Intimate Charm
Intimate Charm
The candle flame, the light at the window, the glow of an inviting interior were, in nineteenth-century Australia, visions representing familiar and intimate spatial experiences. Both the traveler and the settler recognized in them the essence of what they meant by homecoming. This chapter traces the historical significance of these spatial experiences. It argues that while the public man might dwell in the realm of the map and the picturesque view, the dreamer, the reflective reader, and writer travelled and dwelt in the spaces of his intimacy. The spaces he inhabited at night or on the road were neither the conceptual intervals of the grid nor the visible harmonies of the picturesque: they were imaginative spaces, where he realized the fullness of his own spatiality, the spatial command he knew in dreams, where he was no stranger to flight.
Keywords: intimate space, burning light, Australian travelers, settlers, spatial history, homecoming
Minnesota Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
