The South Seas : a reception history from Daniel Defoe to Dorothy Lamour / Sean Brawley and Chris Dixon.

ISBN:

9780739193365

Title:

Author:

Brawley, Sean, 1966-

Personal Author:

Brawley, Sean, 1966-

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 299 pages)

Contents:

Beginnings: Defoe, Dampier, and Discovery -- America's South Seas -- Herman Melville's Pacific Imaginings -- San Francisco, Art, and Robert Louis Stevenson -- Finding New Guinea -- The Colonial Endeavor and Australia's South Seas -- The Fair, the Stage, and the Song -- The Great War and the Lost Generation -- A South Seas Education: Platform Speakers, National Geographic, and Margaret Mead -- South Seas Tourism -- Hollywood Encounters the South Seas -- Cinematic Escapes: The South Seas Adventure Film -- HMAV Bounty and the Great Depression -- Pardon My Sarong: The Arrival of Dorothy Lamour.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Geographic Term:

Oceania -- In literature.

Oceania -- In art.

Oceania -- History.

Oceania -- In motion pictures.

Océanie -- Dans la littérature.

Océanie -- Dans l'art.

Océanie -- Histoire.

Océanie -- Au cinéma.

Oceania

Added Author:

Dixon, Chris, 1960-

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

http://ezproxy.angliss.edu.au/login?url=http://ezproxy.angliss.edu.au/login?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=984539

Publication Date:

2015

Publication Information:

Lanham, Maryland :

Lexington Books,

[2015]

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
700.45895 23	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The South Seas charts the idea of the South Seas in popular cultural productions of the English-speaking world, from the beginnings of the Western enterprise in the Pacific until the eve of the Pacific War. Building on the notion that the influences on the creation of a text, and the ways in which its audience receives the text, are essential for understanding the historical significance of particular productions, Sean Brawley and Chris Dixon explore the ways in which authors' and producers' ideas about the South Seas were "haunted" by others who had written on the subject, and how they in turn influenced future generations of knowledge producers. The South Seas is unique in its examination of an array of cultural texts. Along with the foundational literary texts that established and perpetuated the South Seas tradition in written form, the authorsexplore diverse cultural forms such as art, music, theater, film, fairs, platform speakers, surfing culture, and tourism.

Author Notes

Sean Brawley is professor and head of the Department of Modern History, Politics, and International Relations at Macquarie University.

Chris Dixon is associate professor in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

The literature on representation of Pacific Island societies, their cultures, and the history of Western contacts with them is extensive. This scholarship has been produced largely by historians, anthropologists, and scholars of literature and media studies in Western countries and, more recently, by islanders themselves. Brawley (modern history, politics, and international relations, Macquarie Univ., Australia) and Dixon (historical and philosophical inquiry, Univ. of Queensland, Australia) now add to that literature. The volume is very good indeed, offering excellent scholarship and taking up a well-chosen range of work. In addition to Defoe and Lamour, the authors consider Robert Louis Stevenson, Margaret Mead, Herman Melville, the Bounty, and a few less-well-covered topics. This reader always welcomes refreshing volumes--especially those of the quality of this one--that retell, and add to, stories of how English-speaking societies have encountered the Pacific Islands and how these stories have been received and shaped over time. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. --George E. Marcus, University of California, Irvine