Exploration and Nation: the Cultural Impact of Exploration Literature from the Cook Voyages to the Novara Circumnavigation

This project seeks to explain how fictional and factual publications about Pacific exploration helped shape the national identities of the emerging imperial nations of 19th-century Europe and their colonies. It will undertake a comparative textual analysis of a wide range of publications about voyaging and exploration from the period of the Cook voyages to the still unresearched Austrian Novara Expedition and examine the claims about nation and identity implied by scientific studies, travel accounts and literary fantasies. This study of exploration narratives will add a crucial new perspective on the interconnections between Great Britain and Central Europe and refine our understanding of the imaginary foundations of nation building.