THE PANORAMIC JOURNEY: NORTH ATLANTIC STEAMSHIP TRAVEL AT THE FIN DE SIECLE Karen L. Wall B.A.(hons.) Simon Fraser University 1990 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of COMMUNICATION Karen L. Wall SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY 0 July 1992 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL NAME: Karen Linda Wall DEGREE: Master of Arts TITLE OF THESIS: The Panoramic Journey: Steamship Travel on the North Atlantic at the Fin de Siecle EXAMINING COMMITTEE: CHAIR: Dr. Richard S. Gruneau Senior Supervisor Dr. Alison Beale Assistant Professor Dr. Jerald Zaslove Associate Professor Department of English, S.F.U. Examiner PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis or dissertation (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Dissertation: The Panoramic Journey: Steamship Travel on the North Atlantic at the Fin de Siecle. Auth'or: -r7 signatfire Karen L. Wall name July 31, 1992 date ABSTRACT This thesis concerns the production of the ocean journey at the fin de siecle juncture of modernity, capitalism and industrialization. The steamship as a key component of the North Atlantic mediascape interacted with new modes of communication to produce a certain passenger experience. This is traced through contemporary travel literature and journalism, drawing for interpretation on critical theories of industrial society and informed by both structuralism and historical materialism. How did the steam-powered acceleration of travel affect the Atlantic crossing between Britain and North America, as it was transposed and constructed in its representations? Central issues are: the subjective alteration in dimension and distance through accelerated travel; the visual and spatial biases associated with the media forms which served to both represent and steer a dynamic "world in transitu; and the way in which the decontextualization of markets, people and information inflected the incorporation of the passenger into the industrial environment. With the increased scope of mechanical reproduction in communication and in transportation, the nineteenth-century journey became vpanoramicN:like a painted panorama it refracted correspondences between geographic, social and representational space. Expectations of technology mingled with expectations of economic and social order; the values of industrial progress underwriting the steamship journey were challenged in the shipwreck of the Titanic in 1912. iii DEDICATION To Ramona: True north, gypsy soul ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Department of Communication has over the years provided a unique academic environment which I have appreciated for the encouragement given to imagination as well as wide-ranging independent research. I especially thank the members of my committee, Dr. Alison Beale and Dr. Paul Heyer, as well as Dr. Robert Anderson, all of whom have for several years encouraged me in my work. Outside the department, Dr. Allen Seager of SFU's History Department has provided invaluable direction and enthusiasm for sections of the thesis. I also owe my thanks to Dr. Jerald Zaslove of the Department of English for his participation in the defense. Equally important has been the support and inspiration of my family, friends and colleagues. Cliff Vallentgoed is a constant source of strength and an example of elegant passage through stormy weather. My fellow graduate students have been more than generous with their time, expertise and companionship. Those who have most directly helped in steering this thesis include Jose Arroyo, Ian Chunn, Dominique Darmon, Mike Gasher (who was steady in the tsunamis and rowed some boats ashore), Kirsten McAllister, Momi Naughton and Wm.F.Santiago-Valles. TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval ..................................................ii Abstract ..................................................iii ~edication................................................. iv Acknowledgements ............................................v INTRODUCTION: FIN DE SIECLE: WORLD IN TRANSIT ...............1 CHAPTER 1: THE PANORAMIC WORLD: ANOTHER EYESIGHT ............8 Dreamspace I: the panorama .........................8 Transportation as communication ...................16 "Floating world:" structures of exchange ..........24 The passenger as industrial subject ...............27 Dreamspace 11: the passage ........................30 CHAPTER 2: SHAKING THE WORLD: THE MEDIA OF THE JOURNEY .....34 Transportation British sea power and the industrial environment ..35 The "expensive delicate ship .....................40 Industrial travel: "much more at home " ............48 Communication Records of travel: the mass press ..................55 Bourgeois literature and modern myth ...............61 Deja vu: the industrial aesthetic ..................68 CHAPTER 3: PASSAGE/MESSAGE: THE PANORAMIC JOURNEY ...........74 Departure ..........................................74 Passage ............................................80 Arrival ............................................88 CHAPTER 4: TITANIC: THE INTERRUPTED JOURNEY ................117 Appearance ........................................121 Disappearance .....................................131 Reappearance ......................................136 CONCLUSION: DEJA W ........................................159 WORKS CITED ................................................156 ~ntroduction. Fin de siecle: World in Transit 1 La chair est triste, helas! et j'ai lu tous les livres ... Je partirai! Steamer balancant ta mature Leve llancre pour une exotique nature! Un Ennui, desole par les cruels espoirs, Croit encore a l'adieu supreme des mouchoirs! Stephane Mallarme, Brise Marine During the nineteenth century, with the development of the steamship and other new instruments of communication, the western world experienced a profound shift in its experience of space and time. In capitalist society, technology and cultural production supported a system of power based in the control of exchange. The years between 1850-1912 represent a zenith in the North Atlantic shipping industry and in the tourist industry of Europe and North America. In other areas of western culture, the results of long slow revolutions in production had already had a powerful impact upon everyday experience-l A common side effect of accelerated production was the sense of an "annihilation of space and time," or the perceived blurring of conceptual, explanatory, and geographical frameworks. Marshall McLuhan outlines the implications of change in transport media, stating that the annihilation of space permits easy annihilation of travellers as well. This principle applies to all media study ...Speed accentuates problems of form and structure ...people begin to l(See Kern 1983, 2.) Stuart Hall, Raymond Williams and many others also cite this period, and more especially the years between around 1880-1914 (to which I will refer as the fin de siecle) as a watershed mark in western cultural history. It coincides with the era of high capitalism and technical advances. Bourgeois society refers to the period of late 18th to early 20th centuries in Britain and France. In the present discussion the bourgeois are those with major investments in the existing cultural order. sense a draining-away of life values as they try to make the old physical forms adjust to the new and speedier movement.2 Progress on many fronts was linked to forms of energy and communication. The modernization of modes and relations of production involved the extension over the globe of commodity markets, related expansion of cultural production and consumption, and social disruptions. The dimensions annihilated, for many, were those of traditional work and dwelling. Mass migration became definitive characteristic of modernity as monopoly capitalism transformed "placefEinto flterritoryfior simply an abstract concept of flspace.EtThe tourism and information industries both developed in the context of mass production. Concurrent was the perception of loss, depth and immediacy in many areas of life. Perception, which orders experience, is bounded by communication media, the senses and the cultural schemata ordering the content of the perceived. But accounts of contemporary perceptual connections, agency and subjectivity must also be related to concrete developments. In the process of reality construction, perception is an intermediary link between the content of thought and the structure of society and institutions. Bourgeois society was an epistemic order founded on rules of linear development in time, or progress, and on the primacy of typographic/visual communication. (Lowe 1982, 17) Through cultural production in the age of high imperialism, people attempted "to make sense of, represent ...navigate or 2 McLuhm 1984, 95. Marx put it, "the annihilation of space by time." escape the worlds of modernization