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The South Seas Fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson

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The South Seas Fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Winter 1985 THE SOUTH SEAS FICTION OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT IRWIN HILLIER University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation HILLIER, ROBERT IRWIN, "THE SOUTH SEAS FICTION OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON" (1985). Doctoral Dissertations. 1467. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1467 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This reproduction was made from a copy of a manuscript sent to us for publication and microfilming. While the most advanced technology has been used to pho­ tograph and reproduce this manuscript, the quality of the reproduction is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. Pages in any manuscript may have indistinct print. In all cases the best available copy has been filmed. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help clarify notations which may appear on this reproduction. 1. Manuscripts may not always be complete. When it is not possible to obtain missing pages, a note appears to indicate this. 2. When copyrighted materials are removed from the manuscript, a note ap­ pears to indicate this. 3. Oversize materials (maps, drawings, and charts) are photographed by sec­ tioning the original, beginning at the upper left hand comer and continu­ ing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each oversize page is also filmed as one exposure and is available, for an additional charge, as a standard 35mm slide or in black and white paper format. * 4. Most photographs reproduce acceptably on positive microfilm or micro­ fiche but lack clarity on xerographic copies made from the microfilm. For an additional charge, all photographs are available in black and white standard 35mm slide format. * ♦For more information about black and white slides or enlarged paper reproductions, please contact the Dissertations Customer Services Department. IMversity Microfilms International 8607458 Hillier, Robert Irwin THE SOUTH SEAS FICTION OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON University of New Hampshire Ph.D. 1985 University Microfilms International300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Copyright 1985 by Hillier, Robert Irwin All Rights Reserved PLEASE NOTE: In all cases this material has been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy. Problems encountered with this document have been identified here with a check mark V . 1. Glossy photographs or pages ______ 2. Colored illustrations, paper or print _______ 3. Photographs with dark background _____ 4. Illustrations are poor copy _______ 5. Pages with black marks, not original copy _______ 6. Print shows through as there is text on both sides of page _______ 7. Indistinct, broken or small print on severs! pages __ 8. Print exceeds margin requirements ______ 9. Tightly bound copy with print lost in sp in e________ 10. Computer printout pages with indistinct print _______ 11. Page(s) ____________ lacking when material received, and not available from school or author. 12. Page(s) seem to be missing in numbering only as text follows. 13. Two pages n u mbered . Text follows. 14. Curling and wrinkled pages 15. Dissertation contains pages with print at a slant, filmed as received 16. Other University Microfilms International THE SOUTH SEAS FICTION OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON BY ROBERT IRWIN HILLIER B. A. Haverford College, 1 966 M. A. University of Vermont, 1977 A DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in Engl ish De cember, 1 9 85 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (8) 1 985 Robert Irwin Hillier This dissertation has been examined and approved. Dissertation &i_i>6ctor, Carl Dawson Professor of English ? J Jean E. Kennard, Professor of English (/ ' - f ^ ~ ,■.' w- £Lu,jlfrc_______________________ Edmund G. Miller, Professor of English 1/.--------------------------------------- F. VKlliam Forbes, Associate Professor of Spanish and Classics •» 1/1 / Frank D. McCann Jr., Professor of' Hi story /'I^JLsXj Mrs Date For Cherlyn iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the people who have encouraged, supported, and guided me through the completion of this di sser tatio n. Warmest thanks go to my advisor Professor Carl Dawson. His confidence in me, his patience, and his ability to help me find patterns in my material have helped bring my writing to completion. Warm thanks also go to Professor Edmund G. Miller for working in close partnership with Professor Dawson helping me focus on pertinent details to support my main ideas. Both men have continually encouraged me to strive for excellence rather than adequacy. Thanks also go to the other members of my