Imagining the Great Southern Land: Utopia, Dystopia and Science Fiction in Australia

This is a critical-historical appraisal of utopianism in Australian literature, architecture and popular culture, especially science fiction. It examines the ways Australia has been used as the setting, and sometimes as the inspiration, for imaginings of a significantly better or worse society than that in which the author lived. Its special academic significance lies in its use of a wide range of disciplinary approaches to analyse the specificity of Australian utopian traditions. Its outcome will be a deepened understanding of how those traditions were shaped by, and in turn helped to shape, real political and social developments.