The Young Men and the Sea: Sea/Ocean as a Space of Maturation?

• Authors: Justyna Fruzińska
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Justyna Fruzińska Department of American Literature, University of Lodz The sea (or ocean) in American literature and culture is marked by a distinctive ambiguity. On the one hand, and quite expectedly, the sea voyage can be a maturation experience: such is the case of Humphrey Van Weyden, the protagonist of London’s The Sea  Wolf;  such  is  also  the  interpretation  that the Disney Company chooses to present in its animated adaptation of R.L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island. However, it is also a space of the opposite experience: one that accommodates remarkably immature characters. Be it in the person of captain Delano in Melville’s ‘Benito Cereno’, or the eponymous Billy Budd, it is a site welcoming naïve and escapist heroes, those who do not want to or cannot adapt to the demands of land society.

• Publisher: University of Silesia Press
• Journal: Review of International American Studies
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 1

Dates

published

2014-05-15

Contributors

author

Justyna Fruzińska