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Landscape and Postcolonialism in British West Indies Travel Narratives, 1815-1914

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Landscape and Postcolonialism in British West Indies Travel Narratives, 1815-1914 LANDSCAPE AND POSTCOLONIALISM IN BRITISH WEST INDIES TRAVEL NARRATIVES, 1815-1914 A dissertation submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Velvet Nelson May 2006 Dissertation written by Velvet Nelson B.S., West Liberty State College, 2001 M.A., East Carolina University, 2003 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2006 Approved by ___________________________________, Co-Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. David Kaplan ___________________________________, Co-Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. Shawn Banasick ___________________________________, Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. Thomas Schmidlin ___________________________________ Dr. Alison Fletcher ___________________________________ Dr. John Jameson ___________________________________ Dr. John Ackerman Accepted by ___________________________________, Chair, Department of Geography Dr. Jay Lee ___________________________________, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Jerry Feezel ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF MAPS .................................................................................................................vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ...........................................................................................viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................x CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................1 The Conceptual Approach: Landscape and Postcolonialism ......................3 The Historical Perspective: 1815-1914 .......................................................6 The Data: British West Indies Travel Narratives ......................................10 Overview ...................................................................................................11 2. CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW: LANDSCAPE AND POSTCOLONIALISM .............................................................................14 Landscape .................................................................................................16 Postcolonialism .........................................................................................19 Landscape and Postcolonialism ................................................................25 Vision ............................................................................................25 Aesthetics and Ideals .....................................................................32 Binarisms ......................................................................................39 Conclusion ................................................................................................46 3. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: THE CARIBBEAN, TRAVEL AND TRAVEL WRITING ................................................................................48 Colonial Development in the Caribbean ...................................................50 The Rural Landscape in the Caribbean .....................................................61 Travel and Tourism ...................................................................................66 Travel Writing ...........................................................................................70 Conclusion ................................................................................................74 iii 4. DATA AND METHODOLOGY ..............................................................77 Primary Data Sources ...............................................................................78 Methodology .............................................................................................92 Conclusion ................................................................................................94 5. VISION AND LANDSCAPE DESCRIPTIONS ...................................100 Vision ......................................................................................................101 Landscape Features .................................................................................107 Landforms ...................................................................................108 Water ...........................................................................................113 Vegetation ...................................................................................114 Landscape Qualification .........................................................................118 Color ...........................................................................................119 Size ..............................................................................................121 Terrain .........................................................................................123 Time ............................................................................................127 Climate ........................................................................................128 Landscape Comparisons .........................................................................130 Landscape Aesthetics ..................................................................131 Landscape Ideals .........................................................................135 Landscapes of the British Isles ...................................................137 Regional Landscapes ..................................................................140 Landscape Reaction ................................................................................142 Wellbeing ....................................................................................142 Accessibility ................................................................................148 Appraisal .....................................................................................152 Intangible Impressions ................................................................156 Conclusion ..............................................................................................159 6. COLONIAL/POSTCOLONIAL PATTERNS OF TOURISM AND LANDSCAPE .........................................................................................161 Binaries in Landscape .............................................................................163 Paradisiacal and Pestilential ........................................................167 Cultivated and Wild ....................................................................176 Binaries of People and Landscape ..........................................................185 Tourists and Landscape ...........................................................................192 Tourism Representations of Landscape ..................................................203 Postcolonial Patterns ...............................................................................214 Conclusion ..............................................................................................217 iv 7. CONCLUSION .......................................................................................220 Summary .................................................................................................221 Discussion ...............................................................................................223 Future Research ......................................................................................229 REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................231 v MAPS Map Page 1. The Caribbean Region ................................................................................7 2. The islands of the British West Indies visited by travel writers .................8 3. Political map of the Caribbean after 1815 ................................................55 4. Cultivation on Barbados, 1673 .................................................................62 5. The Caribbean tour of Sir Frederick Treves .............................................84 6. Regional geography ..................................................................................91 7. Islands described by travel writers based on visitation ...........................104 8. Islands described by travel writers based on the view from the ship ......105 9. St. Lucia—a “mountainous” island .........................................................126 10. Antigua—a “flat” island .........................................................................127 vi TABLES Table Page 1. Authors of selected travel narratives .........................................................88 2. Sample coding schema ..............................................................................95 vii ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Laborie, St. Lucia ..........................................................................................106 2. A “typical” view on Dominica ......................................................................110 3. A jungle stream in Trinidad ..........................................................................114 4. West Indian produce .....................................................................................116 5. A West Indian sugar plantation .....................................................................117 6. “Trash huts” on the edge of the High Woods, Trinidad ...............................118 7. Jamaica’s
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