Mapping The South Pacific

Robert Louis Stevenson was active in the literary world in the second half of the nineteenth century.As a prolific Scottish writer,Stevenson created numerous novels,essays,and travelogues.In the 1890 s,he published several works based on his travels in the South Pacific.This thesis attempts to explore Stevenson’s literary mapping of the South Pacific through a detailed examination of his two South Seas works in different genres,In the South Seas and The Beach of Falesá.Using Robert Tally’s concept of literary cartography as a theoretical guide,this thesis analyzes how Stevenson uses different genres in his literary creation to map the South Pacific.The first chapter explores Stevenson’s geographical mapping.Stevenson depicts the real geography of the South Pacific in his travel book In the South Seas,while in the novella The Beach of Falesá,he presents the reader with the imagined geography of the South Pacific.The real and imagined geographies depicted in these two works constitute his geographical map of the South Pacific.The second chapter analyzes Stevenson’s cultural mapping.Stevenson serves as an observer and chronicler of Polynesian cultural assets in In the South Seas,documenting the language,architecture,and values of South Pacific natives.In The Beach of Falesá,Stevenson concentrates on imagining and creating local rituals and taboos in the South Pacific.His cultural map of this region consists of the tangible and intangible cultural assets of the South Pacific locale.The third chapter focuses on cognitive mapping.The cognitive mapping of the South Pacific is based on Stevenson’s and Wiltshire’s use of mental maps,which help create a sense of place for the South Pacific islands.The two narrators have different approaches to cognitive mapping the South Pacific.In the travelogue,Stevenson connects the unfamiliar South Pacific islands with his native Scottish Highlands,a real place in his cognitive map.In the novella,on the other hand,the narrator,Wiltshire links the mysterious bush area of the island Falesá to the imaginary place in the native story,creating a different kind of cognitive map,which centers on fictional places.This thesis provides insight into Stevenson’s literary mapping of the South Pacific through an analysis of his geographical,cultural and cognitive mappings of the South Pacific.Through geographical mapping,Stevenson strives to achieve authentic and detailed recreation of real geography to satisfy the British aspirations for the South Pacific.His cultural mapping,in turn,helps him to rethink his own cultural superiority in the face of colonized people.Cognitive mapping enables him to overcome the anxiety of dislocation,gain a sense of place in his travels,and ultimately makes him the preeminent literary cartographer of the South Pacific.