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This 1998 book examines nineteenth-century European accounts of contact and settlement in the Pacific, and Polynesian responses to technologies of writing and print.
List of contents
List of Illustrations; Acknowledgements; Introduction: acts of reading; 1. 'A gift of fabrication': the beachcomber as bricoleur; 2. Lip service and conversation; 3. 'Other people's books': Stevenson's Pacific travels; 4. Piracy and exchange: Stevenson's Pacific fictions; 5. In the press of events: Stevenson's Pacific history; Afterword: 'the impediment of tongues'; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
About the author
Vanessa Hedwig Smith is a painter, filmmaker, and writer who has lived and worked in India, Nepal, England, and the US. She has worked on feature-length documentaries, shorts, PSAs, music videos, outdoor installations, murals, and other design projects. Smith produced a BBC Correspondent which helped free a 14-year old girl from prison, helped to change Nepalese law, and won the Amnesty International Media 2000 Award. She holds a BA from Stanford in Urban Design, and an MA from Columbia University in Anthropology. Her work can be seen at http://vanessahsmithpictures.com
Summary
This 1998 book examines a range of nineteenth-century European accounts from the Pacific, depicting Polynesian responses to imported metropolitan culture, in particular its technologies of writing and print. It focuses on texts by beachcombers and missionaries, and the late Pacific writings of Robert Louis Stevenson.
