PUBLIC TALK: The Antipodes in Literature: European Geographies - Australian Appropriations

A public lecture by Klaus Stierstorfer, Professor of English and Chair, British Studies, University of Münster, Germany and 2014 IAS Short-Stay Visiting Fellow.

The Antipodes are a concept which originated in European Antiquity and then travelled with expanding and changing geographies before it became, in its ‘down under-version’ a label and hallmark for present-day Australia. This lecture selectively traces the concept’s trajectory from the Classical beginnings and subsequent, complex uses in British Renaissance literature up to the time when it was attached to the newly ‘discovered’ Australia, but, more importantly, how it has been appropriated in recent Australian literature.

Cost: Free, but RSVP essential via http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/stierstorfer