In her new book, Anna Johnson investigates how the exchange of ideas from the late eighteenth century between the Antipodes and the British Empire were to have a profound influence on the global constitution of knowledges, enabled by the rise of popular print culture. Her premise is that the Australian colonies, and New South Wales and Tasmania in particular, opened up new metaphorical and literal sites for British social experimentation, notably about the human condition and the Indigenous peoples and natural environments of the new southern world.
Review of The Antipodean Laboratory: Making Colonial Knowledge, 1770–1870, by Anna Johnston
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Published 25 May 2024 in Volume 39 No. 1. Subjects: Aboriginal dispossession, Colonial literature & writers, Colonisation of Australia, Convicts, Natural environment.
Cite as: Darian-Smith, Kate. ‘Review of The Antipodean Laboratory: Making Colonial Knowledge, 1770–1870, by Anna Johnston.’ Australian Literary Studies, vol. 39, no. 1, 2024, doi: 10.20314/als.cf40cbf3b2.
- Kate Darian-Smith — Professor Kate Darian-Smith is a cultural historian of Australia who has written on colonial narratives and nationhood.Full details →