Cirrus@Austlit

'This essay analyzes queer representations in the context of Indigenous Australian discourses by looking at the two-season Australian science fiction series Cleverman (2016-2017). Cleverman aims to combine the conventions of the science fiction and superhero genres with ancient Indigenous stories. Cleverman's compelling introduction of the Hairypeople, an alternative humanoid species with extraordinary strength inspired by Aboriginal mythology, provides the context to explore queer identities in regards to otherness, marginality, and culturally constructed boundaries between the normal and the abnormal. Through the series engagement with the subjectivity and queering of the monstrous other, the binary construct of good versus evil is challenged. The series representation of boundary creatures highlights the constraints within which racially marked bodies operate, however misses the potential to equally engage with gendered bodies. While the series invites ambivalent readings of the role of community belonging and the nuclear family, the representation of female agency fails to similarly redefine discursively constituted identities and shows less potential to re-write normative codes of sex and sexuality.'

Source: ProQuest.