Pacific Paratexts in Anglophone Writing, 1768-1914

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00446
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02030:English literature and literature in the English language-related
• Research Institution: Meiji University
• Principal Investigator: Watson Alex 明治大学, 文学部, 専任准教授 (40609062)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: Pacific / Romanticism / Ninteenth century / English literature

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research demonstrated that that the textual margins provided a central site in which British and American writers of the long nineteenth century constructed the Pacific. Such writings’ combination of cohesive text and fragmentary notes responded to the tension between the comprehensible identity writers were attempting to construct for the region, and the area’s geographical reality as a complexity of interlinked archipelagos with distinct histories, cultures and languages.
The research led to a number of peer-reviewed book chapters and journal artciles, as well as research presentaitons in Japan, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Australia, Taiwan and the USA. A further monograph placing this research in dialogue with perspectives in intermedia studies is planned.

Free Research Field

英文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

This research examines how the conventions of the printed book shape Pacific representations and vice versa. The research sheds new light on the history of British and American Imperialsim and advances our understanding of how cultural images of the Pacific were created.