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Download Thesis This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ “The sailors dearly love to make up”: Cross-Dressing and Blackface during Polar Exploration Mossakowski, Tomasz Filip Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 06. Oct. 2021 “The sailors dearly love to make up”: Cross-Dressing and Blackface during Polar Exploration Tomek Mossakowski King’s College London Ph.D. Degree in English 2014 1 Abstract This research project writes against the hegemonic narratives of polar exploration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Using the published and unpublished diaries of explorers from 1819 to 1904, it asks how queer, critical race and postcolonial critiques of the hyper-masculine, all-white image of the polar explorer can open up new understandings of polar spaces both in the nineteenth century and today, when similar nationalistic, colonial enterprises are at play. Primarily informed by Lisa Bloom’s feminist, postcolonial review of American ideologies of polar exploration, this project discusses the large disparity between the intensely masculine image of the polar hero-adventurer and the particularly Anglo-American, but also Norwegian, tendency to perform drag during polar expeditions. It also examines the high incidence of blackface theatre: in one of the whitest spaces conceivable, sailors donned the black mask to air a complex constellation of white, colonial and class grievances and aspirations. Polar performance, which evolved to have its own idiosyncrasies shaped by the natural and social polar environment, affected colonial relations with Inuit, the stuff of farce being pressed into the service of imperial force. Indigenous populations witnessed grotesque displays of Anglo-American gendered and racial values through theatrical recreation, while simultaneously resisting the encroachment of expedition society through similar but seemingly smaller avenues of performative resistance. Broadly speaking, this project offers this more radical, revisionist interpretation at a time when interest in the Arctic and Antarctic is soaring due to anthropogenic climate change. It challenges the current reappropriation of heroic, hyper-masculine figures by national and 2 private interests through celebrating their lesser-known but equally fascinating mid-winter activities. 3 Table of Contents Title page 1 Abstract 2 Table of Contents 4 Acknowledgements 5 Table of Figures 7 Table of Expeditions 8 Introduction 9 Chapter 1 52 From the Royal Arctic Theatre to “negro songs”: Polar performance in the first half of the nineteenth century Chapter 2 114 “Smith, à la negro!”: Blackface, Americanisation, Inuit womanhood and Charles Francis Hall’s first Arctic expedition Chapter 3 163 Breaking the Ice: The hegemony of climate, physical culture and the performance of A Ticket-of-Leave during the Discovery Expedition Chapter 4 224 Black Ice: The Dishcover Minstrel Troupe, plantation songs and the stuff of farce and force Conclusion 288 Bibliography 311 4 Acknowledgements This project began three years ago when I returned from life at the top of the world, or, the northernmost reaches of Norway. Leaving my idyllic, Scandinavian surroundings wasn’t easy and, worse yet, I was now a faceless Londoner starting a towering undertaking at an impressive college. Though I began with a sense of optimism, this was soon replaced by a nauseating cycle of mental ups and downs. Throughout it all however, Northern Norway (one of the most beautiful places on the planet) remained with me like a recurring dream. Without Arctic inspiration, I would have never finished this thesis. I hope it will go some way to joining the conversation about climate change. I would also have never finished, or even started, this project if it weren’t for my supervisor and friend, John Howard. His support, enthusiasm, humour and patience have seen me through. He has, to borrow his own words, continually pushed my thinking and given me much to meditate on. I would also like to thank Mark Turner for all the comments, both constructive and funny, and Uta Balbier for helping me when it was really needed. Thanks go to the Institute of North American Studies and Americanists in the English department at King’s College London. In particular Jo McDonagh and Ed Sugden helped create opportunities. I’d like to say thank you to Skyler Hijazi, Victoria Carroll and Jay Watkins: sometimes, you really need your work to be savagely mauled; to Jenny Essen for all the tea, teaching and emotional support; to Bryan Karetnyk for making me look forward to the British Library. Further student support has come 5 from reading workshops at the Society for the History of Women in the Americas. Finally, to my family and friends who’ve supported me when I wanted to quit: thanks. To my family and friends who wouldn’t let me quit when I wanted to: also thanks. To my parents, I wouldn’t be anywhere without you; to James, I’d like to go on holiday now. 6 Table of figures Figure 1 Actors in the Crossing the Line ceremony 178 Figure 2 The cast of A Ticket-of-Leave 211 Figure 3 The Dishcover Minstrel Troupe 241 Figure 4 Flying Scud 283 Figure 5 Marston “Putty the inimitable” 290 7 Table of Expeditions A table of expeditions referenced in this thesis. Expedition Commander Number of Destination Years Principal Name ships chronicler Parry’s first William 2 (Hecla Northwest 1819– William voyage Edward and Griper) Passage 20 Edward Parry Parry (British) Parry’s William 2 (Hecla Northwest 1821– William second Edward and Fury) Passage 23 Edward voyage Parry Parry (British) Franklin’s John 2 (Erebus Northwest 1845–? None, all Lost Franklin and Terror) Passage crew Expedition (British) disappeared Austin’s Horatio 4 (Resolute, Eastern 1850– Clements rescue Austin Assistance, Arctic 51 Markham, expedition (British) Pioneer, Horatio Intrepid) Austin First Edwin De 2 (Advance Eastern 1850– Elisha Kent Grinnell Haven and Arctic 51 Kane Expedition (American) Rescue) Hall’s first Sidney 1 (George King 1860– Charles Arctic Budington Henry William 62 Francis expedition (American) (whaler)) Island Hall British George 2 (Alert and North Pole 1875– Clements Arctic Nares Discovery) 76 Markham, Expedition (British) George Nares Discovery Robert 1 Antarctica 1901– Robert Expedition Falcon Scott (Discovery) 04 Falcon (British) Scott Nimrod Ernest 1 (Nimrod) South Pole 1907– Ernest Expedition Shackleton 09 Shackleton (British) Amundsen’s Roald 1 (Fram) South Pole 1910– Roald South Pole Amundsen 12 Amundsen expedition (Norwegian) Australasian Douglas 1 (Aurora) Antarctica 1911– Douglas Antarctic Mawson 14 Mawson Expedition (Australian) 8 Introduction In 1853, Peter Simmonds, a journalist and writer, released a book about Arctic exploration in the first half of the nineteenth century. Consider his account of a cold day in October 1821, during British naval officer William Edward Parry’s second expedition to find the fabled Northwest Passage: Preparations were now made for occupation and amusement, so as to pass away pleasantly the period of detention. A good stock of theatrical dresses and properties having been laid in by the officers before leaving England, arrangements were made for performing plays fortnightly, as on their last winter residence, as a means of amusing the seamen, and in some degree to break the tedious monotony of their confinement. As there could be no desire, or hope of excelling, every officer’s name was readily entered on the list of dramatis personæ, Captain Lyon kindly undertaking the difficult office of manager. Those ladies (says Lyon) who had cherished the growth of their beards and whiskers, as a defence against the inclemency of the climate, now generously agreed to do away with such unfeminine ornaments, and every thing bade fair for a most stylish theater.1 What is the most striking aspect of this loaded extract? Is it that “heroic” polar explorers, considered the epitome of masculinity, cross-dressed out on the ice, described as a prison, when temperatures were dangerously low? Is it that this cross-dressing was such an established, awaited tradition that men known for their bravery thought to pack dresses at the expense of potentially life-saving supplies? Or is it that these men actually did away with their facial hair, crucial for keeping the face warm, so that they could
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