Founding true north: Arctic landscape in the texts of the first Franklin expedition.

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the notes, journals, and final published Narrative of Sir John Franklin's troubled First Arctic Land Expedition (1819-1822). Working from a Heideggerian perspective, this study critiques new historicist approaches to the expedition and suggests new ways of interpreting the various expedition texts. In particular, this study concentrates on the issues of textuality and language which are highlighted by the explorers' meticulous records of the expedition's failure. Ultimately, it is proposed that this failure was due more to the wilfulness of the English explorers than it was to the virulent Eurocentrism of the era. The study then moves on to broader issues of land and landscape, working from both the expedition texts and various contemporary Arctic texts. The study concludes by emphasizing the essential connection between language and land in the landscape of a historical people.