Writing Geographical Exploration: Thomas James and the Northwest Passage, 1631-33

by Wayne Kenneth David Davies

Writing Geographical Exploration: Thomas James and the Northwest Passage, 1631-33 summarizes the various factors that influence the writing and interpretation of exploration narratives, demonstrating the limitations of the assumption that there is a direct relationship between what the explorer saw and what the text describes. Davies offers a revisionist evaluation of Captain Thomas James, who spent eighteen months in search of the Northwest Passage in the 1630s, to illustrate how modern textual analysis can enrich the appreciation of a traveller's account. Though James's work has been dismissed in the modern period, his work was highly regarded in previous centuries by scientist Robert Boyle and poet Samuel Coleridge. James was not a first-rank explorer, but he was an able navigator and leader, a perceptive scientific observer, and a master author who produced a thrilling tale of adventure that should occupy a more prominent place in exploration writing and history, literary theory, and post-modern geography.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1552380629
• ISBN13: 9781552380628
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: University of Calgary Press
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 2.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.2" x 10.2"