Issue Details: First known date: 2017... 2017 ‘Wars Don’t End When the Fighting Is Over’ : Adib Khan’s Homecoming and the Australian Literature of the Vietnam War
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Bangladeshi-Australian writer Adib Khan's fourth novel Homecoming (2003) marked a significant change of direction in the author's work. No longer concerned to give fictional representation to the diasporic experience which had preoccupied him since his own migration to Australia in 1973, he now embarked on a work which addresses one of the most controversial issues of his new country's recent history, its involvement in the Vietnam War and the traumatic consequences for those who fought in it. As an Asian-Australian writer engaging with the legacy of the war, Khan offers an alternative view from a new perspective. His novel presents a compelling psychological study of a veteran's struggle to confront his experience and reconstitute his identity. This article seeks to locate the novel within the wider tradition of Australian war literature, to examine Khan's representation of the war and its aftermath for Australians and Vietnamese alike, and to identify the particular contribution this Asian-Australian novelist has to make to central concerns of his adopted country.'  (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Journal of the European Association for Studies of Australia JEASA; Australia - South Asia : Contestations and Remonstrances vol. 8 no. 2 2017 14873006 2017 periodical issue

    'Perhaps the most iconic figure that has come to epitomise the earliest interactions between colonial Australia and South Asia is that of the male "Afghan" cameleer. However, the catch-all term "Afghan" (or "Ghan") is a partial misnomer since the cameleers who started making their way to Australia from the mid-1860s onwards were, in addition to Afghan, from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, including Punjabi, Balochi, Kashmiri and Sindhi. Many of these men came from areas that straddle present-day north India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and, therefore, at least some of them were "from British India and were British subjects, originating from east of the Durant line that separated British India from Afghanistan" (Ganter 487). Designating this diverse group of camel-drivers collectively as "Afghans," rather than recognizing their status as British subjects where applicable, was not merely a case of sloppy record-keeping, but was also politically expedient since, as Regina Ganter points out, it "served the purpose of classifying them as Alien or ‘Asiatics' under various restrictive laws curtailing their rights to own property, land, or engage in independent business" (487). This variety of immigration reached its height in the 1880s and the political climate during the 1890s became increasingly hostile towards immigrants from Asia. Though the Chinese "bore the brunt" (Jones 11) of the growing anti-Asian sentiment which culminated in the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 (or the White Australia policy), the cameleers too were inevitably affected by it and, of course, by "the invention of the modern engine" which diminished their "utility" significantly (Abdalla 39).'  (Introduction)

    2017
Last amended 15 Oct 2018 13:02:05
http://www.easa-australianstudies.net/node/487 ‘Wars Don’t End When the Fighting Is Over’ : Adib Khan’s Homecoming and the Australian Literature of the Vietnam Warsmall AustLit logo Journal of the European Association for Studies of Australia
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