“Per si muove—it was a mass of moonstone”: Fluidity, Dynamic Relations, and the Commodification of Storytelling in Harriet Prescott Spofford’s Arctic Writings
The essay examines Harriet Prescott Spofford’s short story “The Moonstone Mass” (1868) through the lens of fluidity foregrounded by her Arctic poem “The Story of the Iceberg” (1897). Rendering a network of actors (human and other), who are connected and continuously influence one another, “The Moons...
Published in: | European journal of American studies |
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Language: | English |
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European Association for American Studies
2019
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.15225 https://doaj.org/article/726605d5a1764f668dff28bbdf8f0f1d |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:726605d5a1764f668dff28bbdf8f0f1d 2023-08-27T04:07:20+02:00 “Per si muove—it was a mass of moonstone”: Fluidity, Dynamic Relations, and the Commodification of Storytelling in Harriet Prescott Spofford’s Arctic Writings Verena Laschinger 2019-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.15225 https://doaj.org/article/726605d5a1764f668dff28bbdf8f0f1d EN eng European Association for American Studies http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/15225 https://doaj.org/toc/1991-9336 1991-9336 doi:10.4000/ejas.15225 https://doaj.org/article/726605d5a1764f668dff28bbdf8f0f1d European Journal of American Studies, Vol 14, Iss 3 (2019) Harriet Prescott Spofford Arctic iceberg moonstone fluidity Bruno Latour History America E-F United States E151-889 Sociology (General) HM401-1281 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.15225 2023-08-06T00:39:33Z The essay examines Harriet Prescott Spofford’s short story “The Moonstone Mass” (1868) through the lens of fluidity foregrounded by her Arctic poem “The Story of the Iceberg” (1897). Rendering a network of actors (human and other), who are connected and continuously influence one another, “The Moonstone Mass” demands an analysis that acknowledges relationality as facilitating the protagonist’s discovery of the Northwest Passage alongside other metaphorical pathways, which the geographical trope symbolizes in the text. I argue that “The Moonstone Mass” fictionally renders an (imaginary) geographical journey to describe the complexities and challenges of personal, generational and societal transfers from the culturally conspicuous perspective of the nineteenth-century American storyteller transitioning from the era of Romanticism to Realism. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Iceberg* Northwest passage Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Northwest Passage European journal of American studies 14 3 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Harriet Prescott Spofford Arctic iceberg moonstone fluidity Bruno Latour History America E-F United States E151-889 Sociology (General) HM401-1281 |
spellingShingle |
Harriet Prescott Spofford Arctic iceberg moonstone fluidity Bruno Latour History America E-F United States E151-889 Sociology (General) HM401-1281 Verena Laschinger “Per si muove—it was a mass of moonstone”: Fluidity, Dynamic Relations, and the Commodification of Storytelling in Harriet Prescott Spofford’s Arctic Writings |
topic_facet |
Harriet Prescott Spofford Arctic iceberg moonstone fluidity Bruno Latour History America E-F United States E151-889 Sociology (General) HM401-1281 |
description |
The essay examines Harriet Prescott Spofford’s short story “The Moonstone Mass” (1868) through the lens of fluidity foregrounded by her Arctic poem “The Story of the Iceberg” (1897). Rendering a network of actors (human and other), who are connected and continuously influence one another, “The Moonstone Mass” demands an analysis that acknowledges relationality as facilitating the protagonist’s discovery of the Northwest Passage alongside other metaphorical pathways, which the geographical trope symbolizes in the text. I argue that “The Moonstone Mass” fictionally renders an (imaginary) geographical journey to describe the complexities and challenges of personal, generational and societal transfers from the culturally conspicuous perspective of the nineteenth-century American storyteller transitioning from the era of Romanticism to Realism. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Verena Laschinger |
author_facet |
Verena Laschinger |
author_sort |
Verena Laschinger |
title |
“Per si muove—it was a mass of moonstone”: Fluidity, Dynamic Relations, and the Commodification of Storytelling in Harriet Prescott Spofford’s Arctic Writings |
title_short |
“Per si muove—it was a mass of moonstone”: Fluidity, Dynamic Relations, and the Commodification of Storytelling in Harriet Prescott Spofford’s Arctic Writings |
title_full |
“Per si muove—it was a mass of moonstone”: Fluidity, Dynamic Relations, and the Commodification of Storytelling in Harriet Prescott Spofford’s Arctic Writings |
title_fullStr |
“Per si muove—it was a mass of moonstone”: Fluidity, Dynamic Relations, and the Commodification of Storytelling in Harriet Prescott Spofford’s Arctic Writings |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Per si muove—it was a mass of moonstone”: Fluidity, Dynamic Relations, and the Commodification of Storytelling in Harriet Prescott Spofford’s Arctic Writings |
title_sort |
“per si muove—it was a mass of moonstone”: fluidity, dynamic relations, and the commodification of storytelling in harriet prescott spofford’s arctic writings |
publisher |
European Association for American Studies |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.15225 https://doaj.org/article/726605d5a1764f668dff28bbdf8f0f1d |
geographic |
Arctic Northwest Passage |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Northwest Passage |
genre |
Arctic Iceberg* Northwest passage |
genre_facet |
Arctic Iceberg* Northwest passage |
op_source |
European Journal of American Studies, Vol 14, Iss 3 (2019) |
op_relation |
http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/15225 https://doaj.org/toc/1991-9336 1991-9336 doi:10.4000/ejas.15225 https://doaj.org/article/726605d5a1764f668dff28bbdf8f0f1d |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.15225 |
container_title |
European journal of American studies |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
3 |
_version_ |
1775348117946761216 |