Author Archives: KDSMurray

John Stanley Martin – Australia as an Iceland of the south

By KDSMurray | Published: 21 January 2010

One way of reading an antipodean country like Australia is through the lens of its symmetrical opposites. For many, Australia has been compared to Nordic countries. One of Australia’s leading Nordicists, John Stanley Martin, unfortunately passed away this week. Here he talking about the commonality between Australia and Iceland. John Stanley Martin, descendent of the [...]

Posted in Australia, North, Northern mirror | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Why ‘Up in the Air’ should be grounded

By KDSMurray | Published: 16 January 2010

New critique or old myth? You could be forgiven for thinking that the recently released Up in the Air heralds a new wave of American films that reflect the real social realities of America exposed by the Global Financial Crisis. ‘ target=_blank>Rolling Stone claims that ‘Up in the Air is a defining movie for these [...]

Posted in North, verticalism | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Vertiginous Africa

By KDSMurray | Published: 20 December 2009

Tourist images of the African continent are dominated by scenes of safari adventures. While these entail their own colonial associations – Africa as nature rather than culture – there is a more phenomenological dimension to the African experience for westerners. This suggests a continent that we look down to. Virgin Airlines have just released their [...]

Posted in Africa, Australia, verticalism | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Spain as South – the Black Legend has a warm heart

By KDSMurray | Published: 22 September 2009

‘Africa begins at the Pyrenees.’ Voltaire “Whatever has black sounds has duende.” Garcia Lorca Spain seems an exception to civilised Europe. While the Enlightenment promoted the pursuit of reason based on natural order, Spain remained captive to a theatre of violence as it persecuted heretics and bulls. Is this a true image of Spain? What [...]

Posted in journey, Spain, West | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Verticalism and its underbelly

By KDSMurray | Published: 26 February 2009

How is it that the North seems to sit above the South? Does this support a world that gives superior value to what originates from the North, as opposed to the problems in the lowly South? How might this vertical orientation be contested? This paper was presented at the International Conference on Hegemony, Counter Hegemony [...]

Posted in Argentina, article, Chile, verticalism | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment