An Uncanny Valentine’s Day – Australia 1900
On Valentine’s Day, 1900 a group of young ladies and their teachers from Appleyard College, Victoria head into the Australian bush, to Hanging Rock, to enjoy a picnic. What happened on that day was to become the stuff of legend. Based on the novel by Joan Lindsay and made famous by Peter Weir’s 1975 film, now a cult classic, Picnic at Hanging Rock, the story of the ethereal schoolgirl, Miranda, and some of her companions, has sometimes been insisted upon as fact – a strange case of fiction taking on a life of its own. This was not helped by Joan Lindsay’s cryptic and ambiguous comments in interviews following the publication of her novel in 1967. In this talk, Marguerite Johnson shares an alternative Valentine story – a story far removed from cupids and love hearts – but one of deep-seated fears of the Australian bush, legends and realities of missing children, sentient landscapes, and the gothic uncanny.
Bio:
Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
