Scientific and Cultural Interpretations of Volcanoes, 1766-1901

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Scientific and Cultural Interpretations of Volcanoes, 1766-1901 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ASU Digital Repository Scientific and Cultural Interpretations of Volcanoes, 1766-1901 by Kent Robert Linthicum A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved March 2016 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Mark Lussier, Chair Daniel Bivona Devoney Looser Marlene Tromp ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2016 ABSTRACT Scientific and Cultural Interpretations of Volcanoes, 1766-1901 analyzes nineteenth- century conceptions of volcanoes through interdisciplinary literature and science studies. The project considers how people in the nineteenth century used science, aesthetics, and other ways of knowing to understand volcanoes and their operations. In the mid- eighteenth century, volcanoes were seen as singular, unique features of the planet that lacked temporal and terrestrial reach. By the end of the nineteenth century, volcanoes were seen as networked, environmental phenomena that stretched through geological time and geographic space. Scientific and Cultural Interpretations of Volcanoes, 1766- 1901 offers a new historical understanding of volcanoes and their environmental connections, using literature and science to show how perceptions of volcanic time and space changed over 135 years. The first chapter, using texts by Sir William Hamilton, Hester Piozzi, and Priscilla Wakefield, argues that in the late eighteenth century important aspects of volcanoes, like their impact upon human life and their existence through time, were beginning to be defined in texts ranging from the scientific to the educational. The second chapter focuses on works by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Charles Lyell to demonstrate the ways that volcanoes were stripped of metaphysical or symbolic meaning as the nineteenth century progressed. The third chapter contrasts the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa with Constance Gordon-Cumming’s travels to Kīlauea. The chapter shows how even towards the end of the century, trying to connect human minds with the process of volcanic phenomenon i was a substantial challenge, but that volcanoes like Kīlauea allowed for new conceptions of volcanic action. The last chapter, through a post-apocalyptic novel by M. P. Shiel, shows how volcanoes were finally beginning to be categorized as a primary agent within the environment, shaping all life including humanity. Ultimately, I argue that the change in thinking about volcanoes parallels today’s shift in thinking about global climate change. My work provides insight into how we imagine ecological catastrophes like volcanic eruptions or climate change in the past and present and what that means for their impact on people. ii For my father, Larry Linthicum (1947-2012) iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I want like to thank my committee: Mark Lussier, Dan Bivona, Devoney Looser, and Marlene Tromp. They all provided valuable guidance to me during my time at Arizona State, often sacrificing much of their own time. The dissertation is stronger for their thoughtful commentary, but more importantly I am a better scholar and professional thanks to their mentorship, which I am exceedingly grateful for. I want to thank my friends and colleagues in the Nineteenth-Century Colloquium: Monica Boyd, Max Hohner, Kaitlin Southerly, and Emily Zarka. The Colloquium, its members, my friends have been incredible both as a network of support but also a community of scholars. I want to thank my friends, John Henry Adams, Rachel Andoga, Jessica Boykin, Sarah Glady, Jordan Loveridge, Lakshami Mahajan, and Alaya Swann. I am very lucky to have found such a wonderful collection of people. Playing games, watching movies, hiking, and just generally hanging out with them was often the highlight of any given week. They are great friends that I will cherish for years. I want to thank my parents, Barbara and Larry Linthicum. They encouraged me from a young age to be curious and to read. They sacrificed, supported, and loved me more than I can describe here. I thank them with all my heart. Lastly, I want to thank my greatest friend, partner, and love, Danielle Chipman. As I told her many times, I would not have been able to accomplish this work without her insight, feedback, and support. I am fortunate that she decided to move out to Arizona with me and eventually marry me. I thank her and love her dearly. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER Page INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...1 1 THREE VIEWS OF VESUVIUS……………………………………………..29 Sir William Hamilton…………………………………………………….32 Hester Piozzi……………………………………………………………..48 Priscilla Wakefield……………………………………………………….66 2 THE LAST DAYS OF THE SYMBOLIC VOLCANO………………………81 Faith……………………………………………………………………...90 History and Aesthetics………………………………………………….102 Knowledge……………………………………………………………...111 3 CONSTANCE GORDON-CUMMING AND THE DISAPPOINTING VOLCANO…………………………………………………………………..126 Krakatoa……………………………………………………………...