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The Spectral Arctic: A History of Ghosts and Dreams in Polar Exploration
The Arctic was long imagined as an otherworldly place, thousands of miles from the warmth and familiarity of home, and nineteenth-century Britons were fascinated by the notion of the heroic explorer voyaging through harsh terrain in pursuit of the Northwest Passage. But the mapping of this vast uncharted territory was only part of the fascination with the Arctic; Explorers and those who eagerly followed their perilous progress were also fascinated by the unknown, by the dreams and ghosts that might materialize there.
The narratives of Arctic exploration that we are all familiar with today are just the tip of the iceberg, argues Shane McCorristine, and there are a great many more mysterious stories beneath the surface. In contrast to oft-told tales of heroism and disaster, The Spectral Arctic reveals the hidden stories of dreaming and haunted explorers, of frozen mummies, of rescue balloons, visits to Inuit shamans, and of the entranced female clairvoyants who traveled to the Arctic in search of John Franklin’s lost expedition. Through new readings of archival documents, exploration narratives, and fictional texts, these stories reflect the complex ways that men and women actually thought about the Arctic in the past. This revisionist historical account also allows us to make sense of current cultural and political concerns in the Canadian Arctic about the long-lost Franklin Expedition and the recent rediscovery of the two ships.
The narratives of Arctic exploration that we are all familiar with today are just the tip of the iceberg, argues Shane McCorristine, and there are a great many more mysterious stories beneath the surface. In contrast to oft-told tales of heroism and disaster, The Spectral Arctic reveals the hidden stories of dreaming and haunted explorers, of frozen mummies, of rescue balloons, visits to Inuit shamans, and of the entranced female clairvoyants who traveled to the Arctic in search of John Franklin’s lost expedition. Through new readings of archival documents, exploration narratives, and fictional texts, these stories reflect the complex ways that men and women actually thought about the Arctic in the past. This revisionist historical account also allows us to make sense of current cultural and political concerns in the Canadian Arctic about the long-lost Franklin Expedition and the recent rediscovery of the two ships.
265 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2018
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About the author
Shane McCorristine
16 books4 followersDr Shane McCorristine is Reader in Cultural History at Newcastle University specialising in the history of crime, exploration, and the supernatural. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and his books include William Corder and the Red Barn Murder: Journeys of the Criminal Body (2014) and The Spectral Arctic: A History of Dreams and Ghosts in Polar Exploration (2018).
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 9, 2023
Much more an academic, university text than I thought I was digging into, but a wealth of knowledge here - and sources! I added tons of fiction and nonfiction concerning the arctic to my TBR from this. However, this text was incredibly dense and passages were long, making it difficult for me to chip away at, so enjoyability was very dampened.
April 21, 2019
Disclaimer that this is in no way a critical review of a piece of scholarship. This is not even my historical home turf.
That said, everything this book discussed was so unbelievably up my alley I almost don't know what to tell you. The Arctic! Lost expeditions! (Specifically Franklin!) The nineteenth century! Solitude! Walking! Dreams! Mystery! A bit of Romanticism! Spectres and ghosts and hauntings! The wild whirlwind that was Victorian mesmerism and clairvoyance! Gender! Time! Colonialism! Revisionist cultural history! I read three-quarters of this in a day, and devoured it like it was a goddamn thriller.
That said, everything this book discussed was so unbelievably up my alley I almost don't know what to tell you. The Arctic! Lost expeditions! (Specifically Franklin!) The nineteenth century! Solitude! Walking! Dreams! Mystery! A bit of Romanticism! Spectres and ghosts and hauntings! The wild whirlwind that was Victorian mesmerism and clairvoyance! Gender! Time! Colonialism! Revisionist cultural history! I read three-quarters of this in a day, and devoured it like it was a goddamn thriller.
October 23, 2022
I’ve read various books about the arctic over the years, most of them before I joined Goodreads. There’s a fascination to this inhospitable region and a wonder about the life that survives and thrives there. How can we worry about life surviving when we consider the arctic? Shane McCorristine’s The Spectral Arctic is a bit different. Not many historians will consider clairvoyants and ghosts and dreams, the things that make this book so intriguing.
Be aware, however, this isn’t mostly about such things. McCorristine is an historian foremost and the book is about John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to find the Northwest Passage. His ships were trapped in arctic ice in the 1840s and none of his crew survived. But back home in England his wife/widow was uncertain of his fate and what we would call psychics today began to have dreams and visions as to where he was and his state of health. There was a kind of national mania, for the period, about it in England.
I found several parts of this book gripping. Particularly the descriptions of the imagined arctic and the female imagery used in describing it. The book is well illustrated—it seems an odd decision to have printed it in four color, making it expensive in print (it is free electronically, having been published as open access; go to the publisher’s website to download it). Especially since only one picture from the period is in color. Nevertheless, as I say in my blog post (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World), it’s a book well worth the reading.
Be aware, however, this isn’t mostly about such things. McCorristine is an historian foremost and the book is about John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to find the Northwest Passage. His ships were trapped in arctic ice in the 1840s and none of his crew survived. But back home in England his wife/widow was uncertain of his fate and what we would call psychics today began to have dreams and visions as to where he was and his state of health. There was a kind of national mania, for the period, about it in England.
I found several parts of this book gripping. Particularly the descriptions of the imagined arctic and the female imagery used in describing it. The book is well illustrated—it seems an odd decision to have printed it in four color, making it expensive in print (it is free electronically, having been published as open access; go to the publisher’s website to download it). Especially since only one picture from the period is in color. Nevertheless, as I say in my blog post (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World), it’s a book well worth the reading.
July 8, 2021
I've been doing a lot of research lately into the lost Franklin expedition, and polar (Arctic) exploration and this was an invaluable addition to my reading. I have a particular interest in the Victorian Gothic and Supernatural and this formed a large part of the focus of the book. It is an academic read but it's also very accessible so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to lay people who have an interest in the Arctic from a supernatural and literary viewpoint, as well as anyone who just wants to read more about Franklin and the Terror and Erebus expedition.
McCorristine looks at the events surrounding the ships' disappearance but focuses on the reaction at home - how people turned to mesmerism and clairvoyancy when hard facts were hard to come by. He makes an interesting argument, too, about how mesmerism, while 'controlled' by better-off men, helped women typically from working-class backgrounds achieve a status and importance that they wouldn't have otherwise - their 'gift' being in great demand by important members of society.
His observations regarding the continuing impact of the loss of the Franklin ships show how we are all still 'haunted' by this maritime mystery. Discoveries are still being made, and it is hoped that, in time, we will have much more information about the fate of Terror and Erebus. Unfortunately this might be thanks to global warming, too.
A fascinating read!
McCorristine looks at the events surrounding the ships' disappearance but focuses on the reaction at home - how people turned to mesmerism and clairvoyancy when hard facts were hard to come by. He makes an interesting argument, too, about how mesmerism, while 'controlled' by better-off men, helped women typically from working-class backgrounds achieve a status and importance that they wouldn't have otherwise - their 'gift' being in great demand by important members of society.
His observations regarding the continuing impact of the loss of the Franklin ships show how we are all still 'haunted' by this maritime mystery. Discoveries are still being made, and it is hoped that, in time, we will have much more information about the fate of Terror and Erebus. Unfortunately this might be thanks to global warming, too.
A fascinating read!
February 18, 2021
Possibly the best book I've ever bought for 99 cents (Kindle edition)! This is a terrific survey of historical ephemera around the Victorian era of Arctic exploration -- encounters with native shamans, portentous dreams, clairvoyance, and other parlor wonders. Much of the book is concerned understandably with the Franklin expedition and gives an excellent sense of the enormity of the episode in its time. Some of the book is a tad academic and uses the jargon of modern sociology and other disciplines, but that didn't bother me and I think even readers unaccustomed to the language of the university can overlook it because the source material is so fascinating. The only part of the book that I had to push through is the last section, about modern cultural products inspired by the Franklin disaster, which, while interesting, isn't as magical as the other sections. Recommended for any enthusiast of the era, and especially of its occult fixations.
September 13, 2020
Read for grad school. Seems like a published thesis - takes 70 words to say what could be conveyed with 14. Frustrating in that it boiled everything down to the vague, representative, and theoretical... basically, I'm not fluent in anthropology. Two stars for thorough research and a handful of interesting tidbits.
June 6, 2023
4.5 stars. This book is like the center of a Venn Diagram for my special interests 😂
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews