Catriona Elder Catriona Elder i(A11063 works by)
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 Race, Romance and Anxiety : A History of Mid-twentieth Century Commercial Fiction Catriona Elder , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel 2023;
1 ‘Brutal’ and ‘Grisly ’: Exploring the (non-Indigenous) Critical Reception to Two Australian Postcolonial Films of the Frontier, The Nightingale (2018) and The Proposition (2005) Catriona Elder , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 14 no. 1 2020; (p. 47-62)

'This article explores the marketing and non-Indigenous critical responses to the film The Nightingale (2018) by reading it alongside the reception and responses to a similar film, made over a decade earlier, a film that also studies the multi-layers of colonial violence. Using the film The Proposition (2005) as a foil this article considers the ways that violence figured by two non-Indigenous directors working in a postcolonial Australian context is interpreted by the critics reviewing films. The articles considers the different tropes, non-Indigenous critics offer viewers of the film. How do they suggest consumers interpret or experience the film? The argument is that the tropes, and cues can be understood both in terms of the immediate film experience, but also, for Australian viewers in terms of two ‘events’ – Reconciliation and the Uluru Statement – that help shape what national and counter histories of Australia have power at different times. The objectives of the article are therefore twofold. The first is to catalogue some of the ways each films’ marketing machine and then some key critics explained or described the plot and narrative of the two films, in particular how they explained the idea of colonial trauma in relation to the two events. The second objective is to examine how the reviewers/marketing material explained how each film deployed these ideas in order to challenge historically powerful understandings of history and belonging – in its multiple meanings – in Australia.' (Publication abstract)

1 [Review] Small Screens: Essays on Contemporary Australian Television Catriona Elder , 2017 single work
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 48 no. 4 2017;

— Review of Small Screens : Essays on Contemporary Australian Television 2016 anthology criticism

'Arrow, Baker and Monagle begin Small Screens: Essays on Contemporary Australian Television with a suggestion that engaging with television operates as a type of ‘cultural duty’ for citizens (vii), and they have brought together a group of historians who demonstrate the change and continuity associated with this duty. Nick Herd kicks off the collection with a fantastic overview chapter on local television. He presents the data alongside effective summaries of key incidents in television history around technological change, advertising and censorship. The chapters that follow demonstrate that these changes have not ‘killed’ television culture, but transformed it into a series of subcultural communities, and they produce snapshots of many of these communities alongside a comprehensive argument for the continued importance of television.' (Introduction)

1 Unfinished Business in (Post)Reconciliation Australia Catriona Elder , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , May no. 61 2017;

'In the late 1980s Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians continued a set of conversations—conversations that had emerged during the bicentenary—about the need for proper recognition of Indigenous peoples by the state. These discussions focused on legal and political issues and took place alongside an increased interest from non-Indigenous people in thinking about ways of ending racism. In 1991 Reconciliation was posited by the federal parliament as the key state intervention to deal with these issues. This article traces the 35 years of reconciliation since the Council of Reconciliation Act was passed in 1991. It engages with questions asked by Tessa Morris-Suzuki (9) about who the parties are that are involved in the reconciliation process and what reconciliation would look like if it were achieved. This analysis draws on the historical sociological theory of the event to undertake this work. In this perspective events are ‘that relatively rare subclass of happenings that significantly transforms structures’ (Sewell cited in Clemens 541). Elisabeth Clemens, drawing on Marshall Sahlins’s work notes that some events ‘may be capable of disrupting established associations and oppositions’ (541). For example, the legislation that mandated a decade of reconciliation in Australia produced a situation where citizens thinking about Australian race relations had their cause legitimated in a new way.' (Introduction)

