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Home > English > Area of Study - The Journey > The Journey > Stimulus booklet text 6: 'Journeys over Land and Sea'

Stimulus booklet text 6: ‘Journeys over Land and Sea’
An approach

This material was written by Ian Bate and the English faculty at Winmalee High School

Context
The Smithsonian website
A dominant reading
A resistant reading
Note for students studying Coleridge

This text has been included in the prescribed JOURNEYS - Stimulus booklet for the Area of Study HSC 2004-2007 booklet because it will prompt you to consider some of the ways of thinking that underpin the English Stage 6 Syllabus

• Dominant, alternate and resistant readings
• The importance of considering the context of a text: who is the composer? What is the purpose of the text? What are the cultural values that seem to be embodied in the text? Who is the intended audience, and how is the text supposed to affect them?
• How does the text relate to other texts about a similar topic (in this case, The Journey)?

Context

Modern intellectual thought is somewhat suspicious of what have been termed “grand narratives” in Western cultures, those epic or legendary stories that have been passed down through generations. Often, they are those tales of heroism that serve to inspire succeeding generations to share a vision of nationhood and to see certain behaviours and attitudes as exemplary. One of the earliest of these “grand narratives” is alluded to in Text 5: ‘Blood on the Tracks’, Homer’s Odyssey, an epic tale of a king from ancient Greece who served as a general in the siege of Troy and then found himself on a 20 year voyage to return home to his kingdom, fighting adversity, monsters and the elements.

Another notable local example is the Gallipoli legend which is a core compulsory study in the study of Australian history for the School Certificate. The story (narrative) of Gallipoli usually emphasises such values as heroism in the face of adversity, the virtues of sacrifice for one’s country and empire and the values of Australian “mateship”. A critical or resistant study of the Gallipoli story might conclude that it is given such emphasis in Australian society because it upholds a vision of Australia that celebrates Anglo-Australians and British culture to the exclusion of other ethnic groups (even hostility to other groups and nationalities). The celebration of male “mateship” can also be interrogated: does the Gallipoli legend also celebrate male domination and female marginalisation?

Western (that is, European) culture since the 15th century has developed many “grand narratives” pertaining to exploration and discovery. The period from the 15–19th centuries has been called “The Age of Expansion”, that is, expansion of European empires, involving colonisation of non-European parts of the world: Africa , the Americas , the West and East Indies , South East Asia and Australia . Generally this process of colonisation involved the dispossession of indigenous peoples and the installation of European administrations, backed by military technology and economic power. The economic operations in such colonies were highly exploitive of the indigenous peoples and the natural resources. Extractive processes such as mining, timber felling, cash cropping often had severe impact on indigenous cultures and the environment. Such processes continue today in developing countries.

Such practices reflect a cultural attitude very evident in Western culture: human beings are the supreme creatures on earth, the lords of creation, and the world has been given to them to change, manipulate and exploit. Private individuals own the land, and individual wealth and prestige is connected to land ownership. Such practices have in the past been justified by reference to the Bible (God gave the Earth to people and commanded them to “go forth and multiply” in the wilderness) and the 19th century scientific theories of Charles Darwin (strong, intelligent, advanced species and individuals survive in nature, therefore human beings are the most advanced species, therefore wealthy Europeans must be the most advanced humans.) In contrast, the cultural beliefs of the indigenous peoples were often diametrically opposed: people do not own the land, the land owns the people – humans have stewardship of the land, not ownership, and are charged with its preservation (this is a notable feature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island cultures, for example).

The Smithsonian website

The Smithsonian website describes the first gala event held there, the inauguration of a president:

A great emphasis in the Smithsonian today is this celebration of progress and Western civilisation. Highly popular exhibits include early aircraft and American space vehicles, the tools of the new millennium’s great voyages of exploration.

The Smithsonian, then can be seen to be an institution dedicated to the celebration of the grand narratives of American and European culture.

‘ Journeys over Land and Sea’ is really 3 texts:

• the written text is an excerpt from a Smithsonian Institution web page
• a detail from a 16th century woodcut: a round hulled trading ship encountering a fanciful sea monster
• a woodcut depicting a giant human figure (Pliny the Elder) bestriding land and sea.

Details about the two woodcuts are on the Smithsonian’s web site:

The top woodcut :

Journeys over Land and Sea : Travelers and Places
Olaus Magnus (1490-1557)
Historia delle genti et della natura delle cose settentrionali (History of the northern peoples and nature of things)
Venice : Giunti, 1565.
Gift of the Burndy Library

The bottom woodcut :

Journeys over Land and Sea: Botany and Zoology
Pliny the Elder (about A.D. 23-79)
Naturalis historia (Natural history)
Frankfurt : Martin Lechler, 1582.
Gift of the Burndy Library
illustration from the 1582 edition of Naturalis historia by Pliny the Elder (c. AD 23-79). Artist: Martin Lechler.

