Performing Sovereignty over an Ice Continent

Since the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the southern continent has often been lauded as the last “unowned” space—an exemplary instance of international cooperation. However, the seven national claims made prior to this time still exist and, while legally nothing may be done to reinforce these claims as long as the Treaty is in place, both claimant and non-claimant states continue to assert their presence on the continent. With the extreme conditions preventing anything resembling normal settlement, and the Treaty forbidding explicit acts of sovereignty, this assertion of national presence is channelled into a variety of forms, many of them highly performative. Drawing on a wide range of examples, from naming rituals to the Japanese whaling controversy, a literary critic and a legal scholar together examine the distinct and evolving nature of the performance of sovereignty over the Antarctic ice.