1 The Proposition : Imagining Race, Family and Violence on the Nineteenth-Century Australian Frontier Catriona Elder , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Ilha Do Desterro : A Journal of English Language , vol. 69 no. 2 2016;
'This article analyses John Hillcoat’s 2005 film The Proposition in relation to a spate of Australian films about violence and the (post)colonial encounter released in the early twenty-first century. Extending on Felicity Collins and Therese Davis argument that these films can be read in terms of the ways they capture or refract aspects of contemporary race relations in Australia in a post-Mabo, this article analyses how The Proposition reconstructs the trauma of the Australian frontier; how from the perspective of the twenty-first century it worries over the meaning of violence on the Australian frontier. It also explores what has become speakable (and remains unspeakable) in the public sphere about the history of the frontier encounter, especially in terms of family and race. The article argues that The Proposition and other early twenty-first century race relations films can be understood as post-reconciliation films, emerging in a period when Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians were rethinking ideas of belonging through a prism of post-enmity and forgiveness. Drawing on the theme of violence and intimate relations in the film, this article argues that the challenges to the everyday formulation of Australian history proffered in The Proposition reveal painful and powerful differences amongst Australian citizens’ understanding of who belongs and how they came to belong to the nation. I suggest that by focusing on violence in terms of intimacy, relationships, family and kin, it is possible to see this film presented an opportunity to begin to refigure ideas of belonging. ' (Publication abstract)
1 Watching Bran Nue Dae in Japan Catriona Elder , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , February vol. 40 no. 1 2016; (p. 109-117)

'While recently teaching in Japan, I used the Australian film Bran Nue Dae (2009), directed by Rachel Perkins, in one of my courses. The mixed, but non-Australian students, were interested to discuss why a film that was partly about family and historical trauma was a comedy. Extending from the interest, this article considers whether there has been a similar response in Australia to Indigenous-themed films. Are Indigenous issues in Australia, today, also understood to be best represented as serious; that is, to be presented in terms of trauma and with a focus on the difficult moments? Why might many people—the Tokyo students, but also non-Indigenous people in Australia—find it hard to laugh with (or even at) Aboriginal peoples doing funny things? Using Bran Nue Dae, and my students' reactions, this article examines the usefulness and limits of the sometimes careful attendance to issues of race and pain, which are often the way non-Indigenous people engage with Indigenous peoples and issues. Drawing on the success of Perkins' film, the article also explores the usefulness of comedy.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Making a Good Nation : E.V. Timms' The Big Country Catriona Elder , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 233-239)
1 y separately published work icon New Voices, New Visions : Challenging Australian Identities and Legacies Catriona Elder (editor), Keith Moore (editor), Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars Press , 2012 17531296 2012 anthology criticism

'New Voices, New Visions brings together a collection of papers that engage with the ideas of nation, identity and place. The title New Voices, New Visions harks back to earlier scholarship that endeavoured to explore these issues. It therefore makes links between old and new stories of Australian identity, tracing the continuities, shifts and changes in how Australia is imagined. The collection is deliberately interdisciplinary, gathering work by historians, literary and film scholars, communication and cultural theorists, political scientists and sociologists. This mixed perspectives enables the reader to trace ideas, concepts and theories across a range of disciplines and understand the distinctive ways in which different disciplines engage with ideas of nation, space and Australian identity.

'The book is written in an engaging and accessible manner, making it an excellent text for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of Australian Studies. It will be especially useful for the growing number of students living outside Australia who engage with Australian literature and culture. The book provides a range of topics that introduces students to key issues and concepts. It also situates these ideas in historical context.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Colonialism and Indigenous Dispossession in Against the Wind Catriona Elder , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 24 no. 3 2010; (p. 399 - 409)
'This article undertakes a revisionist reading of the mini-series Against the Wind (1979) in order to explore the absence of a narrative of Indigenous dispossession. In doing so it seeks to explore the type of history about land, belonging, and nation that was produced in this late 1970s historical Australian television drama. The analysis focuses on a reading of a particular set of publicity materials and the DVD of the series and considers carefully the role of the single Indigenous character in the series. The place of this character, Ngilgi, is examined in relation to the series' characterization of national trauma.' (Author's abstract)
1 1 Re-Reading the Australian Imaginary Catriona Elder , Keith Moore , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , December vol. 33 no. 4 2009; (p. 387-389)

'The re-release of Ted Kotcheff's 1971 film Wake in Fright was a highlight of the 2009 Sydney International Film Festival. The film had been 'lost' for decades but in the early twenty-first century, members of the original production team began searching for surviving copies. In one of those truth as stranger than fiction turns, a copy was found in a vault in Pittsburgh 'marked for destruction and imminent disposal'. Dedicated collaborative work between film technicians, digital experts, sound engineers and film archivists meant a restored version was produced and screened at Cannes and Sydney in mid-2009. Almost forty years after the original film had opened in Sydney, Paris and London, it resurfaced to much acclaim...The re-released version of Wake in Fright re-envisions Australia for a new generation of viewers. Though it was made decades ago, to watch it today is to engage with new ways of understanding Australian-ness. The shifts in cultural norms around attitudes to the environment, to Indigenous rights and culture, to gender relations, sexual relations, and taboos and prejudices, mean that the same scenes shot in Broken Hill in 1970 resonate in both familiar and alien ways.' (p. 388)

