“Endeavouring” and Other Eighteenth-Century Fictions

Abstract

The terminology we use in eighteenth-century studies needs to encompass both the period’s and the field’s global reach. James Cook’s ship HMS Endeavour provides a starting point for considering the terms that were used to imagine the eighteenth-century Pacific from Great Britain, the importance of refusing eighteenth-century fictions in and from the Pacific, and the need to expand our critical vocabulary in the field beyond the frameworks of the transatlantic world. This essay proposes “Endeavouring” as a Pacific-focused corollary to the term “Columbusing” in order to advance anti-colonial scholarship in eighteenth-century studies and broaden its scope and vision.