- Title
- A mind-map of a nation: the Australian encyclopaedia or why sharks are more important than tigers
- Creator
- Hagen, Nadine
- Relation
- International Conference on Knowledge Transfer and Organising Systems of Encyclopedias. Proceedings of International Conference on Knowledge Transfer and Organising Systems of Encyclopedias (Prangins, Switzerland 18-27th September, 2007) p. 247-255
- Relation
- http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/de/forschung/d-historicities-heritage/d5/characteristics-genre/publication.html
- Publisher
- Shaker Verlag
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2007
- Description
- Australia at the end of the 19th century is an especially interesting case for research on encyclopedias. Significant social changes were taking place. For the first time, a national self-image was developed in Australia and on 1 January 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed in Centennial Park, Sydney. A new nation was born. The nation has something essentially in common with general knowledge: it is not natural, but constructed. In his famous book about nations and nationalism Benedict Anderson argues that the nation is "an imagined political community". I claim that there are connections between the two constructed concepts of 'knowledge' and 'nation'. In this essay, I would like to show that the Australian Encyclopedia, as a container for knowledge, stands under strong suspicion of being propaganda for the new Australian nation.
- Subject
- Australian Encyclopaedia; social change; propaganda
- Identifier
- uon:6346
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/803252
- Identifier
- ISBN:9783832263553
- Language
- eng
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