…127 Kīlauea………………………………………………………………….133 Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming………………………………..146 4 M. P. SHIEL’S VOLCANIC HOPE...……………………………………….183 Volcanoes and the Core of the Earth…………………………………...192 Continental Drift………………………………………………………..206 Regeneration of the Earth and Humanity...……………………………..215 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………226 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………247 v INTRODUCTION The poem “Image in Lava” (1828) by Felicia Hemans (1793-1835) addresses the impression of a woman and her child in volcanic ash found in Herculaneum. Hemans’ poem paints a tragic yet loving picture as the mother fleeing from the pyroclastic flows decided that it was “Far better then to perish, / Thy form within its clasp, / Than live and lose thee, precious one!” (Hemans 29-31). For the mother in the poem dying with her child in these circumstances is preferable to living without them. Hemans ends the poem by saying that “human love” has given the ash impression a divine glow which she reinforces by saying “It must, it must be so!” (Hemans 44). The impression in ash does not glow because of latent heat, but as a result of human emotion. The poem evokes both suffering and love, finding a sliver of brightness in a horrifying catastrophe. Noticeably absent from Hemans’ poem is Vesuvius itself. Vesuvius, perhaps the most well-known volcano in human history, caused the destruction of both Herculaneum and Pompeii in 79 CE. Yet Hemans does not mention the volcano, only the pyroclastic flow: “When suddenly the fiery tomb / Shut round each gentle guest?” (Hemans 15-16). Hemans’ poem is an excellent example of the status of volcanoes in early nineteenth-century culture: just outside the frame. Volcanoes both destroy and benefit human life throughout history, yet they are often not visible until they erupt. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries writers made volcanoes more visible examining geologic time, and the impact that volcanoes had upon the environment. Historically, volcanoes have been canvases for humanity to interpret, symbols for human choices or values, rather than environmental phenomena that exist and change 1 under their own laws. Early references to volcanoes in English focus on the mountains as the homes of gods, giants, or devils. In Old English, references to Vulcan occur in phrases like “Fýres god, helle smiþ Vulcanus” [The god of fire, smith of hell Vulcan] (Bosworth). Rather than naming volcanoes as a specific feature of world, they were instead the forge of Vulcan or the mouth of Hades. In Middle English the word starts to take on some of its modern meaning, with the word ‘vlcane’ appearing in 1387. Vlcane is used to refer to the Aeolian Islands (“vulcan(e, n”) north of Sicily, which are home to the volcanoes of Stromboli and Vulcano. The entry from John of Trevisa’s 1387 translation of Ranulf Higden’s Polychronicon, mentions that there is always fire being emitted from the island (“vulcan(e, n”) a reference to Stromboli’s frequent eruptions (“Stromboli”). As the Oxford English Dictionary notes, volcano does not enter the language until the fifteenth century from Italian (“volcano, n.”). The Italian word came from Latin, and the name for the Roman god of the forge, Vulcan (“Vulcan, n. and adj.”). Part of the reason that volcano does not enter the language earlier is because a systematic category was not important: there were only three to four fiery mountains in the world, that list consisting of some combination of Etna, Vulcano, Vesuvius, Hekla, and Stromboli. In the middle of the eighteenth century, volcanoes were seemingly on the border of civilization: unique mountains that would smoke, shoot fire, and explode. Vesuvius in Naples, Etna in Sicily, and Hekla in Iceland were all on the edge of Europe. They were recognized geographic features, but appeared to have little impact except on Neapolitans, Sicilians, and Icelanders. No Europeans knew about the two most important volcanoes of the nineteenth century, Tambora and Krakatoa, yet. Despite a lack of systematic 2 recognition by English-speaking people, volcanoes did have an impact upon English speakers. Volcanoes in the early nineteenth century reshaped parts of British culture, which is surprising given that there are no active volcanoes in Britain (there are a few extinct ones though, like Castle Rock in Edinburgh, or Arthur's Seat). The actual effects of volcanoes often passed unobserved. Culture reshaped perceptions of volcanoes more than eruptions. In the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries exploration, tourism, colonization, science, and literature were introducing
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