‘Competitors in the surf-riding contest’: battle as theme in the first three surf novels

Sandtner, Jake; Krauth, Nigel

doi:10.52086/001c.28072

Cited by 1 publication

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“…and called his fictional whaler 'Arcturion' (sounds like his real ship Acushnet?). Key things about this first description of surfing in fiction are: Melville described the activity from the viewpoint of an admiring outsider, and he described the whole scene in terms of a cavalry charge, where the Pacific waves' onslaught resembled a foe threatening to overwhelm the board riders as if they were at war -a view which was intended, in fact, to create sympathy for the surfers (see Sandtner and Krauth, 2021).…”

Section: The First Phase: Surf Fiction 1849-1920mentioning

confidence: 99%

Early surf fiction and the white worldview

Krauth

Sandtner

2021

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This paper examines the first 90 years (from 1849 to 1940) in the development of surf fiction. It focuses on how, at the genre's beginnings, the view taken of surfing was shaped by the colonial worldview, with its attendant super-narrative of white cultural and individual superiority, marginalisation of non-white traditions, and disrespect for others' values and practices. The period can be divided into two phases. The first extended from 1849 to 1920 with pioneering novels by Herman Melville, R. M. Ballantyne and others, including Jack London's 'The Kanaka Surf' (1916), the long short story which we claim brought surf fiction to a new-found maturity in terms of cultural respect. The second phase, from 1921 to 1940, included lesser writers Stuart Martin, Don Blanding and Claude La Belle whose novels continued to trace the white world's attempt to come to terms with the cultural and racial influence that surfing had begun to exert. Most surf-depicting fiction in this first 90 years was set in Hawaii and written in the Adult Adventure or Boys Adventure genres. This article examines how early surf fiction traced the impact of indigenous-based surfing on imperialbased white thinking, and proposes that some creative writers were sensitive to the on-going cultural appropriation of surfing and the lessons surfing could teach the colonialists about individual, racial and cultural respect. When the earliest creative writers tried to surf, they admitted they were inferior, but they admired Pacific Islander expertise. During the first 90 years of surf fiction, the narrative perspective moved from the colonial observer gaze to the participant view. Fiction sought to outline the growing Western awareness that surfing would be a key influence on cross-cultural thinking.

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Section: The First Phase: Surf Fiction 1849-1920mentioning

confidence: 99%