Abstract
My paper focuses on early modern “crossing the line” rituals, initiation ceremonies signifying the ship’s crossing the equator or a similar oceanic threshold. This ritual is arguably the most theatrical event aboard ship. A senior officer becomes “Neptune,” while other male seafarers cross-dress and become the sea god’s “consort” of mermaids. During this ceremony, novice sailors are often drenched in seawater (“sea baptized”), and put through a gauntlet of difficult, demeaning, or disgusting tasks, in what Anita Gonzalez describes as “a hazing ritual with prescribed dramatic personae.” I use Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of carnival to engage with historical examples of “crossing” rituals detailed in archival documents from English, French, and Iberian sources from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. I am particularly interested in commercial and exploratory voyages with international and multilingual crews and not exclusively naval voyages. I use a cultural studies methodology to draw parallels between the world of carnival on land and that which existed and thrived at sea. While accounts of “crossing” rituals may seem like proverbial footnotes on intense journeys, these performances evoke important questions about the culture and sociology of shipboard life, the ritual preparations of voyages, and the way that seafarers survived treacherous waters in carnivalesque fashion, subverting many social and behavioral norms while laughing at death.
Presenters
James SethAssociate Professor, English, Central Washington University, Washington, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Crossing the Line, Carnivalesque, Early Modern, Equator, Ritual, Theatrical, Hazing
