The South Seas
A Reception History from Daniel Defoe to Dorothy Lamour
Sean Brawley author Chris Dixon author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Lexington Books
Published:24th May '19
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£110.00(9780739193358)
Exploring cultural history, The South Seas examines how Western interpretations of the region have evolved from the eighteenth century to the eve of the Pacific War.
In The South Seas, authors Sean Brawley and Chris Dixon delve into the intricate cultural history surrounding the concept of the 'South Seas.' This innovative work traces how the idea has evolved and been interpreted within Western culture since the eighteenth century. The authors meticulously chart the representation of the South Seas in various cultural productions, highlighting significant shifts from the inception of Western engagement in the Pacific to the period just before the Pacific War.
The narrative emphasizes the importance of understanding the influences that shape a text and the ways audiences receive those texts. Brawley and Dixon argue that the authors and producers of cultural works were often 'haunted' by prior interpretations of the South Seas, which in turn affected how they contributed to the ongoing dialogue about this region. This cyclical relationship between past and present knowledge producers underscores the historical significance of these cultural productions.
The South Seas stands out for its comprehensive examination of a wide array of cultural texts. Beyond foundational literary works that have defined the South Seas tradition, the authors explore various forms of cultural expression, including visual arts, music, theater, film, and even contemporary phenomena like surfing culture and tourism. This multifaceted approach reveals the complex tapestry of influences and representations that have shaped the understanding of the South Seas over time.
The South Seas is a rich and deeply satisfying ‘prequel’ to [the authors'] previous work that shifts focus from concerns of the wartime Pacific to the reception history, or rezeptionsgeschichte, of the Pacific region as a geo-imaginary construct in broadly Westernized pre-war cultures…. [T]he strength of The South Seas lies in the ways in which the authors trace clearly for their readers the comprehensive history of Western culture’s sustained interest and commercial consumption of the Pacific region as a discursive and profitable meta-narrative…. Particularly of note is the book’s deft and seamless approach to the different ways in which the Pacific has been appropriated as a malleable motif across a whole platform of media, and across vastly different economic and cultural periods of history…. The South Seas is…essential reading for scholars working in the areas of Pacific Island Studies, cultural and historical studies, Island Studies, and literary, film, and cultural studies. The broad range of its source material, as well the liveliness and cohesion of its chapters, makes The South Seas, on top of its academic merit, a hugely enjoyable read. * International Journal of Maritime History *
Sean Brawley and Chris Dixon draw upon an astonishing array of archival sources and popular genres to track, with unprecedented textual, filmic, and musical detail and scope, those ‘white shadows across the South Seas’ that moved so palpably across the commercial-settler Pacific, above all the modernizing US and Australia Rim between the wars. Such texts say more about Western desires for regeneration or fears of degeneration in these tropics of tropes than about Native Islanders or sites, but The South Seas: A Reception History from Daniel Defoe to Dorothy Lamour provides a necessary, patient, learned introduction to fantasies, stories, myths, affects, legends, back stories, and texts that still need to be unsettled from popular dominion. -- Rob Wilson, University of California at Santa Cruz
Sean Brawley and Chris Dixon bring a new vigor to explaining the peculiar blend of art, argument, artifice and authenticity that underpins the English-speaking world’s love affair with the South Seas. -- Michael Sturma, Murdoch University
ISBN: 9781498515146
Dimensions: 220mm x 155mm x 24mm
Weight: 476g
340 pages