This book is set against the backdrop of Australia's outback. The novel revolves Dick Halwood, his dream, and his search for the body of a young princess. Dick Halwood meets the Hatter, who tells him about a strange land in the Australian desert ruled by an odd yellow woman and a band of aged pygmies. Tor Ymmothe, the yellow woman, is Lemuria's last Queen. She has been sentenced to live alone in the caves for thousands of years as punishment for the arrogance of her race, which was destroyed. She looks after the body of a young princess who has been comatose for thousands of years, waiting for her true love to appear. Halwood discovers the location of the princess's body. When he sees her face, he realizes she is the woman who appeared in his dreams. Will Dick Halwood be the true love of the comatose princess?
This volume explores various facets of the relationship between the fantastic and the fin de siècle. The essays included here examine how the fin de siècle reflects the fantastic and its relation to the genesis of aesthetic ideas, to the concepts of terror and horror, the sublime, and evil, to Gothic and sensation fiction, to the Aesthetic Movement and Decadence. They also raise the question regarding the ways in which fantastic literature reflects the dynamic and all-too-often controversial development of the concept of the fantastic. At the same time, the majority of the contributions also investigate a broader context of specific social, political and economic conditions that frame the fantastic of the fin de siècle. They examine how fantastic genres use narrative manipulations, and how they incorporate various ideas of scientific development and progress by highlighting the role of religion, cultural anxiety and social crisis, as well as exploring the ways such genres use the fantastic for various purposes of cultural and social subversion. Fin de siècle fantastic literature is also investigated across a variety of cultures, as reflected in Scottish, Canadian, Australian, American and British writing, with particular emphasis on their predominant cultural or generic aspects, the genesis of the fin de siècle fantastic in some of these cultures and literatures, and their relations to a wider historical and cultural framework. The essays as a whole represent the work of scholars working in a diverse range of fields, and therefore adopt a wide range of approaches to the fantastic. As such, this volume provides a fresh and stimulating platform for further rethinking of the concept of the fantastic and its relation to fin de siècle literature, and its theoretical, philosophical, generic, and other implications within a broader literary, social and cultural context.
This unique book is the only fully interdisciplinary and comprehensive study of the Australian desert and its pivotal role in the cultural history of Australia. Beginning with the prehistory of the continent, it engages with geology, the Aboriginal Dreaming narratives of origin, the arrival of the first Australians, Aboriginal culture of the Dreaming, anthropology, colonial history and the cult of the inland explorer-hero, and integration of the central deserts through the responses of writers, artists, and filmmakers into the national identity. Chapters explore the unique way Indigenous artists have evolved a method of expressing their spiritual relationship to Country, while hiding from uninitiated eyes the secret-sacred meaning beneath the paint. It takes us on a journey through the politics of Land Rights for First Nations peoples, the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and an analysis of Indigenous ecological principles which may suggest a new and radical approach to navigating climate change in the Anthropocene. The Australian Desert is written for scholars of fine arts, anthropology, literature, film studies, cultural history, Indigenous studies, ecology and tourism, and for anyone interested in deserts.
The idea that the Earth is hollow has inspired both the world of science and the world of fiction. As a scientific concept, this notion has informed the works of Edmond Halley and Leonhard Euler. As a literary conceit, it can be found in the works of Dante and E.A. Poe; in novels by Jules Verne, Arno Schmidt, Thomas Pynchon, and Mark Z. Danielewski; and in comics, films, and computer games. This collection addresses both the scientific and the aesthetic aspects of the "Hollow Earth," with essays that range from medieval literature to afrofuturism. (Series: n-1 | work - science - medium - Vol. 5)
Robert Holden enters the bunyips lair to reveal the fascinating literature, folklore and superstitions that have immortalised Australia's most enigmatic creature. Bunyips includes extracts from Australian stories about bunyips, featuring work by Edel Wignell, Rosa Campbell Praed, Catherine Stow, Dal Stivens and others.
The desert has a hypnotic presence in Australian culture, simultaneously alluring and repellent. The 'Centre' is distant and unknown to most Australians, yet has become a symbol of the country. This exciting book, highly illustrated in full colour, reveals the singular impact that the desert, both geographical and metaphorical, has had on Australian culture. At the heart of the book is the profound relationship that Aboriginal Australians have with the desert, and the complex ways in which they have been seen by white people in this context.
