Antarctica is, and has always been, very much “for sale.” Whales, seals, and ice have all been marketed as valuable commodities, but so have the stories of explorers. The modern media industry developed in parallel with land-based Antarctic exploration, and early expedition leaders needed publicity to generate support for their endeavours. Their lectures, narratives, photographs, and films were essentially advertisements for their adventures. At the same time, popular media began to use the newly encountered continent to draw attention to commercial products. These advertisements both trace the commercialization of Antarctica and reveal how commercial settings have shaped the dominant imaginaries of the place.
By contextualising and analysing Antarctic advertisements from the late nineteenth century to the present, Brand Antarctica: How Global Consumer Culture Shapes Our Perceptions of the Ice Continent (University of Nebraska Press, 2023) by Dr. Hanne Elliot Fønss Nielsen identifies five key framings of the South Polar continent: a place for heroes, a place of extremity, a place of purity, a place to protect, and a place that transforms. Demonstrating how these conceptual framings of Antarctica in turn circulate through our culture, Dr. Hanne Elliot Fønss Nielsen challenges common assumptions about Antarctica’s past and present, encouraging readers to rethink their own relationship with the Far South.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs
Padraic X. Scanlan, "Slave Empire: How Slavery Built Modern Britain" (Robinson, 2021)
Ines Prodöhl, "Globalizing the Soybean: Fat, Feed, and Sometimes Food, c. 1900–1950" (Routledge, 2023)
The Future of Secularization: A Discussion with Ryan Cragun
Maxim Samson, "Invisible Lines: Boundaries and Belts That Define the World" (Profile Books, 2023)
Zdenka Sokolickova, "The Paradox of Svalbard: Climate Change and Globalisation in the Arctic" (Pluto Press, 2023)
Ryan Tucker Jones, "Red Leviathan: The Secret History of Soviet Whaling" (U Chicago Press, 2022)
Peter Foster, "What Went Wrong with Brexit? And What We Can Do about It" (Canongate, 2023)
Suzy Kim, "Among Women Across Worlds: North Korea in the Global Cold War" (Cornell UP, 2023)
Zachary Jacobson, "On Nixon's Madness: An Emotional History" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023)
Davide Rodogno, "Night on Earth: A History of International Humanitarianism in the Near East, 1918–1930" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
Jenna N. Hanchey, "The Center Cannot Hold: Decolonial Possibility in the Collapse of a Tanzanian NGO" (Duke UP, 2023)
On “Henry Kissinger and His World” with author Barry Gewen
Kalyani Ramnath, "Boats in a Storm: Law, Migration, and Decolonization in South and Southeast Asia, 1942-1962" (Stanford UP, 2023)
Peter Heather and John Rapley, "Why Empires Fall: Rome, America, and the Future of the West" (Yale UP, 2023)
Indrajit Roy, "Passionate Politics: Democracy, Development and India’s 2019 General Election" (Manchester UP, 2023)
Christina Heatherton, "Arise!: Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution" (U California Press, 2022)
Smita A. Rahman et al., "Globalizing Political Theory" (Routledge, 2022)
Pedro Monaville, "Students of the World: Global 1968 and Decolonization in the Congo" (Duke UP, 2022)
Corina Rodríguez Enríquez and Masaya Llavaneras Blanco, "Corporate Capture of Development: Public-Private Partnerships, Women’s Human Rights, and Global Resistance" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
Outside the Box: The History and Future of Globalization
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
New Books in Philosophy
New Books in Sociology
New Books in Psychoanalysis
New Books in Anthropology
New Books in African American Studies