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  • Early surf fiction and the white worldview

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    Krauth524441-Published.pdf (524.5Kb)
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    Version of Record (VoR)
    Author(s)
    Krauth, Nigel
    Sandtner, Jake
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Krauth, Nigel L.
    Year published
    2021
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    Abstract
    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 ...
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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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    Journal Title
    TEXT
    Issue
    65
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.52086/001c.28082
    Copyright Statement
    © The Author(s) 2021. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. For information about this journal please refer to the journal’s website or contact the author(s).
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/410551
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    • Journal articles

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    Tagline

    • Gold Coast
    • Logan
    • Brisbane - Queensland, Australia
    First Peoples of Australia
    • Aboriginal
    • Torres Strait Islander