I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination

Spufford, Francis. 1996. I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0571144877 [Book]

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Abstract or Description

When Captain Scott died in 1912 on his way back from the South Pole, his story became a myth embedded in the English imagination. Despite wars and social change, despite recent debunking, it is still there. Conventional histories of polar exploration tend to trace the laborious expeditions across the map, dwelling on the proper techniques of ice navigation and sledge travel, rather than asking what the explorers thought they were doing, or why. This book, in contrast, is about the poles as they have been perceived, dreamed of, even desired, and offers a cultural history of a national obsession with polar explorers and mountaineers. It sets out to show how Scott's death in 1912 was the culmination of a long-running national enchantment with perilous journeys to the ends of the earth.

Item Type:

Book

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

English and Comparative Literature

Date:

1996

Item ID:

13498

Date Deposited:

21 Sep 2015 09:36

Last Modified:

26 Jun 2017 10:41

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/13498

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