Elleke Boehmer’s literary and cultural history offers a deeply researched, masterfully crafted account of southernmost parts of the world

We welcome Professor Ellek Boehmer to Book at Lunchtime to discuss her highly acclaimed book, Southern Imagining.

A northern viewpoint is most often the default, while the south—the far southern latitudes occupied by Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and southern Africa, among others—seems far away and ignorable. In Southern Imagining, Elleke Boehmer offers an alternative perspective, using literary, scientific and cultural material to explore how we look at the world from the south. Reading, she argues, is a transformative means of reversing our usual planetary orientation and rearranging our perceptual geography. Boehmer examines writing from across southern continents and islands, considering how we imaginatively inhabit the farthest reaches of our planet. Creators ranging from the Portuguese epic poet Luís de Camões to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Darwin, Katherine Mansfield, Jorge Luis Borges and ancient Indigenous storytellers capture the edgy and austere experiences of the far south.

"A lyrical study of global literature."—New Yorker

"Boehmer explores an astonishing range of writers, artists, travellers and scientists, bringing forth the diversity, complexity and scatteredness of the far south."—Ed Stoddard, Daily Maverick

"Hugely ambitious."—Matthew Reisz, Times Higher Education

"lleke Boehmer’s literary and cultural history offers a deeply researched, masterfully crafted account of southernmost parts of the world."—Carmen Bugan, Harvard Review

"Southern Imagining is a graceful, powerful weaving together of literary engagements with the south across five centuries and 360 degrees of latitude."—Elizabeth Leane, Australian Book Review

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