Overview of examples
The land can be a literal and a useful place:
- It represents a necessary physical connection: landscape is the land we till; the ground upon which we tread and the site upon which we build our house. It is who we are and how we live and how we relate to the world.
- A positive physical connection is also critical to our emotional and psychological wellbeing. Contrastingly, a negative relationship with a difficult and hostile landscape can be detrimental to our wellbeing and our confidence.
- See poem by Hyllus Maris.
Our relationship with the landscape reflects our world view and our values. (We reshape our physical surroundings to reflect our vision of our place in the world.)
- A landscape gardener transforms the “garden” into a work of art. They seek to make the garden “look” attractive. “Looking” and “seeing” are subjective activities; they involve the viewer and their feelings, values and moods.
- Analogy of the photographer: the photo is a product of the photographer’s point of view; he takes the photo because the landscape interests him; and the landscape will depend upon where the photographer stands when he presses the trigger.
- Malouf also states, “the European landscape is a made landscape, a work of “culture” in both senses of the word”. (Boyer Lecture) The way man tills and reshapes the land has practical purposes, but it also reflects the vision of himself and man’s place in the world. “We remake the land in our own image so that it comes in time to reflect both the industry and the imagination of its makers”. (Malouf)
- See Robert Frost’s poem: Mending the Wall. Also the “names” we give to the landscape reflect our views, values and self concept. Mending the Wall
- Landscape is also a product of our interaction with the world around us and our own point of view.:
- The Australian anthropologist William Stanner worked around Wadeye and Perrederr in the 1950s and ’60s and said the word ”land” was a white construct, yet when we took it from Aboriginal clan groups we took the source of life for the humans and the spirits. A different tradition, he wrote, leaves us ”tongueless and earless towards this other world of meaning and significance”.
See Notes on Nightstreet: Clarice’s artwork reflects her views, values and sense of self.
Landscape reflects our (ongoing) and (changing) vision of ourselves
- We often shape and imagine our landscape in ways that make us feel comfortable and secure about ourselves. Our landscape reflects a vision of ourselves. In his Boyer lecture, Malouf draws attention to the way the settlers tried to reshape the Australian bush according to their homeland. The settlers’ vision of “nature” was like an English landscape garden as was evident in a Poussin or a Claude painting. In particular, Joseph Banks tried to recreate gardens by “stepping back in imagination to a place on the far side of the globe”. Malouf states that he played a “godlike little game with himself and with a whole new continent.” He brought an “arkload of plants” that was suitable for a climate similar to Southern France and set about making his own Garden of Eden according to his vision of home. This was like bringing his version of “home” to Australia.
- The land changes us and we change the land. (The land shapes and influences our personalities over time. (The Drover’s Wife). But also our lifestyle and practical needs change the landscape. See the indigenous way of life reshaped the early Australian Bush. Also our lifestyle habits are creating an increasing hostile planet.)
We name the landscape as a reflection of our relationship with the world. We mediate and interpret landscapes: in dance, music, poems, works of art.
Land as an act of control and management:
- The white settlers typically own and manage the land. It is a place to be conquered and an object to be owned and subdued.
- See Land and control.
- Think about climate change and how it reflects our spirit of conquest and domination/rape.
Also read John Kinsella’s poems, “The Silo” and “Why They stripped the last trees form the Banks of the Creek”
Our imagination helps us to transform our environment: we reshape our physical environment to reflect our ongoing emotional and psychological needs
- Explore the metaphoric significance of landscapes: “Landscape” is also rendered ambiguous by its metaphoric significance. As Malouf points out, fertility is the essence of nature, but “greenness, both as an actuality and as a metaphor for growth and fruitfulness” reflects our vision.
- Landscape often reflects our imaginary yearnings: we compensate and project our inner life, our emotions, and our hopes onto the landscape.
- The life of the imagination often connects us to our land in spiritual ways. People often tell stories about our landscape. These stories have the power to completely change our relationship and attitude to the physical landscape.
- Learning and education often transport people to other places beyond their horizons. They often help people imagine their landscape in different ways and opens up different possibilities and opportunities.
The Landscape can reflect our fears and phobias: The landscape may become a metaphor of despair, anguish and displacement.
Ideas, quotes and anecdotes
“Just as there are many homes, there are many journeys home. Each one of us will have a different journey from anyone else. The journey home is mostly ongoing and in some ways never completed. It is a process of discovery and recovery”. (Bringing Them Home report)
Read some Henry Lawson : how people become quirky and eccentric as a consequence of their exposure to a difficult and often hostile landscape.
See Ideas, quotes and anecdotes
Poems are ideal for Imaginary Landscapes.
See a string of essay topics and topic sentences/key ideas.
An essay to begin with And another essay: People bring their own knowledge, experience and emotions to their environment to interpret the world in which they live.
See Range of essay plans: Imaginary landscapes – key ideas and topic sentences.
A good way to structure your essay: work on extended metaphors of the garden/vegetable patch/landscape designs and/or photographs/paintings: reflect psychological and emotional viewpoints of the viewer. For example, open with a personal comment about the image/anecdote; insert another reference (midway to make a clever point) and close with the metaphor – a final comment about a photograph or garden…)
Persona style: University Lecturer and Youth Leader
Personalise the stories: Example:
Recently, our community has rallied together to prevent the sale of large properties in the East. We are all proud of Mr Glenn Ford, living on the outskirts of East Hilton, bordering the green wedges of Plumpton. In a confrontation with neighbours in Plumpton the other…