AustLit

'The Tropics has long been associated with exotic diseases and epidemics. This historical imaginary arose with Aristotle’s notion of the Tropics as the ‘torrid zone’, a geographical region virtually uninhabitable to non-indigenous peoples due to the hostility of its climate, and persisted in colonial imaginaries of the tropics as pestilential latitudes requiring slave labour. The tropical sites of colonialism gave rise to urgent studies of tropical diseases and medicine which lead to (racialised) changes in urban planning. The Tropics as a region of pandemic, plague and pestilence has been challenged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The novel coronavirus did not (simply) originate in the Tropics, nor have peoples of the Tropics been specifically or exclusively infected. This disrupts the imaginary of pandemics, plague and pestilence in association with the Tropics, and calls for critical, nuanced, and situated analyses.' (Publication summary)

'This special issue on Environmental Artistic Practices and Indigeneity: In(ter)ventions, Recycling, Sovereignty brings together creative works, poetic essays, and academic articles which address numerous forms of Indigenous artistic practices. This collection speaks literally and metaphorically of the land, ocean and river ecosystems of the Pacific Islands, Australia, French Guiana, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia.' (Publication summary)

'This is the second published collection of the two-part special issue on the theme Tropical Gothic. While the first issue provided a space for reflection upon the unique social, historical, political, cultural and environmental conditions of the tropics; this second issue demonstrates how creative writers and artists have a particular role to play in such reflections, through producing the cultural artefacts for the contemplation of others, or by contributing to such debates as creative practitioners and critics. The papers concentrate on Tropical Gothic literary and creative works from South and Southeast Asia and Tropical Australia.' (Publication introduction)

'The Gothic is undergoing a pronounced resurgence in academic and popular cultures. Propelled by fears associated with massive social transformations produced by globalisation, the neoliberal order and environmental uncertainty – tropes of the Gothic resonate. The gothic allows us to delve into the unknown, the liminal, the unseen; into hidden histories and feelings. It calls up unspoken truths and secret desires.

'In the tropics, the gothic manifests in specific ways according to spaces, places, cultures and their encounters. Within the fraught geographies and histories of colonisation and aggression that have been especially acute across the tropical regions of the world, the tropical gothic engages with orientalism and postcolonialism. The tropics, as the region of the greatest biodiversity in the world, is under enormous stress, hence tropical gothic also engages with gothic ecocriticism, senses of space, landscape and place. Globalisation and neoliberalism likewise impact the tropics, and the gothic imagery of these ‘vampiric’ capitalist forces – which impinge upon the livelihoods, traditions and the very survival of peoples of the tropics – is explored through urban gothic, popular culture, posthumanism and queer theory.

'As the papers in this special issue demonstrate, a gothic sensibility enables humans to respond to the seemingly dark, nebulous forces that threaten existence. These papers engage with specific instances of Tropical Gothic in West Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Southeast Asia, northern Australia, and the American Deep South.' (Editorial abstract)

'This is the second part of the eTropic special issue theme on Tropical Imaginaries and Living Cities. While the first part of this series concentrated predominately on concrete cities and the material imagination, this second issue explores notions of the tropics and cities through literary and artistic works. Thus in this collection of papers the tropical imaginary comes to the forefront while the metropolis provides the space or canvas for the imagination.' (Anita Lundberg Editorial introduction)

'On the 20th of January this year, the American people ushered in a serial misogynist as President of the so-called free world. A known womaniser,an alleged rapist with a long list of women accusing him of sexual harassment and a public record consisting of a tirade of derogatory remarks about women,Trump’s sexism is incontestable. Further, his various positions and policies—from the Mexican wall and the Muslim travel-ban,to his stand against undocumented immigrants and his commitment to repeal Obamacare, among many others—stand to adversely affect society’s most vulnerable. As we watched that election take shape from across the Pacific we felt as if we were powerless bystanders witnessing a fateful and horrific collision unfold as a nightmarish slow-motion spectacle. The implication was clear: hard-won gains for women worldwide risked slipping backward, precipitously.' (Victoria Kuttainen, Ariella Van Luyn : Editor's introduction)

'Vampires and other blood-sucking monstrous beings constitute some of the most famous myths, legends and stories that continue to haunt contemporary societies. This special issue examines the presence of these beings within cities and their rural surrounds. The contributions to this special issue reflect upon vampires and other monstrosities in relation to the tropical regions of the world from historical pasts to present-day manifestations, and imaginary tropical futures, including: the British colonial empire in the tropical east, New Orleans in the deep south of the United States, across the border to Mexico and Latin American communities, over to India and Southeast Asia, including Bangkok in Thailand, Singapore, and Sabah on the island of Borneo, and to the tropical east coast of Australia. However, the concept of the tropics is not simply a geographical construct, the imaginary of the tropics also emerges out of the spaces of mythology and oral storytelling, ethnographic reports, literature, science fiction magazines, film and television, video games and the internet.' (Anita Lundberg, Lennie Geerlings : Editorial introduction)

'The landscape of the tropics is being viewed from a fresh tropical lens. This year, the United Nations declared 29 June the ‘International Day of the Tropics’ – a day dedicated to celebrating and raising awareness of the tropical regions of the world. The date is the anniversary of the launch of the inaugural State of the Tropics 2014 report by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the first major output of the State of the Tropics project which draws on the expertise of leading tropical institutions from around the world. The ‘International Day of the Tropics’ testifies to the growing awareness of the significance of the tropics for the entire globe.' (From Introduction, 1)