Inter-Racial Intimacies: Stevensonâs Late Pacific Tales

Mandy Treagus

Jump to Content

Chapter 8 Inter-Racial Intimacies: Stevensonâs Late Pacific Tales

In: Scottish Literature of the South Seas

Author:

Mandy Treagus

Mandy Treagus
Search for other papers by Mandy Treagus in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 128â141

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004682177_010

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

â¬42.00â¬35.00Â excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

In Stevensonâs Pacific writing, race is both a fact of life, and an element he must negotiate across the various genres in which he writes: travel writing, adventure romance, and political commentary. Though not centrally addressed, race nevertheless underlies the material context of the Pacific world much more significantly than it did in his European and American lives, and Stevenson subverts many of the dominant values of his day when considering it.

This chapter addresses the treatment of race in The Beach of FalesÃ¡, a tale in which the presence of mixed-race children is acknowledged as a side-effect of the presence of white men in remote islands. It contextualizes this with an examination of the Stevenson householdâs collective support of an initiative known as the Club. This was, as Stevenson wrote to Sidney Colvin, a âweekly ball for the half-castes and nativesâ at which British etiquette and manners could be taught. This chapter will also consider Vailimaâs collective friendships with a number of mixed-race households in SÄmoa. The Beach of FalesÃ¡ also undermines the racial codes of the adventure romance genre by inverting the association of nobility and strength of character with whiteness, instead linking these with local Pacific Islander characters. Similarly, in The Ebb-Tide, Stevensonâs last Pacific work, the characters who exhibit loyalty, commitment and steadfastness are the islander crew, rather than the white âroguesâ between whom the narrative plays out. In these fictions, non-fiction, and in his life, Stevenson demonstrates a nuanced understanding of race as a factor in his world, though not a determining one. His openness to others of whatever background expresses itself in ways that ultimately have an impact on the genres in which he wrote.

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/BP000018.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	1400	407	65
Full Text Views	14	2	0
PDF Views & Downloads	6	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 8 Inter-Racial Intimacies: Stevensonâs Late Pacific Tales

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 8 Inter-Racial Intimacies: Stevensonâs Late Pacific Tales