The Cartographic Eye: How Explorers Saw Australia

ISBN-13: 9780521577915 / Angielski / Miękka / 1996 / 248 str.

Simon Ryan

Opis

This book is about the mythologies of land exploration, and about space and the colonial enterprise in particular. It is an innovative investigation of the presumptions, aesthetics and politics of Australian explorers' texts that shows that they are not the simple, unadorned observations their authors would have us believe. The book argues that contact with Aborigines are occasions of discursive contest. It scrutinizes and undermines the scientific and literary methodology of exploration. It will be a crucial text for readers in cultural, postcolonial and Australian studies.

Recenzje

' … Simon Ryan's The Cartographic Eye is a very important book … Ryan's scholarship is both detailed and focussed … this is compelling reading.' Australian Geographical Studies

Spis treści

Introduction; 1. Exploring culture: the formation and fragmentation of the explorer; 2. Picturesque visions: controlling the seen; 3. Maps and their cultural constructedness; 4. Seeing the Aborigines put in their place; 5. The bosom of unknown lands; Conclusion.