Framing the ocean, 1700 to the present: envisaging the sea as social space

Abstract

"This collection, spanning the eighteenth century to the present, recasts the ocean as 'social space', with particular reference to visual representations. Part 1 focuses on mappings and crossings, showing how the ocean may function as a liminal space between places and cultures but also connects and imbricates them. Part 2 considers ships as microsmic societies, shaped for examples by the purpose of the voyage, the mores of shipboard life, and cross-cultural encounters. Part 3 analyses narratives accreted to wrecks and rafts, what has sunk or floats perilously, and discusses attempts to recuperate plastic flotsam. Part 4 plumbs ocean depths to consider how underwater creatures have been depicted in relation to emergent disciplines of natural history and museology, how mermaids have been reimagined as a metaphor of feminist transformation, and how the symbolism of coral is deployed by contemporary artists."

Contents

Exploring the ocean : colonial crossings -- Ships as microcosms of society -- Narratives of shipwrecks, rafts, and jetsam -- Natural and unnatural histories : oceanic imaginings.