The Literary Destruction of Canberra
Utopia, Apocalypse and the National Capital
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8891745 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Russell Smith (0000-0001-6650-0276, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Publication date | 2009-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Australian Literary Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-9697 • E-ISSN: 1837-6479 |
| Publisher | Australian Literary Studies (PUBLISHER • AU) |
| DOI | 10.20314/als.8b5e71678d |
| OpenAlex | W2211267814 |
| Language | EN |
The article examines the contradictory responses to the national capital in the Australian imagination: planned along utopian lines, Canberra has been seen as a failed utopia, a city â widely unloved and often derided as the most un-Australian of Australian citiesâ (78). In seeking to understand this tension, the article examines the literary representation of the capital in some fictional narratives in which â Canberra is literally or symbolically destroyedâ , above all in works by McGahan and Halligan
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Capital (architecture · Economic history · Economics · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · National capital · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Politics · Project commissioning · Publishing · Representation (politics · Sociology · Utopia · Visual arts · Australian History and Society · History · Law · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |