Southern Imagining

Elleke Boehmer's Southern Imagining traces literary and cultural perspectives of the far Southern Hemisphere—from Indigenous mythic traditions through Portuguese exploration to contemporary writing—arguing the global North's institutional biases marginalize southern voices.

The book examines how oceanic distance, low population density, and geopolitical separation shaped southern self-conceptions and how literature can recenter southern viewpoints.

Boehmer reads a wide range of writers (from Melville and Conrad to southern authors) to show how narratives and navigation across oceans create alternative mappings of the planet.

She connects cultural critique to urgent environmental concerns, showing that neglect of the Southern Ocean has real global consequences.

The work aims to speak to both Northern and Southern readers, urging a more holistic, ocean-attentive planetary imagination.