Ludwig Leichhardt's ghosts : the strange career of a traveling myth / Andrew Wright Hurley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hurley, Andrew Wright, author.

Series:

Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Leichhardt, Ludwig, 1813-1848.

Explorers--Australia--Biography.

Explorers.

Naturalists.

Australia.

Germany.

Naturalists--Germany--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

345 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Rochester, New York : Camden House, 2018.

Summary:

"After the renowned Prussian scientist and explorer Ludwig Leichhardt left the Australian frontier in 1848 on an expedition to cross the continent, he disappeared without a trace. Andrew Hurley's book complicates that view by undertaking an afterlife biography of 'the Humboldt of Australia.' Although Leichhardt's remains were never located, he has been sought and textually 'found' many times over, particularly in Australia and Germany. He remains a significant presence, a highly productive ghost who continues to 'haunt' culture. Leichhardt has been employed for all sorts of political purposes. In imperial Germany, he was a symbol of pure science, but also a bolster for colonialism. In the 20th century, he became a Nazi icon, a proto-socialist, the model for the protagonist of Nobel laureate Patrick White's famous novel Voss, as well as a harbinger of multiculturalism. He has also been put to use by Australian Indigenous cultures. Engaging Leichhardt's ghosts and those who have sought him yields a fascinating case study of German entanglement in British colonialism in Australia. It also shows how figures from the colonial past feature in German and Australian social memory and serve present-day purposes. In an abstract sense, this book uses Leichhardt to explore what happens when we maintain an open stance to the ghosts of the past"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Discovering, mourning, and honoring Leichhardt between Australia and German-speaking Europe, 1848-1858

Ferdinand Mueller, the Ladies Committee, and German-Australian seekers of Leichhardt

Taking Leichhardt home to Germany with Georg Neumayer

Uneasily approaching the centenary

An interwar interregnum, or finding Leichhardt as a "friend of the aborigine"?

Nazi Leichhardt

Leichhardt the cold warrior

Leichhardt explodes, with no end in sight (including a concluding passage "The ghost of a chance").

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-327) and index.

ISBN:

1640140131

9781640140134

OCLC:

1035414247