Cartographic Sea-Changes in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: Ahab, Charles Wilkes, and the US Exploring Expedition
Recent attention to the intersections between literature and geography has yielded productive new readings of old classics like Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick , though developments in scholarship on deep time, the Anthropocene, and archipelagic and oceanic studies bring new exigency to Melville’s frequ...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:24e756875695475093afe18de4d97578 2023-05-15T13:48:51+02:00 Cartographic Sea-Changes in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: Ahab, Charles Wilkes, and the US Exploring Expedition L. Katherine Smith 2019-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5070/T8101043945 https://doaj.org/article/24e756875695475093afe18de4d97578 EN eng eScholarship Publishing, University of California http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0t99r53z https://doaj.org/toc/1940-0764 1940-0764 doi:10.5070/T8101043945 https://doaj.org/article/24e756875695475093afe18de4d97578 Journal of Transnational American Studies, Vol 10, Iss 1 (2019) history of cartography surveying and mapping cartography and imperialism american literature 1800-1899 united states exploring expedition wilkes charles united states imperialism expansionism oceanic studies archipelagic studies transnational a Social sciences (General) H1-99 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5070/T8101043945 2022-12-31T12:39:51Z Recent attention to the intersections between literature and geography has yielded productive new readings of old classics like Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick , though developments in scholarship on deep time, the Anthropocene, and archipelagic and oceanic studies bring new exigency to Melville’s frequent allusions to mapping in the novel. This article brings the novel’s engagement with cartographical practices at sea into clearer focus through a series of close readings framed by the extraordinary ideal of precision guiding the cartographic agenda carried out by the US Exploring Expedition (US Ex. Ex.) in the South Pacific and Antarctica from 1838 to 1842. As metaphors for land, the captured and pursued whales in the novel reflect the surveying processes undertaken by the US Ex. Ex., which sought to establish an imperial presence in the South Pacific by bringing cartographic order to the region. In addition to emphasizing the representational failures of cartography and shortcomings of nineteenth-century cartographic processes, the novel exposes the fatally-flawed ambition of the US Ex. Ex. on two fronts: first, by revealing a contradictory imperative for imperial powers to both represent and shape the cartographic subject, which often obscures (rather than clarifies) subjects surveyed in imperial relations; and second, by demonstrating how attempts to dominate the ocean and indigenous peoples through cartographic representation expose the surveyor to cartographic counterattacks. By capitalizing on the difficulty of organizing the sea into charted order, the novel issues an ominous warning for the nation, unsettling its geography and expanding borders by envisaging latent threats within representations conveying geopolitical visibility and order. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Ahab ENVELOPE(-62.178,-62.178,-65.434,-65.434) Pacific Journal of Transnational American Studies 10 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
history of cartography surveying and mapping cartography and imperialism american literature 1800-1899 united states exploring expedition wilkes charles united states imperialism expansionism oceanic studies archipelagic studies transnational a Social sciences (General) H1-99 |
spellingShingle |
history of cartography surveying and mapping cartography and imperialism american literature 1800-1899 united states exploring expedition wilkes charles united states imperialism expansionism oceanic studies archipelagic studies transnational a Social sciences (General) H1-99 L. Katherine Smith Cartographic Sea-Changes in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: Ahab, Charles Wilkes, and the US Exploring Expedition |
topic_facet |
history of cartography surveying and mapping cartography and imperialism american literature 1800-1899 united states exploring expedition wilkes charles united states imperialism expansionism oceanic studies archipelagic studies transnational a Social sciences (General) H1-99 |
description |
Recent attention to the intersections between literature and geography has yielded productive new readings of old classics like Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick , though developments in scholarship on deep time, the Anthropocene, and archipelagic and oceanic studies bring new exigency to Melville’s frequent allusions to mapping in the novel. This article brings the novel’s engagement with cartographical practices at sea into clearer focus through a series of close readings framed by the extraordinary ideal of precision guiding the cartographic agenda carried out by the US Exploring Expedition (US Ex. Ex.) in the South Pacific and Antarctica from 1838 to 1842. As metaphors for land, the captured and pursued whales in the novel reflect the surveying processes undertaken by the US Ex. Ex., which sought to establish an imperial presence in the South Pacific by bringing cartographic order to the region. In addition to emphasizing the representational failures of cartography and shortcomings of nineteenth-century cartographic processes, the novel exposes the fatally-flawed ambition of the US Ex. Ex. on two fronts: first, by revealing a contradictory imperative for imperial powers to both represent and shape the cartographic subject, which often obscures (rather than clarifies) subjects surveyed in imperial relations; and second, by demonstrating how attempts to dominate the ocean and indigenous peoples through cartographic representation expose the surveyor to cartographic counterattacks. By capitalizing on the difficulty of organizing the sea into charted order, the novel issues an ominous warning for the nation, unsettling its geography and expanding borders by envisaging latent threats within representations conveying geopolitical visibility and order. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
L. Katherine Smith |
author_facet |
L. Katherine Smith |
author_sort |
L. Katherine Smith |
title |
Cartographic Sea-Changes in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: Ahab, Charles Wilkes, and the US Exploring Expedition |
title_short |
Cartographic Sea-Changes in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: Ahab, Charles Wilkes, and the US Exploring Expedition |
title_full |
Cartographic Sea-Changes in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: Ahab, Charles Wilkes, and the US Exploring Expedition |
title_fullStr |
Cartographic Sea-Changes in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: Ahab, Charles Wilkes, and the US Exploring Expedition |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cartographic Sea-Changes in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: Ahab, Charles Wilkes, and the US Exploring Expedition |
title_sort |
cartographic sea-changes in herman melville’s moby-dick: ahab, charles wilkes, and the us exploring expedition |
publisher |
eScholarship Publishing, University of California |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5070/T8101043945 https://doaj.org/article/24e756875695475093afe18de4d97578 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-62.178,-62.178,-65.434,-65.434) |
geographic |
Ahab Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Ahab Pacific |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_source |
Journal of Transnational American Studies, Vol 10, Iss 1 (2019) |
op_relation |
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0t99r53z https://doaj.org/toc/1940-0764 1940-0764 doi:10.5070/T8101043945 https://doaj.org/article/24e756875695475093afe18de4d97578 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5070/T8101043945 |
container_title |
Journal of Transnational American Studies |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766249854592352256 |