1 1 y separately published work icon Dreams and Nightmares of a White Australia : Representing Aboriginal Assimilation in the Mid-Twentieth Century Catriona Elder , Berne : Peter Lang , 2009 Z1613487 2009 multi chapter work criticism
1 2 y separately published work icon Being Australian : Narratives of National Identity Catriona Elder , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2007 Z1418401 2007 single work criticism (taught in 6 units)

Catriona Elder explores the origins, meanings and effects of the many stories we tell about ourselves, and how they have changed over time. She outlines some of the traditional stories and their role in Australian nationalism, and she shows how concepts of egalitarianism, peaceful settlement and sporting prowess have been used to create a national identity.
(Publisher's blurb)

1 Making A Nation White : Representations of Assimilation in Gwen Meredith's Beyond Blue Hills : The Ternna-Boolla Story Catriona Elder , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , Winter vol. 16 no. 2 2001; (p. 151-170)
1 Ambivalent Utopias : Representing Colonisation and Assimilation in Naked Under Capricorn Catriona Elder , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , no. 68 2001; (p. 135-143; notes: 240-241)
The article explores an aspect of Australian colonialism through a reading of Ruhen's 1957 novel. The novel, 'a sophisticated text that critiques colonialism (as violent, illegitimate and destructive to indigenous cultures)', is, however, also seen as producing 'a story that legitimates, reinforces and justifies the process of colonisation'. Concentrating on two particular scenes at the beginning and the end of the novel respectively, the article is 'an analysis of how colonisation and dispossession are ultimately legitimated in this novel through gendered representations of assimilation and elimination' (135).
1 Making Families White : Melodrama, Desire and Colour in Gwen Meredith's 'Beyond Blue Hills : the Ternna-Boolla Story' Catriona Elder , 1999 extract thesis (Beyond Blue Hills : The Ternna-Boolla Story)(Making A Nation White : Representations of Assimilation in Gwen Meredith's Beyond Blue Hills : The Ternna-Boolla Story)
— Appears in: Dreams and Nightmares of a 'White Australia' : The Discourse of Assimilation in Selected Works of Fiction from the 1950s and 1960s 1999; (p. 117-152)
1 y separately published work icon Dreams and Nightmares of a 'White Australia' : The Discourse of Assimilation in Selected Works of Fiction from the 1950s and 1960s Catriona Elder , Canberra : 1999 Z1301412 1999 single work thesis This thesis is an analysis of the production of assimilation discourse, in terms of Aboriginal people's and white people's social relations, in a small selection of popular fiction texts from the 1950s and 1960s. I situate these novels in the broader context of assimilation by also undertaking a reading of three official texts from a slightly earlier period. These texts together produce the ambivalent white Australian story of assimilation. They illuminate some of the key sites of anxiety in assimilation discourses: inter-racial sexual relationships, the white family, and children and young adults of mixed heritage and land ownership. The crux of my argument is that in the 1950s and early 1960s the dominant cultural imagining of Australia was as a white nation. In white discourses of assimilation to fulfil the dream of whiteness, the Aboriginal people - the not-white - had to be included in or eliminated from this imagined white community. Fictional stories of assimilation were a key site for the representation of this process, that is, they produced discourses of 'assimilation colonization'. The focus for this process were Aboriginal people of mixed ancestry, who came to be represented as 'the half-caste' in assimilation discourse. The novels I analyse work as 'conduct books'. They aim to shape white reactions to the inclusion of Aboriginal people, in particular the half-caste, into 'white Australia'. This inclusion, assimilation, was an ambivalent project - both pleasurable and unsettling - pleasurable because it worked to legitimate white colonization (Aboriginal presence as erased) and unsettling because it challenged the idea of a pure 'white Australia'. (Author abstract from Australian Digital Thesis Program)
1 Untitled Catriona Elder , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , April vol. 30 no. 112 1999; (p. 206-207)

— Review of Seeking the Centre : The Australian Desert in Literature, Art and Film Roslynn D. Haynes , 1998 single work criticism
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