Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Series | Book | Chapter

223595

"Marvellous Melbourne"

image of a colonial metropolis

Timothy Chandler

pp. 91-110

Abstract

This chapter examines the Australian city of Melbourne, which, within a few decades of its founding in 1836, became one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the British Empire. The author provides an overview of the city's history and discusses contemporary journalistic and novelistic representations of life in the colony. The primary object of analysis is the image of the city that emerges from these materials. An image of both modernity and historicality, progress and destruction, this image—which bears the title of "Marvellous Melbourne"—has persistently beguiled the city's visitors and inhabitants, but in the final analysis reveals the colonial violence on which it is premised.

Publication details

Published in:

Hibbitt Richard (2017) Other capitals of the nineteenth century: an alternative mapping of literary and cultural space. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 91-110

DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-57085-7_5

Full citation:

Chandler Timothy (2017) „"Marvellous Melbourne": image of a colonial metropolis“, In: R. Hibbitt (ed.), Other capitals of the nineteenth century, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 91–110.