Overview
- Looks at Stevenson's unique position of viewing vast upheaval in the Pacific islands, as he and his family witnessed political upheaval, cultural hybridization and decline, and Islander resistance to the 'Scramble for the Pacific' and documented these events through writing and photography
- Situates Stevenson's writing and photography within the history of colonial interactions between Europeans and Islanders
- Draws on a range of sources including previously unpublished photographs, Stevenson's personal travel diary, and his private correspondence
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture (PNWC)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book tackles photography’s role during Robert Louis Stevenson’s travels throughout the Pacific Island region and is the first study of his family’s previously unpublished photographs. Cutting across disciplinary boundaries, the book integrates photographs with letters, non-fiction, and poetry, and includes much unpublished material. The original readings of photographs and non-fiction highlight Stevenson’s engagement with colonial ideology and reality and advance new arguments about Victorian travel, settlement, and colonialisms in the Pacific. Like the Stevensons, the book moves from the Marquesas to the atolls of the Gilbert Islands in Micronesia; from the Kingdom of Hawai‘i’s political ambitions to Samoan plantations and the Stevensons’ settlement at Vailima. Central to this study is the notion that Pacific history and Pacific Island cultures matter to the interpretation of Stevenson's work, and a rigorous historical and cultural contextualization ensures that local details structure literary and photographic interpretation. The book’s historical grounding is key to its insightful conclusions regarding travel, settlement, photography, and colonialism.
Reviews
“Pacific Impressions offers a comprehensive and nuanced reading of Stevenson’s experience and artistic endeavors in the Pacific Islands. Stevenson scholars will find a wealth of compelling material, both biographical and analytical. Manfredi also offers a model for Victorian studies of empire, paying just as close attention to local and Indigenous people and histories as she does to British perspectives.” (Chris Thomas, Victorian Studies, Vol. 63 (1), 2020)
“Stevenson scholars as well as those broadly interested in the study of late 19th-century colonialism in the Pacific will benefit from the materials and insights in this volume.” (L.M. Ratnapalan, The Journal of Pacific History, Vol. 55 (1), 2020)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Carla Manfredi's research is on Victorian literature, photography, and the history of colonialism in the Pacific Islands. She has published several articles on Stevenson’s Pacific oeuvre.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Pacific Impressions
Book Subtitle: Photography and Travel Writing, 1888–1894
Authors: Carla Manfredi
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98313-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-98312-7Published: 21 November 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-40493-2Published: 20 February 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-98313-4Published: 11 November 2018
Series ISSN: 2634-6494
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6508
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVIII, 256
Number of Illustrations: 34 b/w illustrations
Topics: Nineteenth-Century Literature, Photography, Australasian Culture