Mr Bligh's bad language : passion, power, and theatre on the Bounty

472 Pages·1992·28.314 MB·English

by  Greg Dening

“Greg Dening has produced a powerful new
account of an event that has, over two cen¬
turies, helped to define our modern under¬
standings of tyranny and resistance. His tale
about Bligh and the mutineers is imaginative
and learned, engaging and entertaining, much
to be enjoyed by anyone interested in the soci¬
ety and culture of wooden ships and iron men.”
—Marcus Rediker, Qeorgetoivn University
Captain Bligh and the voyage of the Bounty are
the starting point of this new study of the famous
mutiny in history, literature and film. By juxtapose
ing an account of the mutiny with an analysis of
its evolving place in history and culture, Mr Bligh’s
Bad Language offers a new interpretation of the
mutiny in the context of its historical and cultural
representations.
Beginning with an analysis of naval life and ritual
aboard the Bounty, Greg Dening argues that the
famous mutiny did not take place due to punitive
violence, as Captain Bligh is shown to be one of
the least violent of British Navy captains. Instead,
he argues, Captain Bligh misunderstood the theat¬
rical nature of shipboard life, especially his role as
captain.
Moving to a larger stage, the scope of the book
shifts to the reception of the mutiny in England in
the eighteenth century. Connecting the voyage of
the Bounty with the cultural exploration and revo-
lutions of the age, Greg Dening shows that a
mythology arose almost immediately around the
participants of the mutiny and their actions, a
mythology that has been continually reinterpreted
into twentieth century literature and film.
Gracefully written, Mr Bligh’s Bad Language is an
anthropological history of a new order, weaving
the history of the Bounty with its role in our cul¬
ture. Using a range of influences from Diderot to
Foucault, Greg Dening reconstructs the voyage of
the Bounty as moving between history and
mythology, circumventing a dozen discourses.

‘Captain Bligh’ is a cliche of our times for the extravagant and violent misuse of
power. In fact, William Bligh was one of the least physically violent disciplinar¬
ians in the British navy. That paradox inspires this book to ask why, then, did
he have a mutiny? Its answer is to display the theatricality of naval institutions
and the mythologising power of history. The theatre of the Bounty lay not just in
its rites of power on the quarterdeck and in the fo’c’sle but also on the beaches at
Tahiti and in the murderous settlement at Pitcairn, on the stage in London, on
altar stones and temples of sacrifice, on catheads from which men were hanged.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2018 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/mrblighsbadlanguOOOOdeni
MR BLIGH’S BAD LANGUAGE

Mr Bligh’s
Bad Language
Passion, Power and Theatre
on the Bounty
GREG DENING
Cambridge
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 irp
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Victoria 3166, Australia
© Cambridge University Press 1992
First published 1992
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dening, Greg.
Mr Bligh’s bad language : passion, power and theatre on the
Bounty / Greg Dening.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN O-521-3837O-6
i. Bounty Mutiny, 1789. 2. Bligh, William, 1754—1817.
3. Pitcairn Island — History. I. Title.
DU800.D43 1992
996.i'8-dc20 91-34318
CIP
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-521-38370-6 hardback