부산대학교 도서관

The past couple of years have seen publication of several books dealing with the epic drama of men struggling with Nature and each other to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole. Roald Amundsen and four companions, citizens of a newly independent Norway were the first to make it, reaping the prize before the rival party of Robert Falcon Scott did. Amundsen had officially set out to repeat Fridtjof Nansen’s experiment of locking his ship the Fram in the Arctic sea ice to follow its drift and undertake original oceanographic research, but he had the audacity to change his mind and head for the South Pole, thereby challenging Scott whose expedition had the backing of the British Empire. The outcome is well known. Amundsen’s superior planning, know how regarding survival under polar conditions and efficient use of Inuit style clothing and dogsleds won the day over Scott’s naval tradition of man hauling, poorer clothing and insufficient preparations. Amundsen made it back to civilization to announce his own achievement; Scott and his four companions froze to death near a depot they were unable to reach on their return to base-camp. Both men had their names inscribed in the history of their respective nations, symbolizing respectively the ingenuity and prowess of a newly independent nation on the rise and the onset perhaps of the decline of the world’s biggest imperial power at that time. Amundsen and Scott have been remembered many times and in different ways during the past century. On each occasion new facts and perspectives have come to light, and equally interesting - in retrospect - is how the constructions of memory are historically contingent, they change with the times. The paper reviews three recent books prompted by the centennial commemoration of Amundsen's and Scott's race to the South Pole.