Document Type
Article
Source
SEL Studies in English Literature
ISSN
0039-3657
Volume
54
Issue
4
First Page
901
Last Page
922
Publication Date
Fall 2014
Department
Literature and Languages
Abstract
This essay considers the relationship between Robert Louis Stevenson’s well-loved adventure classic Treasure Island and his philosophical commitments to talk. For Stevenson, talking and adventuring share an experiential poetics that emphasizes responsiveness to unpredictable interactions. By examining several of Stevenson’s prose pieces, including “Talk and Talkers” and “My First Book” as well as Treasure Island, this essay argues that the novel aspires to translate the poetics of talk into a print medium. Treasure Island imagines itself as a form of “living print,” a work that, like Long John Silver’s parrot, seems more dynamic than print typically is, yet is still ultimately incapable of talk’s interactivity.
Rights
Copyright © 2014 SEL Studies in English Literature. All rights reserved.