Imagined Australia: Reflections Around the Reciprocal Construction of Identity Between Australia and Europe

From Terra Nullius to Land of Opportunities and Last Frontier, the European dream has constructed and deconstructed Australia to feed its imagination of new societies. At the same time Australia has over the last two centuries forged and re-invented its own liaisons with Europe arguably to carve out its identity. From the arts to social sciences, to society itself, a complex dynamic has grown between the two continents in ways that invite study and discussion. A transnational research group has begun its collective investigation project of which this first volume is the outcome. The book is a substantial multidisciplinary collection of current research and offers critical perspectives on culture, literature and history around themes at the heart of the Imagined Australia project. The essays instigate reflection, discovery and discussion of how reciprocal imagining between Australia and Europe has articulated itself and ways and dimensions in which a relationship between communities, imagined and not, has unfolded. The Editor: Renata Summo-O'Connell has launched the Imagined Australia international research project after having founded the international organization AILAE. Her background in Aesthetics, Sociolinguistics and Gender Studies directs her effort to develop new models of transnational research, which beyond institutional boundaries, may effectively further international debates and engage in creative projects on artistic and cultural levels.