Issue Details: First known date: 2014... 2014 A Flâneur in the Outback : Walking and Writing Frontier in Central Australia
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'While Frederick Turner's envisioning of the frontier remains pervasive in representations of Australian postcolonial geographies and constructions of national identity, recent anthropological evidence suggests more nuanced 'lifeworlds' may better approximate the lived experience of 'frontier' towns such as Alice Springs, in Central Australia.

'This paper reimagines Baudelaire's flâneur to examine two walking narratives from the region. The analysis reveals at least two levels of produced space prevailing in Alice Springs, with many other imagined spaces imbricated in a more complex political geography than Turner's frontier might explain. The paper aims to alert writers and journalists to recent shifts in anthropology, leading hopefully to more nuanced representations of Australian postcolonial geographies.

'The first text is a Central Australian Aboriginal Dreaming narrative called 'A Man from the Dreamtime,' a traditional Kaytetye story. Kaytetye elder Tommy Kngwarraye Thompson told the story to anthropologist Myfany Turpin as part of a collection published as Growing Up Kaytetye (2003). The second is one (walking) chapter from a recent narrative of political geography and memoir by Eleanor Hogan entitled Alice Springs (2012).' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon New Scholar Australian Literature : The Road Ahead vol. 3 no. 2 Toby Davidson (editor), Michael Austin (editor), 2014 8242736 2014 periodical issue

    'This 2014 special issue of New Scholar, Australian Literature: The Road Ahead, follows the 2013 Macquarie University conference of the same name in seeking to examine trends, manifestations and solidifications in Australian writing and modes of analysis which reveal new research frontiers.'

    2014
Last amended 15 Aug 2017 13:43:21
A Flâneur in the Outback : Walking and Writing Frontier in Central Australiasmall AustLit logo New Scholar
Subjects:
  • Alice Springs, Southern Northern Territory, Northern Territory,
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