Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/53114
Title: Wilderness in literature and culture
Contributor(s): Harris, Stephen  (author)
Publication Date: 2021
DOI: 10.4324/9780429299025-3
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/53114
Abstract: 

The significance of wilderness to the human condition is reflected in the long history of wilderness as a trope in literature. From powerful biblical conceptions of wilderness as a realm of spiritual and human destitution, of banishment and exile, and of abyssal 'otherworlds' beyond the locus of the sacred and civilised, through to Romantic beliefs about the benevolent forces and elemental powers inherent in nature, and, in turn, to contemporary ideas of the 'wild' influenced by conservationist and environmentally informed views centring on the value of wilderness in regard to biodiversity, the concept of wilderness holds a distinctly moral and culturally complex value. While literary treatments very often introduce subtle complexities regarding the relationship between moral considerations and the social and political agenda, in part attributable to variations across cultures, the Australian experience differs, perhaps only by degrees, but significantly so. Australian depictions of wilderness fall between the American and English-European perceptions, with contemporary understandings emphasising that, as Tim Winton says, 'nature is not done with us yet'. This chapter considers reflections on the wilderness and 'wild' by leading Australian writers, both in terms of contemporary conceptual modulations and political-social implications, and in view of the changing perceptions of the relationship with 'country' since European colonisation.

Publication Type: Book Chapter
Source of Publication: Rethinking Wilderness and the Wild: Conflict, Conservation and Co-existence, p. 11-30
Publisher: Routledge
Place of Publication: London, United Kingdom
ISBN: 9780429299025
9780367615901
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 440404 Political economy and social change
440810 Peace studies
440805 Environmental politics
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 190299 Environmental policy, legislation and standards not elsewhere classified
HERDC Category Description: B1 Chapter in a Scholarly Book
WorldCat record: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1196317444
Series Name: Routledge Studies in Conservation and the Environment
Editor: Editor(s): Robyn Bartel, Marty Branagan, Fiona Utley and Stephen Harris
Appears in Collections:Book Chapter
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

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