Dark Paradise: Pacific Islands in the Nineteenth-Century British Imagination

Jennifer Fuller

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2016

Dark Paradise

Pacific Islands in the Nineteenth-Century British Imagination

Jennifer Fuller

In the series Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474413855

Overview
Contents

About this book

Examines the way in which the British transformed the Pacific islands during the nineteenth century

The discovery of the Pacific islands amplified the qualities of mystery and exoticism already associated with ‘foreign’ islands. Their ‘savage’ peoples, their isolation, and their sheer beauty fascinated British visitors across the long nineteenth century. Dark Paradise argues that while the British originally believed the islands to be commercial paradises or perfect sites for missionary endeavours, as the century progressed, their optimistic vision transformed to portray darker realities. As a result, these islands act as a ‘breaking point’ for British theories of imperialism, colonialism, and identity. The book traces the changing British attitudes towards imperial settlement as the early view of ‘island as paradise’ gives way to a fear of the hostile islanders and examines how this revelation undermined a key tenant of British imperialism – that they were the ‘superior’ or ‘civilized’ islanders.

Key Features

The first monograph to trace the Pacific islands as represented through the lens of British fiction and non-fiction across the long nineteenth century
Examines texts written by Pacific islanders and published in the British press
Significantly broadens our understanding of the British Pacific by analysing understudied Pacific texts and authors alongside more canonical works

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Series Editor’s Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Moving Missions and Novel Settlements: Early British Pacific Propaganda (1796–1866) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2. Adventures in the Pacific: The Influence of Trade on the South Seas Novel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
3. Islands of Discovery: Scientific Curiosity in the Works of Darwin, Huxley and Wells Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
4. The Price of Paradise: Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad and British Expansion in the Pacific Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
5. The Islanders Speak: Pacific Reflections in the British Press Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 256
Keywords: Literary Studies

eBook

Published: June 20, 2016
ISBN: 9781474413855