White Horizon: The Arctic in the Nineteenth-Century British Imagination

248 Pages·2007·0.94 MB·English

by  Jen Hill

WHITE HORIZON
T A N -C B I
HE RCTIC IN THE INETEENTH ENTURY RITISH MAGINATION
J H
EN ILL
White Horizon
SUNY series, Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century
Pamela K. Gilbert, editor
White Horizon
The Arctic in the Nineteenth-Century British Imagination
Jen Hill
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEWYORK PRESS
Published by
State University of NewYork Press,Albany
© 2008 State University of NewYork
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Cover: Ice floes in the Arctic, c1913. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division,Washington, D.C. 20540. Reproduction no. LC-USZ62-101009
A portion of Chapter 2 appeared in Nineteenth-Century Studiesand is used with
permission of the University of California Press and the Regents of the University of
California.“National Bodies: Robert Southey’sLife of Nelsonand John Franklin’s
Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea.”Nineteenth-Century StudiesVol. 61, no.
4, pp. 417–448. Copyright © 2007 by the Regents of the University of California.
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hill, Jen.
White horizon : the Arctic in the nineteenth-century British
imagination / Jen Hill.
p. cm. — (SUNYseries, studies in the long nineteenth century)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-7914-7229-3 (alk. paper)
1. English fiction—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Arctic
regions—In literature. 3. Geography in literature. 4. Explorers in
literature. 5. Adventure and adventurers in literature. 6. Imperialism
in literature. I.Title.
PR868.A72H56 2007
823'.80932113—dc22
2007008098
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
ONE Heart of Whiteness 1
TWO National Bodies: Robert Southey’s Life of Nelson
and John Franklin’s Narrative of a Journey to the Shores
of the Polar Sea 29
THREE A Propitious Hard Frost:TheArctic of Mary Shelley
and Eleanor Anne Porden 53
FOUR A Pale Blank of Mist and Cloud:Arctic Spaces
in Jane Eyre 89
FIVE Arctic Highlanders and Englishmen:
Dickens, Cannibalism, and Sensation 113
SIX Ends of the Earth, Ends of the Empire:
R. M. Ballantyne’sArcticAdventures 151
Notes 175
Bibliography 207
Index 231
v

Acknowledgments
S
upport for this project came from many sources.At Cornell Uni-
versity I received generous travel,study,and research support from
the English Department,The Graduate School,The Mellon Foun-
dation, The School for Criticism and Theory, and the Shin family.A
Junior Faculty Research Grant from the University of Nevada, Reno,
and appointment as Lincoln and Meta Fitzgerald Distinguished Profes-
sor of the Humanities made completion of the manuscript possible.
Iamalsoindebtedtothefaculty,staff,andresourcesofCornellUni-
versity Libraries, the Scott Polar Research Institute, the John Johnson
Collection of Printed Ephemera at the Bodleian Library, the Derbyshire
County Council Archives, the British Library, and Getchell Library at
the University of Nevada, Reno.
My thinking continues to be shaped by many individuals whom I
encountered at Cornell. I especially thank Dorothy Mermin, who as
director of my dissertation helped me become a scholar. Harry Shaw,
Paul Sawyer,and Mark Seltzer encouraged my work in its earliest incar-
nations.The generosity of Michael Koch and StephanieVaughn is evi-
denced on every page.Thanks are due also to BenedictAnderson,A.R.
Ammons, Laura Brown, Walter Cohen, Mark Dimunation, Lamar
Herrin,Timothy Murray,Reeve Parker,Katherine Reagan,Neil Sacca-
mano, and ShelleyWong.
At the University of Nevada, Reno, I have been encouraged by
members of the Consortium for British Isles and Empire Studies,
includingStacyBurton,DennisDworkin,LouisNiebur,AaronSantesso,
andTom Nickles.I would also like to thank Kathy and Phil Boardman,
vii
viii WHITE HORIZON
Dennis Cronan,Jane Detweiler,Ann Keniston,Susan Palwick,andAnn
Ronald,as well as deans Bob Mead and Heather Hardy.Gwynne Mid-
dleton,SarahHillenbrandt,andJackCaugheyhelpedpreparethemanu-
script. I cannot calculate my debt to the Center for Child and Family
Development, in particular to Mary Schuster and GeriThweatt.
This book is better for the careful considerations and encourage-
ment that many people gave the manuscript. My reading of Jane Eyre
arrived in conversation with Bethany Schneider,and it is unclear where
her ideas end and mine commence.DavidAgruss,DavidAlvarez,Leah
Rosenberg,and KateThomas also helped shape my arguments.Nancy
Henry and Noah Heringman provided excellent and clarifying com-
ments, as did a few anonymous readers, and Philip Rogers supplied
thoughtfulandgenerousconnectionswithhisownwork.MarkQuigley
helped me talk through and realize final versions of the argument.
My parents Frances and David Hill have always supported my
endeavors,as have my sisterAli Hill and her cheerful family,Chris,Will,
and Nick Ford.
Finally,I wish to thank Larry and Ella Cantera,who have encour-
aged, supported, persevered, and laughed with me in times both
charmed and challenging.
I dedicate this book to the memory of John D.Hill:brother,friend,
teacher.
Chapter One
Heart of Whiteness
I
n the opening pages of Heart of Darkness,the narrator names two of
the great“knights”of British exploration,Sir Francis Drake and Sir
JohnFranklin.1ReaderscanstillplaceDrake,butmostmodernedi-
tions describe Franklin in a brief footnote as a nineteenth-century
explorer who commanded an ill-fated expedition in search of the
Northwest Passage. Joseph Conrad’s contemporaries needed no such
note: for them, the reference to Franklin and his ships the Erebus and
Terror evoked both nineteenth-century geography at the height of its
promise and, more importantly, the eclipse of that promise, and the
recognition of the limits of British exploration that was the legacy of
Franklin’s spectacular failure.While the invocation of a doomed polar
explorer at the outset of Conrad’s great critique of imperialism serves to
foreshadow Marlow’s own horrific voyage up the Congo,the reference
mapsArctic geography onto the national imagination,enfolding a liter-
allywhitespaceintotheheartofdarkness.Thus,whenMarlowspeaksof
white spaces on the map, a meditation on Arctic exploration and the
limits of the European imperial project lingers behind Conrad’s image.
In 1844, Sir John Franklin was awarded command of the Arctic
exploration ships Erebus and Terror and given an Admiralty mandate to
find the Northwest Passage. The expedition’s departure was a kind of
mass spectacle,with newspaper articles detailing its preparations and the
public thronging to see the ships before they embarked in the spring of
1845.Franklin and his 130 men departed and,after calling in at Green-
land on their way to the frozen seas, were never heard from again,
despite numerous and concerted efforts to find them.The mystery of
1