Progress and degeneration: Adventure fiction at the end of the frontier

Throughout the nineteenth century, adventure writers created fictional tales of quests into geographic unknowns, largely based on their own experiences and the deeds of explorers. By the end of the century, however, these writers began to realize that most of the places on the globe which were before mysterious and unnamed to Westerners had been explored, or were in the process of being investigated. Consequently, adventure authors understood that soon the time would arrive when few if any blank spots would remain on maps. So, accustomed as they were to speculating, authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Rider Haggard, and Arthur Conan Doyle quickly set out to identify new avenues of exploration. As they did so, they often turned to science as a source of inspiration for identifying new unknowns to explore. Adventure fiction during this period was produced under the increasing influence of both accepted scientific theory and popular pseudoscientific speculation to identify or redefine the frontier in new and expanding ways. This increased reliance on science produced a rapidly proliferating, intertwined nexus of frontiers prominent in adventure fiction--a number of emerging, interconnected unknowns for exploration.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History of Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Grauer, John J., Jr.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Garrett, Peter

• History of Science
• Literature, English

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1996 Grauer, John J., Jr

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

9780591198287
AAI9712288
(UMI)AAI9712288

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/23700