Seeking the Centre The Australian Desert in Literature, Art and Film [Hardcover]

This exciting, highly illustrated book reveals the impact of the desert on Australian culture.The desert has a hypnotic presence in Australian culture, simultaneously alluring and repellent. The 'Centre' is distant and unknown to most Australians, yet has become a symbol of the country. This exciting book, highly illustrated in full colour, reveals the singular impact that the desert, both geographical and metaphorical, has had on Australian culture. At the heart of the book is the profound relationship that Aboriginal Australians have with the desert, and the complex ways in which they have been seen by white people in this context.The desert has a hypnotic presence in Australian culture, simultaneously alluring and repellent. The 'Centre' is distant and unknown to most Australians, yet has become a symbol of the country. This exciting book, highly illustrated in full colour, reveals the singular impact that the desert, both geographical and metaphorical, has had on Australian culture. At the heart of the book is the profound relationship that Aboriginal Australians have with the desert, and the complex ways in which they have been seen by white people in this context.This is a book about the Australian desert and its central impact on Australian culture, from traditional Aboriginal art to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Starting with the Aboriginal understanding of the spiritual significance of the desert, it traces the attempts of the early colonists to conquer this alien space; the changing estimate of the inland explorers in fiction and art as heroes, failures, or psychological studies of obsession; the rediscovery of the desert in the twentieth century by travelers, artists, novelists, photographers and film makers; its interest for ecotourism and as a spiritual experience.1. The land is a map: the Aboriginal relationship to the desert; 2. Forms, images, imaginings: European myths of the desert; 3. The 'hideous blank': imperatives for discovery; 4. Geography il½