Ebook: The Arctic in the British Imagination 1818-1914

Victorian Britain was fascinated by the Arctic and the accounts of its exploration. This is the first book to draw upon recent developments in representational theory and apply them to the Arctic. The imagined Arctic was the product of a surprising variety of representations, and in this book the author has roamed across travel narratives, works of art and panorama, museum displays, tableaux vivantes and international exhibitions, the illustrated press, the lectures organized by the geographical societies, a range of publications aimed at juveniles, as well as ephemeral representations such as cartoons, advertisements, and board games. The study of so many forms over an extended timespan has allowed an assessment of their changing importance, and enabled a case to be made for Arctic representations following a different dynamic from those associated with more familiar locations of Empire.