England's Antipodes: early modern visions of a Southern world

Abstract

This thesis explores the changing conceptions and different uses of ideas about the Antipodes in early modern England. The concept of the Antipodes was inherited from classical times, when it referred to 'opposite footers' who dwelled in an unknown and unreachable landmass lying under the known world. Classical writers exploited the potential for satire inherent in this 'upside down' world, which by the seventeenth century had also become associated with great wealth. This thesis argues that the idea of the Antipodes exerted a powerful influence in seventeenth century England, where it came to symbolize the 'progress' of knowledge through geographical discovery. Classical geographical theories, however, continued to provide the framework for contemporary voyages of exploration - both real and imagined. In addition, following classical usages, seventeenth century writers employed extensively the antipodean metaphor of a 'world turned upside down' as a rhetorical weapon in various forms of political satire and social comment, particularly during the Civil War and Interregnum. By the end of the seventeenth century, the antipodean metaphor had become 'externalised', revealing the effects of burgeoning overseas trade and discovery. The geographical and metaphorical facets of ideas regarding the southern continent had also fused into a literary perception of Terra Australis as a real place, the material exploitation of which would also enable social, political, and spiritual advancement. Terra Australis thus became the site for the imaginative exploration of an ideal society - one not just to be discovered but created.