Antarctic poetry: theme, criticism and analysis

• Main Author: Sima, Ellen
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: University of Canterbury 2016
• Subjects: Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13839

For over two hundred years, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean have been a source of inspiration for poets, and today the number of pieces in the Antarctic poetry canon numbers in hundreds. Yet despite the significance of this group of texts, there is a dearth of critical literature focusing specifically on Antarctic poetry. This review will analyse criticism from a range of Antarctic literary fields, namely narrative fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, by a number of authors, collating perspectives and opinions on canonical themes and motifs. These will explore notions of Antarctica as: a wide, white expanse and blank slate for writers to attempt their mark; a transformational landscape, one that fundamentaly changes the people who visit it; a place of stark contrasts; a space where heroic era history acts as both narrative and metaphor; and a contemporary, lived environment, where the natural environment and daily goingson provide inspiration. Using these thematic categories as a framework, a selection of poems by Chris Orsman, Bill Manhire, Bernadette Hall and Owen Marshall will be analysed, and recommendations made for future research in Antarctic poetry.