Writing Arctic Disaster

'In Writing Arctic Disaster, Craciun seeks to historicize the Victorian obsession with the man, the expedition, and its various inscriptions, uncovering in the process the changing approaches to Arctic voyaging and authorship that shaped European understanding of the region from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. … Craciun's approach is richly interdisciplinary.' Katherine Parker, Eighteenth Century Studies
'Every so often a book comes along which is strikingly original. Adriana Craciun's Writing Arctic Disaster is one of these. … In both seeing through the eyes of the past as if it were contemporary and in her exploration and analysis of subsequent cultural memory, Craciun's work stands out. This is one amazing book.' Murray Pittock, The BARS Review
'… a rich store of ideas, evidence, and interpretation in how exploration cultures can be understood, as well as how, historically, methodologically, and theoretically, there is still much to grapple with and make sense of … In a little over 200 pages, readers get a clear view of how truly, in the sense of exploration cultures and the writings within them, it really was a case of, 'In the beginning was the Word' (John 1:1) - to take a line out of the King James Bible … [the text] compel[s] us, as readers, to move further away from past misreadings and missed readings and closer to more nuanced understandings of this complex past, as well as its continuing effects' Deborah Stiles, Journal of Canadian Studies
'Craciun's emphasis on Arctic exploration cultures is a welcome addition to contemporary, multidisciplinary scholarship on British Arctic exploration, which, as Craciun notes, is both rich and wide-ranging, encompassing archival periodical studies, theatrical events, popular novels, and - increasingly - indigenous perspectives as well.' Stephanie L. Schatz, BSLS Reviews
'The importance of the book extends beyond the Arctic itself: pushing the boundaries of what literary criticism can contribute to the study of non-fictional prose and material culture, this book will appeal to readers with interests as diverse as print and manuscript culture,spatiality, exhibition culture, imperialist discourse, cultural memory, the materiality of texts, travel writing, geopolitics, authorship, and cultural geography. Writing Arctic Disaster is a landmark study deserving of the highest praise.' Johannes Riquet, Prose Studies
'In a superb and subtle analysis of the relationship between print and material culture, Craciun reveals the ways in which the mania for collection and display of relics and debris from from his last expedition cemented popular enthusiasm for the idea of the Arctic as a place of disaster.' Penny Russell, Victorian Studies