ENGLISH

Rifled sanctuaries some views of the Pacific Islands in Western literature to 1900

By BILL , Pearson

Book information

Publisher
Oxford University Press, Auckland University Press
ISBN
9781869406868, 1869406869
Language
english
Format
EPUB
Filesize
2 MB (2181525 bytes)
Series
Macmillan Brown lectures 1982
Pages
94 p\0
Time added
2020-07-26 19:24:52
American literature;American literature--History aetc;English literature -- History and criticism;Aminterpretation

Description

The Pacific Islands began to appear in Western literature soon after European navigators made landfall there. From the first, there was seldom a statement of plain facts. Explorers brought their own viewpoints while editors, poets and novelists went on to interpret and moralise the first accounts. Portraying Pacific peoples as sensual, indolent, childlike and – frequently – wicked, such stories implied the duty of Europeans to rule and of the natives to be grateful. Modified though it sometimes was by the more accepting attitudes of beachcombers, by the exploitative activities of traders, and throgh the romantic eyes of erotic novelists, this conception of Pacific Islanders persisted through the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth.

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