Antarctic fiction in English: a thematic analysis

• Main Author: Leane, E
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Chilean Antarctic Science Program 2019
• Subjects: Language; Communication and Culture; Literary Studies; Other Literatures in English; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctic Science; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://www.inach.cl/inach/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ILAIA-5_2019-13-OP.pdf; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/134000

While Antarctica is labelled the continent for science, a place to be studied through the languages of geology, glaciology and zoology, there are other modes of engaging with the region that both complement and challenge this categorization. Over the last few centuries numerous novelists, playwrights and poets have produced creative representations of the Antarctic region. Some of them were written in response to actual historical events, others are wildly speculative, and many are somewhere in between, combining imagination with contemporary knowledge of the region. By examining these tales we can better understand past and present attitudes towards the continent for science.