Sailor Talk: Labor, Utterance, and Meaning

The Center for Climate, Coastal and Marine Studies is pleased to announce our upcoming seminar, "Sailor Talk: Labor, Utterance, and Meaning," by Dr. Mary K. Bercaw Edwards, Professor of English and Director or Maritime Studies at the University of Connecticut.

Here’s a summary of the seminar, as told by Dr. Bercaw Edwards: In her latest book, Dr. Bercaw Edwards investigates the literary and cultural significance of 'sailor talk.' The central argument is that sailor talk offers a way of rethinking the figure of the nineteenth-century sailor and sailor-writer, whose language articulated the rich, layered, and complex culture of sailors in port and at sea. From this argument many other compelling threads emerge, including questions relating to the seafarer's multifaceted identity, maritime labor, questions of performativity, the ship as 'theater', the varied and multiple registers of 'sailor talk”, and the foundational role of maritime language in the lives and works of Herman Melville, among others. Meticulous scholarly research underpins the close readings of literary texts and the scrupulously detailed biographical accounts of major sailor-writers. The author's own lived experience as a seafarer adds a dimension to the subtle literary readings. The book represents a valuable addition to a growing scholarly and political interest in the sea and sea literature. By taking the sailor's viewpoint and listening to sailors' voices, the book also marks a clear intervention in this developing field. 

Date: Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Time: Noon

Location: DiMenna-Nyselius Library, Auditorium Room 101