dissertation committee: Professor Jean Kennai d, Professor F. William Forbes, and Professor Frank D. McCann Jr. Professor Emeritus Frank Nelson originally encouraged me to pursue graduate study. Nathaniel Allyn helped me find employment to cover the expenses of my travel and research. Professor Richard L. H illier, Professor Peter Johnson, Helen Kobayashi, and John and Nancy Hoover have helped me at different stages of the writing. The personnel of the University of Hawaii Asian and Pacific Collection, the Yale University Beinecke Library, the Harvard Houghton Library, the Huntington Library, and the Library of Congress have all helped me get maximum benefits from my brief visits. My v principal Dr. Alan Garson has helped me balance the demands of teaching with those of research and writing. The Hoovers, the Johnsons, and Karen Dunn and Professor and Mrs. Gerald Dunn, and Kathleen and Russell Northrup have all provided hospitality and encouragement. Members of the staff of the University of New Hampshire English Department have helped me clerical and technical matters. And finally my wife and daughter have retained their confidence in me throughout my graduate study. Thanks goes to all of these people. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v ABSTRACT v iii CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 Stevenson's South Seas Literary Heritage 6 Stevenson's Life in the South Seas 13 II. IN THE SOUTH SEAS 28 III. POLYNESIAN CUSTOMS AND ORAL TRADITION 51 "The Feast of Famine" 52 "The Song of Rahfero" 56 "The Isle of Voices" 62 "The Bottle Imp" 70 IV. THE WRECKER: THE NOVEL AS SEA YARN 7 9 V. THE EBB TIDE: THE SOUTH SEAS AS SOURCE OF ALLEGORY 113 VI THE BEACH OF FALESA 148 VII CONCLUSION 183 WORKS CONSULTED 1 89 Holographic Sources 189 Secondary andOther Primary Sources 1 96 v ii ABSTRACT THE SOUTH SEAS FICTION OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON by Robert Irwin H illier University of New Hampshire, December, 1 985 As the title suggests, this dissertation investigates Stevenson's works which are set in the South Pacific, works emerging from his study, experience, and observation during his travels through and residence in islands of the South Pacific. The works discussed include a travel book, in the South Seas: two narrative poems which approximate Polynesian folklore, "The Feast of Famine" and "The Song of Rahfero;" two short stories in a fairy tale mode, "The Isle of Voices" and "The Bottle Imp;" two full-length novels written in collaboration with Lloyd Osbourne, The Wrecker and The Ebb Tide : and one novella, The Beach of Falesa. The introductory chapter is largely biographical. While this study is not an example of archetypal criticism , it in itia lly defines the sense westerners have of Pacific islands as the South Seas archetype. This chapter reveals Stevenson's early receptivity to the region, traces his travels, and begins to suggest the modifications Stevenson makes of the South Seas archetype in his writing. Chapter II focuses on Stevenson's travel writing. It contrasts the epic aspirations Stevenson had for Jjn the South Seas with v i i i r the reality that his travel writing was more useful as a source book for his fiction. The first two chapters provide a background for the subsequent chapters in which Stevenson's fiction is actually discussed. .The dissertation shows the extent to which Stevenson draws on his imagination, his observations and experiences, Polynesian oral tradition, and the tradition of the sea yarn for each work of fiction. Chapter III focuses on the works which make most extensive use of Polynesian folklore--the poems and stories. Chapter IV reveals Stevenson's extensive use of sea yarns as source material for The Wrecker, an adventure novel which also explores human violence. Chapter V discusses Stevenson's use of allegorical land and sea scape to intensify the grim realism of The Ebb Tide. Chapter VI suggests that The Beach of Falesa. which encompasses most of what Stevenson learned about the Pacific, remains his most successful work. Finally, this dissertation shows two ways in which the South Seas fiction is significant. These works reveal Stevenson's a rtistic growth, showing his change from a master of the romance and adventure novel to a realist. In vividly depicting the South Seas, these works have offered an alternative to the South Seas archetype which subsequent writers have adopted. ix CHAPTER I IN TRODUCTION Although this study is in no significant way based on Archetypal Criticism, the concept of the archetype can help distinguish Robert Louis Stevenson's South Seas works from his other writing, reveal how Stevenson's writings on the South Seas were different from those of his literary predecessors, and possibly account for the lack of popularity of these works in comparison to his other writing and to other literature dealing with the region.
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