Dissertations and Theses
Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Thesis
Department
English
First Advisor
Robert Higney
Second Advisor
Harold Veeser
Keywords
crossing cultures, native portrayal, island inhabitant, Malay trilogy, early novels, imperialism
Abstract
The thesis of this paper is that cross-cultural writing can be done with the right methods of communication, such as engaging narrator and education—or simply sensitive, imaginative writing. Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad’s five books set in the Polynesian and Malay Archipelagos—Typee and Omoo and the Malay Trilogy (Almayer’s Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, and The Rescue)— are used as master models of how to write indigenous characters with rich characterization in pivotal roles, even circa 1846 and 1896. The unique perspective and technique by which they did this is explored, a technique and perspective not as dissimilar as one would think. How the authors used and manipulated literary, political, and scientific textual traditions is discussed. Close readings demonstrate the authors’ methodology.
Recommended Citation
Black, Catherine L., "Writing Indigenous Identity in Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad's Polynesian and Malay Archipelago Novels" (2018). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/719
Included in
American Literature Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons, Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons, Polynesian Studies Commons, Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons