ABSTRACT

A scene so wildly and awfully desolate...it cannot fail to impress me with gloomy thoughts" - so Scott perceived the stark Antarctic landscape in 1905.
Antarctica traces images of the continent from early invented maps of Terra Australis Incognita up to Amundsen's arrival at 90 degrees South. Approaching Antarctica from sea and then land, the book analyses the differing perceptions of beauty and terror experienced by explorers, the stories they brought back and the power of new images refashioned at home.

chapter 1|7 pages

TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA

chapter 2|10 pages

THE SEAMAN’S VIEW

chapter 3|20 pages

THE LANDSMAN’S VIEW

chapter 5|10 pages

A PERCEPTION OF THE IMAGINATION?

chapter 6|8 pages

THE ENIGMA OF WILKES LAND

chapter 9|9 pages

AESTHETIC ANTARCTICA

chapter 10|22 pages

MYTH, METAPHOR AND POLAR POETRY