August 2007

The Archives

• Cultural Studies, Literary Studies, Postcolonial Studies

  Antipodean Myths Transformed

  25.08.07 | Permalink | Comments Off on Antipodean Myths Transformed

  Australia and the South Pacific held a special status in the eighteenth century: this was the farthest region from Europe and the last part of the earth remaining for Europeans to explore and chart. In the context of European nations’ own histories of discovering and exploring the world beyond Europe’s borders, this region is unique in the sense that no other part of the earth had such a substantial and well-documented body of European thought devoted to it over such a long period of time prior to its physical discovery. The ‘antipodes’ existed in the European imagination for approximately two thousand years before Europeans set foot on antipodean lands. Myths inspired explorers to go searching for the genuine antipodes, and voyages were often undertaken with the specific aim of finding the uncharted places that punctuated otherwise formless maps.

about

Professor Paul Arthur is Chair in Digital Humanities and Social Sciences and Director of the Centre for Global Issues, at Edith Cowan University, Australia. He speaks and publishes widely on major challenges and changes facing 21st-century society, from the global impacts of technology on culture and identity to migration and human rights. His latest book is Migrant Nation: Australian Culture, Society and Identity (ed., 2018). A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Paul Arthur has held visiting positions in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America. He has served on the executive boards and councils of the global Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO); centerNet—the worldwide network of digital research centres (Co-Chair, 2015–2019); the International Auto/Biography Association (IABA); the Australasian Association for Digital Humanities (founding President 2011–2015, Vice-President 2018–2021); the Australasian Consortium of Humanities Research Centres (ACHRC); and the NeCTAR (National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources) Super Science initiative of the Australian Government. Click here for full Profile.

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