Notes
Index