‘He has given all his strength to my weakness’: Representations of Cannibalism, Abjection, and Sacrifice on Franklin’s Lost Expedition

Abstract

In September of 2024, a jawbone discovered in an archaeological site in the Canadian Arctic was identified as belonging to a senior officer on John Franklin’s ill-fated 1845 expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. This finding alone would perhaps not have been commented upon by major news outlets if not for the appearance of cut marks on the bone, strong indicators of cannibalistic practices. Evidence of cannibalism amongst the members of the expedition was reported as early as the 1850s, based primarily upon Inuit testimony, yet the possibility was rejected by such notable commentators as Charles Dickens. This essay examines a lineage of responses to the evidence of cannibalism in the poorly documented final days of Franklin’s expedition by centering around two focal points: Dickens and Wilkie Collins’s theatrical collaboration The Frozen Deep and non-fictional responses to modern archaeological findings. First, I argue that The Frozen Deep, in its rejection of the possibility of cannibalism, presents an alternative form of consumption that avoids the abject while salvaging the potential for heroic self-sacrifice in giving oneself up to be cannibalized. I consider this reading alongside Richard Flanagan’s 2008 postcolonial novel Wanting, which responds directly to The Frozen Deep and reveals the play’s fantasy of civilized, bloodless sacrifice by returning attention to the abject qualities of cannibalism. I then turn towards recent examples of non-fictional writing on the expedition that acknowledge that cannibalism likely occurred while continuing to avoid its abject and violent associations. I illustrate how these modern texts use the evidence of cannibalism to reinforce the boundaries of identity, hierarchy, and authority, and gesture towards the role that nostalgia plays in this treatment of the act. Throughout this analysis, I consider the historical, cultural, and colonial significance of cannibalism in both the nineteenth century and the present.