Omai the Traveller Meets George the Tourist: a Pacific Voyager at the Kingâs Visit to Edinburgh, 1822

Caroline McCracken-Flesher

Jump to Content

Chapter 3 Omai the Traveller Meets George the Tourist: a Pacific Voyager at the Kingâs Visit to Edinburgh, 1822

In: Scottish Literature of the South Seas

Author:

Caroline McCracken-Flesher

Caroline McCracken-Flesher
Search for other papers by Caroline McCracken-Flesher in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 45â57

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004682177_005

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

â¬42.00â¬35.00Â excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

This chapter deploys theories of tourism and discourse to unravel this literary masterpiece of suspect cultural positioning. In 1822, when George IV visited Edinburgh, so did worthies from around Scotland and the United Kingdom. In the pages of Blackwoodâs however, alongside John Galtâs âPaisley bodiesâ and âGlasgow peopleâ figured âOmai the Traveller.â The magazine cites his âsecond voyage.â The historical Mai, of Raâiatea, had encountered Cook in the Pacific, then traveled to England where he was celebrated in society, before returning to the South Seas with Cook in 1776. By 1785, Londoners could enjoy a play of his life, Omaiâa voyage âround the world, at the Theatre Royal. What was âOmai,â purported âson of the sonâ of Mai, doing in Edinburghâand supposedly for the second time? This chapter pursues Blackwoodâs deployment of the ânativeâ as tourist even as George IV adopted highland dress to âgo nativeâ among the Scots. For the kingâs visit, Tory Blackwoodâs led the loyal chorus, welcoming âthe blood of the Bruceâ (running thinly in Georgeâs Hanoverian veins) to come over the border. The discourse of homecoming, building in a Scotland increasingly aware of its historical and economic construction as a space of lack and loss, came uneasily from a Blackwoodâs committed to Britishness.

The magazineâs fictive Omai, penned, it seems, by John Galt, was in his own mind a favored guest of king and âthe island of Edinburgh.â Yet he and the king misrecognize one another and thus their own role. Mai, that is, allowed the magazine to negotiate a relation to royalty and to homecoming that was both admiring and âinnocentlyâ satirical.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789004682177/BP000013.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Scottish Literature of the South Seas

Critical Studies of Scotland and the Pacific

Series:Â SCROLL: Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature, Volume: 35Â andÂ SCROLL: Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature Online, Volume: 35

Cover Scottish Literature of the South Seas

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004682177

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 25 Dec 2024

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies

Front Matter

Back Matter

ProCite

RefWorks

Reference Manager

BibTeX

Zotero

EndNote

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	929	150	35
Full Text Views	23	6	0
PDF Views & Downloads	2	2	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Chapter 3 Omai the Traveller Meets George the Tourist: a Pacific Voyager at the Kingâs Visit to Edinburgh, 1822

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Scottish Literature of the South Seas

Critical Studies of Scotland and the Pacific

Table of Contents

References

Metrics

Metrics

Chapter 3 Omai the Traveller Meets George the Tourist: a Pacific Voyager at the Kingâs Visit to Edinburgh, 1822