Landscape in Literature

These studies focus on post-colonial literature and the question of landscape. The language of landscape epitomizes a literary and cultural identity difficult to translate into European languages and literary traditions unfamiliar with words and their meaning. Geographic writing and botanical nomenclature, and the preservation of indigenous phytonyms defines the identity and specificity of post-colonial authors. The relevance of ‘writing worlds’ and recent theories of space and human geography may serve as tools for a critical appraisal of Australian and New Zealand space, and consequent translatability. In the case of Frame, as in Katherine Mansfield, and the Australian Joan Lindsay, flowerscapes and gardenscapes, and the symbolism of water and sea outline specific themes, as that of an age of innocence juxtaposed by a constant ‘state of siege’.