Imperial ascent : mountaineering, masculinity, and empire / Peter L. Bayers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bayers, Peter L., 1966-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mountaineering--Psychological aspects.

Mountaineering.

Masculinity.

Men--Identity.

Men.

Physical Description:

xii, 174 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boulder, Colo. : University Press of Colorado, [2003]

Summary:

The thrills and chills of mountaineering literature have long attracted a devoted audience of serious climbers, adventure-seekers, and armchair enthusiasts. In recent decades, scholars have come to view these tales of prowess and fortitude as texts laden with ideological meaning. In Imperial Ascant, a comparative study of seven such twentieth-century mountaineering narratives, Peter L. Bayers articulates the multiple and varied roles mountaineering and its literature have played in the formation and maintenance of national identity. By examining such works as Belmore Browne's The Conquest of Mount McKinley and Sir John Hunt's The Ascent of Everest, Bayers contends that for American and British climbers, mountaineering is tied to imperial ideology and dominant notions of masculinity. At the same time, he demonstrates how Tiger of the Snows, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay's account of climbing Mount Everest, undermines Western conceptions of mountaineering and imperialism. Throughout this theoretically informed critique, Bayers manages to retain the sense of awe and adventure inherent in the original works, making Imperial Ascent a highly engaging read.

Contents:

Introduction: Mountaineering and the Imagining of Imperial Masculinity 1

1 Frederick Cook, To the Top of the Continent (1908), the Alaskan "Wilderness," and the Regeneration of Progressive-Era Masculinity 17

2 Belmore Browne's The Conquest of Mount McKinley (1913), Alaska Natives, and White Masculine Anxieties on the Alaskan Frontier 39

3 Save Whom From Destruction? Alaska Natives, Frontier Mythology, and the Regeneration of the White Conscience in Hudson Stuck's The Ascent of Denali (1914) 59

4 Resurrecting Heroes: Sir Francis Younghusband's The Epic of Mount Everest (1926) and Post-Great War Britain 75

5 Sir John Hunt's The Ascent of Everest (1953) and Nostalgia for the British Empire 99

6 No Longer Sahibs: Tenzing Norgay and the 1953 British Expedition to Mount Everest 115

7 Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air (1997), Postmodern Adventurous Masculinity, and Imperialism 127.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-166) and index.

ISBN:

0870817167

OCLC:

51505802