The Colonizer Abroad: Island Representations in American Prose from Herman Melville to Jack London (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory)

Looking at a diverse series of authors—Herman Melville, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Mark Twain, Charles Warren Stoddard, and Jack London—The Colonizer Abroad claims that as the U.S. emerged as a colonial power in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the literature of the sea became a literature of imperialism. This book applies postcolonial theory to the travel writing of some of America's best-known authors, revealing the ways in which America's travel fiction and nonfiction have both reflected and shaped society. Book Cover 1 Half-Title 2 Series Title 3 Title 5 Copyright 6 Dedication 7 Table of Contents 9 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction 11 Chapter One Melville’s Typee and the Development of the American Colonial Imagination 18 Chapter Two The Colonizing Voice in Cuba: Richard Henry Dana, Jr.’s To Cuba and Back: A Vacation Voyage 37 Chapter Three “The Kings of the Sandwich Islands”: Mark Twain’s Letters from Hawaii and Postbellum American Imperialism 60 Chapter Four Charles Warren Stoddard and the American “Homocolonial” Literary Excursion 85 Chapter Five “And Who Are These White Men?”: Jack London’s The House of Pride and American Colonization of the Hawaiian Islands 110 Conclusion 132 Bibliography 140 Index 150