Subject Area: English

'Seeing Australia' is an online course that examines the way Australia has been 'seen' over the last two centuries, in visual art and literature. Beginning with analysing the concept of 'seeing' itself, we will investigate how Australia has come to exist in the mind of its own people and those from other countries. In this process you will discover some of the fundamental cultural myths that have gone to shape Australian society by encountering different ways of 'seeing' besides the purely visual. At the conclusion of the course you will be able to identify the range of representations by which 'Australia' has come into being.