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From Habitat to Wilderness: Tasmania’s Role in the Politicising of Place
Citation
Haynes, R, From Habitat to Wilderness: Tasmania's Role in the Politicising of Place, Papers and Proceedings of the Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 49, (4) pp. 269-84. ISSN 0039-9809 (2002) [Refereed Article]
Official URL: https://www.thra.org.au/papersproceedings/
Abstract
'[I]n Wildness is the preservation of the World'. Thoreau's much-quoted words.
delivered at the Concord Lyceum in 1851, raise complex questions of particular
relevance to Tasmania. 'Wildness', and the now more fashionable 'wilderness', do not so
much name existing realities as reflect current soda-political and ideological notions
which may benefit some people and disadvantage others. Once established in a particular
context, each concept of 'wilderness' resists new interpretations for a time and can be
used as a political tool to silence dissenting views and alternative discourses before it. in
turn, is overthrown. Over the last two hundred years Tasmania has had attributed to it a
series of diverse, even contradictory, cultural constructions of wilderness. In most cases
these have been naturalised and legitimised by art, literature and photography, as well as
by political rhetoric, and their successive overthrows have usually been painful and
divisive for supporters and opponents alike.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Tasmania, wilderness, place, politics |
Research Division: | Language, Communication and Culture |
Research Group: | Communication and Media Studies |
Research Field: | Communication and Media Studies not elsewhere classified |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding Knowledge in Languages, Communication and Culture |
UTAS Author: | Haynes, R (Dr Roslynn Haynes) |
ID Code: | 121478 |
Year Published: | 2002 |
Deposited By: | Office of the School of Humanities |
Deposited On: | 2017-09-29 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-29 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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