PhD, James Cook University
Qualification
PhD
Institution
James Cook University
Country
AU
City
Cairns
Subject
Literature and cultural studies
Date
N/A
- 2018Description
The Cyclone Written Into Our Place: The cyclone as trope of place and apocalypse in Queensland literature. In order to better understand and respond to the tropics as part of the global environment, we need to accept the unique features of the regional weather, such as cyclones, and be prepared to embrace their larger meaning for life in the tropics. In a physical landscape regularly impacted by tropical cyclones, Queensland writers have attempted to incorporate both the terror and the sublime of the cyclone into a sense of place as they search for context and meaning in the aftermath of the unpredictable, chaotic and apocalyptic tropical storm. Consequently, the cyclone has become a defining symbolic metaphor of not only the physical but also of the literary tropical Queensland. Some Queensland writers have perceived within cyclones the Burkean sublime or personal revelation, while others have seen it as motivation for community strength, cooperation and compassion. For some, the purpose of the cyclone is divine retribution, but to others it is an apocalyptic event revealing a chance for revelation and renewal. This thesis examines a range of such perceptions within Queensland literature as integral to the search for order and meaning within chaotic cyclone events.