Journal of Maritime Literature and Culture
JMLC, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2026, pp.105-116.
Print ISSN: 3107-1821; Online ISSN: 3107-183X
Journal homepage: https://www.mlcjournal.com
DOI： https://doi.org/10.64058/JMLC.26.1.09
段 波（Duan Bo）张瑞影（Zhang Ruiying）
摘要：理查德·达纳的航海叙事参与了19世纪美利坚海洋民族共同体的想象性建构：首先，《两年水手生涯》等作品通过航海见闻的文学再现，将海洋冒险精神、“男子气概”“帝国气质”塑造为民族性格的核心特质，成为新兴民族的精神图腾；其次，这种海洋叙事构建了独特的民族身份话语体系，作品通过将个体海洋经验与国家命运相联结，形成了“海洋天命”的意识形态框架，为海外扩张建构了文化合法性；最后，达纳对加州沿岸以及加勒比海区域的详细记述与美国的海洋扩张战略形成历史呼应，客观上支持了美国在上述区域的霸权扩张。
关键词：航海叙事；海洋秉性；海洋民族共同体；男子气概；海外扩张
作者简介：段波（通讯作者），浙大城市学院外国语学院教授，研究方向：英美海洋文学与文学跨学科研究。电子邮箱：jamesduan@163.com。张瑞影，平舆第一高级中学讲师，研究方向：英美文学研究。电子邮箱：2335479082@qq.com。
Title: Dana’s Maritime Narratives and the Imagination of American Maritime Community
Abstract: Richard Henry Dana’s maritime narratives contributed to the imaginative construction of the American maritime community in the nineteenth century. First, works such as Two Years Before the Mast use literary representations of seafaring experiences to shape maritime adventurousness, masculinity, and an imperial ethos as core traits of national character, turning them into spiritual totems for the emerging nation. Second, such maritime narratives constructed a distinctive discursive system of national identity. By linking individual maritime experience to national destiny, they formed an ideological framework of “maritime manifest destiny,” establishing cultural legitimacy for overseas expansion. Third, Dana’s detailed accounts of the California coast and the Caribbean Sea correspond historically with America’s maritime expansionist strategies, objectively lending support to U.S. hegemonic expansion in those regions.
Keywords: Maritime narratives; Maritime attributes; National maritime community; manliness; Overseas expansion
Author Biographies: Duan Bo (Corresponding author) is professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Hangzhou City University (Hangzhou 310015, China), specializing in Anglo-American sea literature and culture and interdisciplinary studies of literature. Email: jamesduan@163.com. Zhang Ruiying is a lecturer at Pingyu No.1 High School (Zhu Madian, 463400), specializing in American literature. Email: 2335479082@qq.com.
Received: 26 Mar 2026 / Revised: 17 Apr 2026 / Accepted: 24 Apr 2026 / Published online: 30 Apr 2026 / Print published: 30 May 2026.
