Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 Fishermen and Little Fish : Migration and Hospitality in Maxine Beneba Clarke’s ‘The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa’
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In this article, we argue that Maxine Beneba Clarke’s tale ‘The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,’ in Foreign Soil (2014), is a provocative representation of migration in contemporary Australia. At a time in which the world is facing its largest migration since the Second World War and in which Australian border policy is making headlines around the world, Clarke’s tale is a powerful intervention in discourses of contemporary Australian identity and nationhood. We demonstrate that the tale is a subtle manipulation of what McCullough terms the ‘refugee narrative structure’ since it carefully undercuts the myth of a nation as a coherent narrative across time and space. By juxtaposing the tales of an illegal migrant and a volunteer case worker, and by setting the tale largely in a functioning detention centre, Clarke gives voice to the voiceless and draws parallels between individuals on different sides of the insider/outsider binary. The encounter that finally takes place between them implicates the reader very directly in discourses of contemporary migration and border policy.'

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Portal Designing Futures in Indonesia vol. 13 no. 2 Alexandra Crosby (editor), 2016 11173714 2016 periodical issue 2016
Last amended 11 May 2017 10:06:54
http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/portal/article/view/4891 Fishermen and Little Fish : Migration and Hospitality in Maxine Beneba Clarke’s ‘The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa’small AustLit logo Portal
Subjects:
  • Foreign Soil Maxine Beneba Clarke , 2014 selected work short story
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