The Pain of Belonging single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2014... 2014 The Pain of Belonging
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'The title of this chapter is of course a not-so-subtle take on Germaine Greer's phrase "the pain of unbelonging," which gives its title to the collection of essays edited by Sheila Collingwood-Whittick,' to which our co-editor Sue Ryan contributed. It refers to the sense of alienation, dislocation and bewilderment experienced by the European colonists of Australia - what Sheila Collingwood-Whittick called "the colonizer's absolute unfamiliarity with the alien space of the colony [...] their overwhelming sense of estrangement." It is an experience that has often been highlighted by writers and critics - two examples that come to mind are John Carroll's collection of essays Intruders in the Bush (a title that epitomizes the book's argument) and Les Murray's assertion, in his poem "Noonday Axeman," that "It will be centuries / Before many men are truly at home in this country." The non-Indigenous population of Australia is as it were doomed to grope its way, sometimes in a most painful manner, towards a sense of belonging, achieving what is rightly regarded as "a consummation devoutly to be wished," though it may be permanently out of reach if Greer is correct in saying that "for a gubba [white] in Australia there can be no belonging."' (Introduction)
 

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    y separately published work icon Aboriginal Australians and Other 'Others' Joëlle Bonnevin (editor), Sue Ryan-Fazilleau (editor), David Waterman (editor), France : Les Indes savantes , 2014 11334456 2014 anthology criticism

    'The contributors to this volume have repeatedly commented on the results of the study. To heal from traumatizing experiences. They denounce the process of "Othering" and stereotyping and put the spotlight on the various attempts at subverting damaging negative stereotypes. They reveal the "dark side" of the colonial governance of post-colonial reconstruction and rewritings of other colonial gestures, such as discovery and conquest. To a certain extent, following Romaine Moreton's advice, they attempt to "reframe those negative experiences".'

    Source: Publisher's blurb.

    France : Les Indes savantes , 2014
    pg. 189-202
Last amended 24 Oct 2017 11:09:15
189-202 The Pain of Belongingsmall AustLit logo
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