Author

Publication

1996 - Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [England], England

Language

English

Word Count

58,750 words, Guess

Page Count

235 pages

Identifiers

and 2 more
  • LibraryThing503956
  • Goodreads5869015

Classifications

  • DDC994.01
  • LCCDU97 .R94 1996

Description

The Cartographic Eye is about the mythologies of land exploration, and about space and the colonial enterprise in particular. An innovative investigation of the presumptions, aesthetics and politics of Australian explorers' texts, it concentrates on the period 1820-1880. Simon Ryan looks at the journals of John Oxley, Thomas Mitchell, Charles Sturt and Ludwig Leichhardt and shows that they are not the simple, unadorned observations the authors would have us believe, but are complex networks of tropes. The Cartographic Eye scrutinises and undermines the scientific and literary methodology of exploration. Its insightful analysis of the tendencies of colonialism will make a major contribution to 'new historicist' interrogations of colonialism. It will be a crucial text for readers in Australian literary and cultural studies, and for those interested in colonial discourse and postcolonial theory.

Subjects

Topics

HistoryExplorersHistoriographyAustralia, historyLandscape assessmentCognition and cultureGeographical perception

Places

Times

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