Off the beaten track? Critical approaches to exploration studies

Peter R Martin,Edward Armston‐Sheret

doi:10.1111/gec3.12476

Peter R Martin, Edward Armston‐Sheret

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12476

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Abstract

AbstractSince the 1980s, studying histories of exploration has become an increasingly prominent area of scholarship and has attracted critical attention from a range of different academic perspectives. Whether framed as a process of imperial expansion, as a quest for the production of new knowledge, or as a means for certain individuals to establish or advance their reputations, the complex motivations that lay behind European travellers' desire to venture overseas has been examined and critiqued by scholars situated in a number of different disciplines. Growing attention has been paid to those groups or individuals who have historically been written out of traditional, hagiographic exploration accounts, and we have seen the key roles played by women explorers, “indigenous intermediaries,” and various others exposed and investigated more thoroughly. The purpose of this paper is to review these diverse scholarly literatures, with a particular focus on those which centre their analysis on the long nineteenth century. In doing so, we demonstrate that the study of exploration is not just of narrow historical interest, but rather offers a means in which to shed new light on many wider social, political, and cultural processes that were taking place during this period.

Highlights

Despite the ability to study our world remotely using satellite and aeronautical technologies, narratives of terrestrial travel and exploration continue to excite our geographical imaginations
The recent Weddell Sea Expedition attracted considerable press attention, not primarily for its scientific work examining the glaciological and zoological phenomena in Antarctica, but rather for its search for the wreck of Endurance, the ship used by Ernest Shackleton on his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 (Huntford, 1996; Sample, 2019). This fascination with exploration was reflected in a recent quest by the BBC to determine the most prominent figures of the twentieth century
The Icons series devoted an entire episode to explorers and again made reference to Shackleton alongside the British traveller in the Middle East Gertrude Bell and the American astronaut Neil Armstrong (BBC, 2019)

Summary

Introduction

Despite the ability to study our world remotely using satellite and aeronautical technologies, narratives of terrestrial travel and exploration continue to excite our geographical imaginations. The recent Weddell Sea Expedition attracted considerable press attention, not primarily for its scientific work examining the glaciological and zoological phenomena in Antarctica, but rather for its ( unsuccessful) search for the wreck of Endurance, the ship used by Ernest Shackleton on his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 (Huntford, 1996; Sample, 2019). This fascination with exploration was reflected in a recent quest by the BBC to determine the most prominent figures of the twentieth century. Some media commentators suggested that the recent expedition undertaken by “adventure author” Benedict Allen was imbued with neocolonial undertones, which, in turn, led to a firm rebuttal from those seeking to defend Allen's motivations (Fogle, 2017; Weaver, 2017)

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