Overview

Full Product Details

9789004426696

Table of Contents

Reviews

This is a book that deserves to be read for its ambitions. Based on his comprehensive reading close to erudition within the field of maritime literary studies, Soren Frank sets out to reframe the somewhat marginalised genre of the maritime novel, yet also other forms of prose as well as visual material. With a detailed argument for the symptomatic significance of the maritime perspective in literary history the author zooms in on three dimensions [...] His overall aim is to incorporate the so-called blue ecology as an integral part of the otherwise terrestrial focus that dominates today's preoccupation with ecological issues in art, culture and politics. - Svend Erik Larsen, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark, DK in Orbis Litterarum, 2022 Combining a capacious vision of the long history of oceanic narratives in Western culture with incisive analysis of recent scholarship in the blue humanities, A Poetic History of the Oceans provides an excellent overview of oceanic literature and culture. At this book's core lies a brilliant reading of Moby-Dick as model for four distinct historical iterations of Western imaginations of the sea. In reading Melville's novel as simultaneously theocentric, anthropocentric, technocentric, and geocentric, Frank shows how this American classic opens onto global vistas. Beyond an innovative analysis of the English-language canon, however, this book also brings Scandinavian writers and texts forward into their rightful places as oceanic pioneers. The introduction of figures such as Jens Munk, Jonas Lie, Martin Andersen Nexo, and Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen suggests how much scholars and readers can learn from this book. - Steve Mentz, Professor of English, St. John's University, New York, USA A Poetic History of the Oceans has compelling qualities: a fascinating topic, incredible erudition, an innovative, wide-ranging approach, and a seductive, reader-friendly style. The quality of the scholarship is remarkable, both concerning the works examined and the thinkers and literary critics that are consulted and cited. Given the superb treatment of the topic, the wealth of information, and the theoretical insights, Frank's book could very well become a classic in its field. - Thomas Pavel, Professor of Romance Languages, Comparative Literature, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago, USA

Combining a capacious vision of the long history of oceanic narratives in Western culture with incisive analysis of recent scholarship in the blue humanities, A Poetic History of the Oceans provides an excellent overview of oceanic literature and culture. At this book's core lies a brilliant reading of Moby-Dick as model for four distinct historical iterations of Western imaginations of the sea. In reading Melville's novel as simultaneously theocentric, anthropocentric, technocentric, and geocentric, Frank shows how this American classic opens onto global vistas. Beyond an innovative analysis of the English-language canon, however, this book also brings Scandinavian writers and texts forward into their rightful places as oceanic pioneers. The introduction of figures such as Jens Munk, Jonas Lie, Martin Andersen Nexo, and Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen suggests how much scholars and readers can learn from this book. - Steve Mentz, Professor of English, St. John's University, New York, USA

Combining a capacious vision of the long history of oceanic narratives in Western culture with incisive analysis of recent scholarship in the blue humanities, A Poetic History of the Oceans provides an excellent overview of oceanic literature and culture. At this book's core lies a brilliant reading of Moby-Dick as model for four distinct historical iterations of Western imaginations of the sea. In reading Melville's novel as simultaneously theocentric, anthropocentric, technocentric, and geocentric, Frank shows how this American classic opens onto global vistas. Beyond an innovative analysis of the English-language canon, however, this book also brings Scandinavian writers and texts forward into their rightful places as oceanic pioneers. The introduction of figures such as Jens Munk, Jonas Lie, Martin Andersen Nexo, and Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen suggests how much scholars and readers can learn from this book. - Steve Mentz, Professor of English, St. John's University, New York, USA A Poetic History of the Oceans has compelling qualities: a fascinating topic, incredible erudition, an innovative, wide-ranging approach, and a seductive, reader-friendly style. The quality of the scholarship is remarkable, both concerning the works examined and the thinkers and literary critics that are consulted and cited. Given the superb treatment of the topic, the wealth of information, and the theoretical insights, Frank's book could very well become a classic in its field. - Thomas Pavel, Professor of Romance Languages, Comparative Literature, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago, USA

Author Information

Soren Frank is Professor of Comparative Literature at the Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark. His publications include Migration and Literature (2008), Salman Rushdie: A Deleuzian Reading (2011), and Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: A Cultural Analysis of Manchester United (2013).

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available