Longitudinal Antarctica: A Continent in the Abstract

The history of the Antarctic is one of hypothesis and abstraction. Aristotle and James Cook, both prominent figures in Antarctic historiography, never laid eyes on the continent. Despite further exploration and accurate mapping of the continent during the “Heroic Age” of the early twentieth century,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization
Main Author: Myers, Nicholas
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cart.51.1.3182
https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/cart.51.1.3182
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Summary:The history of the Antarctic is one of hypothesis and abstraction. Aristotle and James Cook, both prominent figures in Antarctic historiography, never laid eyes on the continent. Despite further exploration and accurate mapping of the continent during the “Heroic Age” of the early twentieth century, competing territorial claims continued to render Antarctica in the abstract. The continent became a space of contested ideology, serving as a canvas for both nationalist pride and imperial might.