Synopses & Reviews
In 1845, John Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition disappeared. The expedition left a remarkable archive of performative remains that entice one to consider the tension between material remains and memory, to contemplate how affect influences historical narratives, and to reflect on how substitution and surrogation work alongside mourning and melancholia as responses to loss. This book proposes that performances generate critical insights into how those affected by the expedition's disappearance understood the losses they experienced and makes the broader argument that performance functions as a repository of cultural history and as an epistemology of loss.
Review
"Davis-Fisch's book is . . . the most original and engaging work on the cultural impact of the mid-century Franklin fascination yet to appear - and, it's to be hoped, a harbinger of further such studies of the larger dramas of exploration as such, in all the regions of the world that the 'West' thought of as distant." - The Arctic Book Review
"The argument of Heather Davis-Fisch's book - that we might trace the 'remains' of a cultural event through performance in order both to evoke its circumstances and to argue for a relationship between performance and history, as well as performance and 'loss' more generally - is important, compelling, and interesting. Davis-Fisch makes her points clearly and delivers interesting close readings informed by recent criticism and theory." - Jennifer Hill, Fitzgerald Distinguished Professor of the Humanities , University of Nevada, Reno
Synopsis
Argues that performance is a crucial way of understanding the affective intercultural impact of the disappearance of John Franklins Northwest Passage expedition in 1845.
Synopsis
In 1845, John Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition disappeared. The expedition left an archive of performative remains that entice one to consider the tension between material remains and memory and reflect on how substitution and surrogation work alongside mourning and melancholia as responses to loss.
Synopsis
In 1845, John Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition disappeared. The expedition left a remarkable archive of performative remains that entice one to consider the tension between material remains and memory, to contemplate how affect influences historical narratives, and to reflect on how substitution and surrogation work alongside mourning and melancholia as responses to loss. This book proposes that performances generate critical insights into how those affected by the expedition's disappearance understood the losses they experienced and makes the broader argument that performance functions as a repository of cultural history and as an epistemology of loss.
About the Author
Heather Davis-Fisch is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Theatre Studies atthe University of British Columbia and she received her PhD in Theatre from theUniversity of Guelph, Ontario.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Jane Franklin's Dress: Archives and Affect Disciplining Nostalgia in the Navy; or, Harlequin in the Arctic 'The Sly Fox': Reading Indigenous Presence Going Native: 'Playing Inuit,' 'Becoming Savage,' and Acting Out Franklin Aglooka's Ghost: Performing Embodied Memory The Last Resource: Witnessing the Cannibal Scene The Designated Mourner: Charles Dickens Stands in for Franklin Conclusion: Franklin Remains