Terror and Erebus by Gwendolyn MacEwen: White Technologies and the End of Science
This paper examines Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen’s verse play Terror and Erebus by considering the play’s representation of technology in light of its own poetic technologies. Terror and Erebus is a play for voices that features four characters: Franklin, Crozier, Rasmussen, and Qaqortingneq. As...
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2015
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:acd09a7865974b13ab3ac3537f095ae1 2023-05-15T14:55:10+02:00 Terror and Erebus by Gwendolyn MacEwen: White Technologies and the End of Science Renée Hulan 2015-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3429 https://doaj.org/article/acd09a7865974b13ab3ac3537f095ae1 EN NO eng nor Septentrio Academic Publishing https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3429 https://doaj.org/toc/0809-1668 https://doaj.org/toc/1503-2086 doi:10.7557/13.3429 0809-1668 1503-2086 https://doaj.org/article/acd09a7865974b13ab3ac3537f095ae1 Nordlit: Tidsskrift i litteratur og kultur, Iss 35 (2015) Norwegian literature PT8301-9155 article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3429 2022-12-31T02:05:40Z This paper examines Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen’s verse play Terror and Erebus by considering the play’s representation of technology in light of its own poetic technologies. Terror and Erebus is a play for voices that features four characters: Franklin, Crozier, Rasmussen, and Qaqortingneq. As the character Rasmussen searches for the traces of the lost expedition, imagining the voices of the explorers in their final hours, his investigation reveals how the “white technologies” used to explore the Arctic succumb to the environment without the indigenous knowledge possessed by the Inuit who inhabit the Arctic. The paper shows how MacEwen’s literary vision contrasts recent coverage of efforts to locate the Franklin ships which have ignored or down-played Inuit testimony. Working from Rasmussen’s transcriptions of Qaqortingneq’s voice, MacEwen represents Inuit knowledge and technology as both an alternative to the model of scientific discovery underwriting the Franklin expedition and as source of the authoritative account of what happened to Franklin and his crew. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic inuit Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Crozier ENVELOPE(169.400,169.400,-77.517,-77.517) Rasmussen ENVELOPE(-64.084,-64.084,-65.248,-65.248) Nordlit 35 123 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
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English Norwegian |
topic |
Norwegian literature PT8301-9155 |
spellingShingle |
Norwegian literature PT8301-9155 Renée Hulan Terror and Erebus by Gwendolyn MacEwen: White Technologies and the End of Science |
topic_facet |
Norwegian literature PT8301-9155 |
description |
This paper examines Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen’s verse play Terror and Erebus by considering the play’s representation of technology in light of its own poetic technologies. Terror and Erebus is a play for voices that features four characters: Franklin, Crozier, Rasmussen, and Qaqortingneq. As the character Rasmussen searches for the traces of the lost expedition, imagining the voices of the explorers in their final hours, his investigation reveals how the “white technologies” used to explore the Arctic succumb to the environment without the indigenous knowledge possessed by the Inuit who inhabit the Arctic. The paper shows how MacEwen’s literary vision contrasts recent coverage of efforts to locate the Franklin ships which have ignored or down-played Inuit testimony. Working from Rasmussen’s transcriptions of Qaqortingneq’s voice, MacEwen represents Inuit knowledge and technology as both an alternative to the model of scientific discovery underwriting the Franklin expedition and as source of the authoritative account of what happened to Franklin and his crew. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Renée Hulan |
author_facet |
Renée Hulan |
author_sort |
Renée Hulan |
title |
Terror and Erebus by Gwendolyn MacEwen: White Technologies and the End of Science |
title_short |
Terror and Erebus by Gwendolyn MacEwen: White Technologies and the End of Science |
title_full |
Terror and Erebus by Gwendolyn MacEwen: White Technologies and the End of Science |
title_fullStr |
Terror and Erebus by Gwendolyn MacEwen: White Technologies and the End of Science |
title_full_unstemmed |
Terror and Erebus by Gwendolyn MacEwen: White Technologies and the End of Science |
title_sort |
terror and erebus by gwendolyn macewen: white technologies and the end of science |
publisher |
Septentrio Academic Publishing |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3429 https://doaj.org/article/acd09a7865974b13ab3ac3537f095ae1 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(169.400,169.400,-77.517,-77.517) ENVELOPE(-64.084,-64.084,-65.248,-65.248) |
geographic |
Arctic Crozier Rasmussen |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Crozier Rasmussen |
genre |
Arctic inuit |
genre_facet |
Arctic inuit |
op_source |
Nordlit: Tidsskrift i litteratur og kultur, Iss 35 (2015) |
op_relation |
https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3429 https://doaj.org/toc/0809-1668 https://doaj.org/toc/1503-2086 doi:10.7557/13.3429 0809-1668 1503-2086 https://doaj.org/article/acd09a7865974b13ab3ac3537f095ae1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3429 |
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Nordlit |
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35 |
container_start_page |
123 |
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1766326960054599680 |