A dominant reading of Text 6

The text has been composed to inspire the reader’s imagination and persuade him/her to the position that the long history of Western exploration of the world is exciting and valuable. The human mind with its thirst for new knowledge and its capacity for imagination is a valuable entity. Our tales of great journeys that we have passed on through successive generations reflect these human qualities.

Paragraph 1	This is an orientation paragraph which immediately positions the reader. The tone is enthusiastic. Some words are used because of their emotive load and associations: ‘pioneers’, ‘compelled’, ‘exotic’, ‘tales’. ‘Pioneer’ is a word with very positive associations in our culture: innovation, courage, resourcefulness. ‘Compelled’ is a powerful verb. ‘Exotic’ is associated with a romantic sense of the unusual. ‘Tales’ is a word reserved for epic narratives.
Paragraph 2	The emphasis is on the scientific and artistic discoveries and benefits of exploration. Words with positive associations: ‘great voyages’, ‘abounded’, ‘learned societies’, ‘scholars’.
Paragraph 3	This paragraph focuses on how visual artists were inspired by exploration. Adjectives such as ‘essential’, ‘lavishly illustrated’, ‘great’, ‘unparalleled’ all maintain the enthusiastic tone of the text.
Paragraph 4	This paragraph emphasises the ongoing ‘wonder at the unusual, whether real or imagined’ which has transcended all the eras of history. The Smithsonian’s comprehensive collection of manuscripts ‘documents the ever-expanding world view of humankind’ and is therefore an important resource. The courage of early explorers is mentioned: ‘the anxieties of the earliest travellers, who journeyed to the unknown fearful of monsters, savage weather…’ Recent works, including those associated with science fiction journeys, are also kept at The Smithsonian. The final sentence foregrounds human curiosity and imagination.
The top woodcut	This supports the reference in the 4th paragraph to the ‘anxieties… fearful of monsters.’ The imagination of human beings caught up in an age of rapid change is being illustrated.
The bottom woodcut	A giant human figure, possibly Pliny, is shown bestriding land and sea. In his left hand he holds the wind, in his right a fiery globe. The illustration is from a time of tremendous scientific advance and celebrates human intellect. Men like Pliny have helped human beings understand and master the four elements: air, fire, water and earth.

A resistant reading of Text 6

The text presents European voyages of exploration as grand narratives, passed on down the generations because they legitimise European colonial expansion. Voyages of exploration that were motivated by the hope of profit are presented as noble deeds that expanded the body of scientific knowledge and gave opportunity for creation of visual artworks. The foregrounding of the scientific and artistic rewards indicates that this is justification for exploitive colonial practices that follow on from European exploration. In this reading, tales of great journeys are seen as justifications for cultural attitudes and actions that have exploited indigenous peoples around the globe. The appeal of these stories is that they exploit people’s imaginations. In a sense, they have propaganda value. The fact that they are essentially tales of male daring also reflects the marginalisation of women in Western history.

Paragraph 1	This is an orientation paragraph which immediately positions the reader. The tone is enthusiastic. Some words are used because of their emotive load and associations: ‘pioneers’, ‘compelled’, ‘exotic’, ‘tales’. ‘Pioneer’ is a word with very positive associations in our culture: innovation, courage, resourcefulness. Progress in Western culture is seen as inevitable and often associated with economic profit. The culture from which these ‘pioneers’ have come is not specified, but we may assume that it is European. This is supported by the woodcuts. ‘Compelled’ is a powerful verb. ‘Exotic’ is associated with a romantic sense of the unusual. ‘Tales’ is a word reserved for epic narratives.
Paragraph 2	The profit motive for exploration is dismissed in the first sentence, and the scientific and artistic rewards foregrounded. Later in the paragraph, scientific advance and commerce are equated.
Paragraph 3	The term ‘the expanding world’ betrays the cultural attitudes of the composer of the web site. ‘Expanding world’ means Western culture and European empires (the underlying assumption is that indigenous peoples do not exist until documented by European scientists, artists, explorers).
Paragraph 4	The composer cites ancient Greek and Roman geographers, the Renaissance and the exploration of the American West. These all point to the exclusively Western world view in this text.
Top woodcut	A trade vessel with its characteristic ‘coconut’ hull (as it was actually termed in the 16th century, referring to the curved shape) encounters a sea monster. This exaggeration of the exotic exploits human imagination, presenting mercenary profit-motivated voyages as exciting and romantic Note: accounts of voyages of discovery, often wildly exaggerated descriptions, were the best-selling blockbuster books of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Bottom woodcut	A giant human bestrides the earth and mastering the elements. Humans have the capacity to dominate nature and the earth, therefore their destiny is to explore and expand into new territories. This is a Western concept which has been used to justify colonisation and empire-building.

Note for students studying the prescribe Coleridge text in the Area of Study :

You may like to consider how Coleridge subverts the metanarratives of his day to express his ideas about the relationship between humanity and nature/the universe in ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’.

Back to Area of Study: The Journey