2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Naturalization of the South Pacific in British and American Literature
| Project/Area Number |
17520155
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
ヨーロッパ語系文学
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| Research Institution | Kanazawa University |
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Principal Investigator |
YAMAMOTO Taku Faculty of Education, Associate Professor, 教育学部, 助教授 (10293325)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MURAKAMI Kiyotoshi Faculty of Letters, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (40054168)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2005 – 2006
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| Keywords | British Literature / American Literature / South Pacific / colonialism / nature / eco-criticism |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this project is to analyze the ideological transformation of the south pacific in the 19th-century British and American literature in terms of "Naturalization".
Yamamoto focused on figurative configurations of the Polynesian female in adventure novels during the mid-and late-Victorian era and on their correspondences with and deviations from the historical and ideal background. The knowledge provided by Captain Cook's and Bougainville's records stimulated Europeans to create an imaginary place where male sexual desire could be fulfilled, and the imagination was inherited, altered, and modified by British and American literary works thereafter. Compared with Herman Melville and R. M. Ballantyne, Robert Louis Stevenson appears to perform more elaborate manipulations in the description of transracial affairs, when we read his South Sea novels in 1890's.
Murakami's research was on eco-critical interpretations of American south pacific literature: how native people and landscapes are simultaneously alienated and familiarized in the novels of Melville and Jack London. Especially, the difference in two "Typee"s not only suggests the authors' commitments to the pacific but also represents their attitudes towards nature.
This project contributed to the publication of Epeli Hau'ofa's Kisses in the Nederends by Iwanami Shoten in 2006. In spite of its humorous title, it critically deals with Western colonialism and current situations in the islands, and, more importantly, attempts to subvert European ideas about the south pacific.
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Research Products
(6 results)
