SANAP Projects.
Southern Oceanic Humanities
Principal Investigator: Prof Isabel Hofmeyr
Discipline: Literary and Cultural Studies
Short description of the project:
This project considers representations of the Southern Ocean, south Atlantic and southern Indian Ocean, with their islands, ships and research bases.
Taking an inter- and transdisciplinary approach, it aims to examine the small but significant body of literary work on the sub-Antarctic islands, the extensive visual and textual record of Antarctica, and to apply humanistic approaches to other forms of scientific and cultural production related to the region. Literature of the region includes Yvette Christiansë’s poetry and fiction, colonial-era representations in the fiction of writers such as H Rider Haggard and Joseph Conrad, as well as the work of Marguerite Poland, JM Ledgard and Zakes Mda. Visual culture includes records from the SANAP Antarctic Legacy of South Africa (ALSA) database, media images, and new creative-critical photographic and video work to be produced as part of this project. Taking a humanities-based approach to literature and visual culture of the Southern Ocean region, it also aims to produce a Southern perspective on the oceanic humanities more widely.
Contact Details
Email: Isabel.hofmeyr@wits.ac.za | Charne.lavery@wits.ac.za
Website: www.oceanichumanities.com
Address: WiSER, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, PO Box Wits, 2050, South Africa
Tel: +27(0) 11 717 4220
