Southern Imagining

A Literary and Cultural History of the Far Southern Hemisphere

By Elleke Boehmer

Southern Imagining questions and reshapes influential northern imaginative norms. The book examines how tales of mythical southern lands shaped global perceptions of these worlds. It also explores the environmental consequences of these imaginings. In doing so, Southern Imagining invites readers to inhabit the globe differently.

Most global perspectives default to a northern viewpoint. By contrast, the South often appears distant and ignorable. These far southern latitudes include Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and southern Africa, among others.

How people from the South view the world

In Southern Imagining, Elleke Boehmer offers an alternative perspective. She draws on literary, scientific and cultural materials to explore how people from the South view the world. Furthermore, she argues that reading can transform perspective. It can reverse our usual planetary viewpoint and rearrange our perceptual geography.

To illustrate this argument, Boehmer examines writing from across southern continents and islands. Through this analysis, Southern Imagining investigates how people imaginatively inhabit the farthest reaches of the planet. Her discussion spans a wide intellectual range. It includes the Portuguese epic poet Luís de Camões, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Darwin, Katherine Mansfield and Jorge Luis Borges. She also references ancient Indigenous scribes. Together, these writers capture the edgy and austere experiences of the far south.

In addition, Boehmer argues that imaginative work shapes our phenomenological understanding of the world. She proposes a south-tilted world map that song and story help re-centre. This perspective encourages a more engaged sense of belonging to the planet. It connects readers to both the north and the south.

Ultimately, Southern Imagining shows how writers of the South challenge conventional ways of seeing. They disrupt inherited perspectives and invite readers to inhabit the globe differently.

About the author

Elleke Boehmer is Professor of World Literature in English at the University of Oxford. She is also an acclaimed novelist and a widely published scholar in the field of Postcolonial Studies. In addition, she serves as Extraordinary Professor in English at the University of Pretoria.

Her latest novel is Ice Shock, which Karavan Press published in 2025.