“Driftin' round the world in a blubber hunter”: Nineteenth-century American whaling narratives
This dissertation focuses on the nineteenth-century literature created by and about the whaling industry. American whaling narratives saw the zenith of their popularity alongside the industry's "Golden Age," an era that lasts roughly a half-century (from the 1810s to the 1860s), and i...
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ftpurdueuniv:oai:docs.lib.purdue.edu:dissertations-12254 2023-07-02T03:33:56+02:00 “Driftin' round the world in a blubber hunter”: Nineteenth-century American whaling narratives Bousquet, Mark Richard Schneider, Paul Ryan 2011-01-01T08:00:00Z https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/dissertations/AAI3507290 ENG eng Purdue University https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/dissertations/AAI3507290 Theses and Dissertations Available from ProQuest American studies|American history|American literature text 2011 ftpurdueuniv 2023-06-12T20:40:35Z This dissertation focuses on the nineteenth-century literature created by and about the whaling industry. American whaling narratives saw the zenith of their popularity alongside the industry's "Golden Age," an era that lasts roughly a half-century (from the 1810s to the 1860s), and is defined by deep sea whaling expeditions to the Pacific Ocean, with voyages lasting as long as four years. I argue that whaling narratives provide new insight from new voices regarding race, environmentalism, and nationalism under the general rubric of labor reform, which in turn offer a new lens to examine Moby-Dick. The guiding question of this dissertation is "How American is an American whaleship?" Through the narratives of Edward Barnard and Horace Holden, I show in Chapter One how whaling narratives are precursors to later nineteenth-century writing on race and race reform, as the racial dynamic is inverted in the South Pacific; the privileges that come with being white at home become disadvantages in the non-white islands of the Pacific. In Chapter Two, I use the Reverend Henry Cheever to argue that an awakened environmental consciousness was too unsettling for a man who boarded a whaleship in order to honor the hard work of American whalemen, and then witnessed those same men slaughtering God's whales with "cruel harpoons" in order to provide oil for the "honorable lamps" back on the continent; instead of pushing at this conflict, Cheever dampens the uncomfortable feelings it unearths, refusing to dwell on the actions of the whalemen and returning to his more comfortable role as their champion. I argue in Chapter Three that J. Ross Browne uses the whaling industry to detail the failed promise of American idealism through the systematic financial abuse of the whalemen by the merchants who run the industry; yet Browne's ideal treatment of whalemen does not extend to non-Americans, as one of his primary calls for reform is the removal of foreigners from the whaling labor force. Browne uses nationalism as a cover for his own ... Text White Islands Purdue University: e-Pubs Pacific |
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English |
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American studies|American history|American literature |
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American studies|American history|American literature Bousquet, Mark Richard “Driftin' round the world in a blubber hunter”: Nineteenth-century American whaling narratives |
topic_facet |
American studies|American history|American literature |
description |
This dissertation focuses on the nineteenth-century literature created by and about the whaling industry. American whaling narratives saw the zenith of their popularity alongside the industry's "Golden Age," an era that lasts roughly a half-century (from the 1810s to the 1860s), and is defined by deep sea whaling expeditions to the Pacific Ocean, with voyages lasting as long as four years. I argue that whaling narratives provide new insight from new voices regarding race, environmentalism, and nationalism under the general rubric of labor reform, which in turn offer a new lens to examine Moby-Dick. The guiding question of this dissertation is "How American is an American whaleship?" Through the narratives of Edward Barnard and Horace Holden, I show in Chapter One how whaling narratives are precursors to later nineteenth-century writing on race and race reform, as the racial dynamic is inverted in the South Pacific; the privileges that come with being white at home become disadvantages in the non-white islands of the Pacific. In Chapter Two, I use the Reverend Henry Cheever to argue that an awakened environmental consciousness was too unsettling for a man who boarded a whaleship in order to honor the hard work of American whalemen, and then witnessed those same men slaughtering God's whales with "cruel harpoons" in order to provide oil for the "honorable lamps" back on the continent; instead of pushing at this conflict, Cheever dampens the uncomfortable feelings it unearths, refusing to dwell on the actions of the whalemen and returning to his more comfortable role as their champion. I argue in Chapter Three that J. Ross Browne uses the whaling industry to detail the failed promise of American idealism through the systematic financial abuse of the whalemen by the merchants who run the industry; yet Browne's ideal treatment of whalemen does not extend to non-Americans, as one of his primary calls for reform is the removal of foreigners from the whaling labor force. Browne uses nationalism as a cover for his own ... |
author2 |
Schneider, Paul Ryan |
format |
Text |
author |
Bousquet, Mark Richard |
author_facet |
Bousquet, Mark Richard |
author_sort |
Bousquet, Mark Richard |
title |
“Driftin' round the world in a blubber hunter”: Nineteenth-century American whaling narratives |
title_short |
“Driftin' round the world in a blubber hunter”: Nineteenth-century American whaling narratives |
title_full |
“Driftin' round the world in a blubber hunter”: Nineteenth-century American whaling narratives |
title_fullStr |
“Driftin' round the world in a blubber hunter”: Nineteenth-century American whaling narratives |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Driftin' round the world in a blubber hunter”: Nineteenth-century American whaling narratives |
title_sort |
“driftin' round the world in a blubber hunter”: nineteenth-century american whaling narratives |
publisher |
Purdue University |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/dissertations/AAI3507290 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
White Islands |
genre_facet |
White Islands |
op_source |
Theses and Dissertations Available from ProQuest |
op_relation |
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/dissertations/AAI3507290 |
_version_ |
1770274086372507648 |