Rediscovering W. H. G. Kingston's Arctic Narrative: Ethnocultural encounters and generic experimentation ...
This article examines a forgotten nineteenth-century boys' adventure novel, Peter the Whaler (1851), written by William Henry Giles Kingston. After briefly introducing the author and his changing fortune, the article focuses on two specific aspects of Peter the Whaler, namely, its generic compl...
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| Format: | Dataset |
| Language: | English |
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University of Salento
2023
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.1285/i22390359v59p103 http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/linguelinguaggi/article/view/27527/23005 |
| Summary: | This article examines a forgotten nineteenth-century boys' adventure novel, Peter the Whaler (1851), written by William Henry Giles Kingston. After briefly introducing the author and his changing fortune, the article focuses on two specific aspects of Peter the Whaler, namely, its generic complexity and its thought-provoking representation of Inuit characters. A first aspect taken into account is the remarkable generic hybridity of Kingston's novel, which sheds light on the complex narrative experimentation conducted by Victorian writers and, especially, on their development and commercialisation of popular forms, such as the juvenile adventure novel. Besides merging realism with romance, Kingston makes an interesting use of gothic paraphernalia, and he combines elements of adventure fiction with a religious discourse that marks the distinction of his whole oeuvre. Worthy of attention are also the novel's pictures of Inuit people and culture. These pictures contrast with the racial assumptions endorsed by ... |
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