Two district sets of people : The eighteenth century tradition of moral philosophy -- Michael Masseu Robinson : The laureate bard -- An inferior branch of the art : Colonial topograohical painting -- The continental empire : Inland exploration and imperial
destiny -- The rising glory of Australia : Literary nationalism and the epic poem -- Country house landscapes of the frontier : The colonial novel, 1830 to 1860.
A history of ideas focussing on the process by which Enlightenment theory of social and economic progress dominated the art and literature of the colonial elite and justified the domination of Aboriginal people in terms of a natural law of economic growth and a theory of classical history; analyses the perception and depiction of Aborigines by colonists, explorers and artists.
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