Cirrus@Austlit

'This thesis argues that one of the main characteristics of contemporary Chinese Australian literature in English language is its heavy focus on memory and identity. In order to prove this claim, the thesis analyses five English-language novels written by Chinese Australian writers from the period 1990-2010.'

Source: Thesis abstract.

'This research discusses the negotiations instantiated by Indigenous petitions in Australia. It does so by conceptualising petition writing and reading, by considering the endorsement and commemoration of petitions, and by chronologically canvassing published and previously unpublished petitions addressed by Indigenous peoples from across Australia to government representatives and international bodies before and after Federation, from the mid 1840s to the early 1960s. Drawing on the theoretical contractarian framework developed by Charles W. Mills and Carole Pateman, the dissertation examines petition writing as a way of intervening in a domination (settler) contract and in an exclusionary and dominating white public sphere. This framework accounts for the collective dimension of petitions and for their nature as political instruments of negotiation within relations of domination and subordination. This cross disciplinary study is located within the scholarly work undertaken in Australian historical and literary studies which, especially since the 1990s, have highlighted the value of petitions as documents which record Aboriginal perspectives, and as forms of early Aboriginal writings deserving of critical attention. More broadly, it can also be contextualised within studies of the emergence of an Indigenous political voice and of processes of identity formation. It shares post-colonial studies’ interest in the relationship between the coloniser and the colonised and it replies to Spivak’s question of whether the subaltern can speak. The analysis of the petitions is historically contextualised and it reflects on the venues of the petitions’ creation (penal system, reserves and missions, urban and rural settings). It highlights the narratives and requests the petitions convey as well as the argumentative strategies employed by the petitioners. It considers the rhetoric of contemporary discourses (political, racial, humanitarian etc) visible in the petitions and the responses to these discourses put forward by the petitioners. The thesis outlines also some features which petitions and Aboriginal protest literature share and the aspect of “testimony” or “memorial” these petitions possess. An Appendix collects a sample of the Indigenous Australian petitions upon which the discussion is based. ' (Source: TROVE)

'One of the longest running theatre companies in Australia, New Theatre began life as the Workers' Art Club in Sydney in 1932 as a Communist Party of Australia initiative. It was one of the first theatres in Australia with an orientation to working class audiences. By 1936 it had become the New Theatre and by the 1950s there were, in addition to Sydney, New Theatres in Adelaide, Melbourne, Western Australia, Newcastle and Brisbane. The New Theatre movement's social mission was inextricably linked to the political perspectives of the Communist Party of Australia which were influenced by ideas and theories of socialist realism and proletarian culture that had been decreed by Zhdanov in 1934 in the Soviet Union. Of particular interest to New Theatre were the innovations in theatre such as agit-prop and dramatic reportage typical of workers' theatre in the Soviet Union and the United States. This thesis demonstrates how the party's prescriptive views on art and literature often found expression in the plays of New Theatre writers Oriel Gray, Betty Roland and Mona Brand. It will demonstrate that in order to prevent ideological heterodoxy within New Theatre, management and production committees were comprised solely of Communist Party members, whose work for New Theatre constituted their work for the Communist Party of Australia. This thesis also draws attention to a gap in the literature about the contribution of New Theatre writers, and the scholarly analysis of some of their unpublished material. Three authors whose work has been underplayed are analysed, and critical responses to them which have escaped examination are brought to light. Through the use of original, previously unpublished documents, this thesis will demonstrate the way in which the Communist Party of Australia intervened to censor or exclude plays and writers to ensure ideological orthodoxy. It will also explore in detail previously unpublished work by neglected writers, as well as addressing criticism of these writers by internal committees of New Theatre, but mining the New Theatre archives, and Communist Party and ASIO files, enabling a richness of reference to original material not previously studied.' (Source : abstract)

'In this thesis I will demonstrate that Eleanor Dark's over-riding themes are time and memory. Time informs the structure of her novels, she juxtaposes past and present. Memory in all its aspects, personal, cultural, racial dominates both her contemporary novels and The Timeless Land trilogy. The thesis considers Dark's fiction in sequence to chart her treatment oftime and memory.

'Simultaneously Dark was reaching into her own reservoir of memory and transfiguring her own experience in the characters, events and locations of her novels. In this oblique way, and through this unique form of modelling, Dark reveals little known areas of her life. Biographically Dark remains elusive; the surface events of her life are well documented but do not account for the drama of her character portrayals, the immediacy of her perceptions of the natural world, her deep intellectual responses to art, literature and politics, as well as her preoccupation with time.

'It is my contention that Dark's creative thrust was inwards; she developed the inner processes of memory and imagination. Time and memory cohere in her novels; under scrutiny they bring new interpretations to her work, and new insights into her life.' (Author's abstract)

'This study offers an exploration of the drama which contains Aboriginal people's effort to attain a visible reality based on cultural and political rights. It is also a deeper understanding of the empowering and disempowering Indigenes in the discursive domain as well as in the existential reality.

'Though the study considers a large number of playtexts written by the Indigenous playwrights from 1970s to the present, it explores playtexts written by non-Indigenous playwrights as well. Here, the chief concern is to explore the discursive features of the texts, the items both linguistic and dramatic that tend to place or exclude Aboriginal people from discourses. Such a consideration may very well go beyond the periodic consideration of the plays.

'The Aboriginal theatre movement started in the 1970s serves as the complete reconceptualisation of Aboriginality in terms of centering Aboriginal Identity and culture in the dominant discursive domain. Such an intervention may involve the recovery of Aboriginal history from the dominant history of Australia and infusing positive attributes to Indigenes' identity. It also provides force in their existential reality. Freed from submission to the dominant's prescription, the drama appears as an alternative formula, but a rigorously vibrant medium of contestation in which history, identity, culture, politics and reality are endlessly expressive and persuasive.

'Keeping with the need to expose the complexity of the process of empowering and disempowering Indigenes, I read the discursive strategies employed in a selection of playtexts. The empowering drama adds dignity to Aboriginal people's gesture of friendship and goodwill and contrasts with the representation of aggressive colonial one. The drama exposes the encounter between negative and positive features in the representation of Aboriginality, thereby suggesting fighting against the authoritative design involves the representation of Indigenes in their terms.

'The most significant element the empowering drama contributes is its ability to capture the experience of the struggle of Indigenes to survive since colonisation. Aboriginal drama focuses more on the strategies to unsettle the dominant system than on the social order and the context.

'The final paradox is the act of inclusion and exclusion of Indigenes to/from the dominant theatrical discourses that indicate a fine line between empowerment and disempowerment.'

'With the publication of her novel, My Brilliant Career, in 1901, Miles Franklin became the darling of the Sydney literati. Great things were expected of the little girl from the bush. But five years later, nothing had eventuated; her talent, Miles thought, was barely recognised in Australia. In the hope of gaining greater writing opportunities, she shipped to Chicago where she became involved in social reform. It was hard work and ill paid, and though she bewailed the fact that it sapped her writing energy, she nonetheless felt a commitment to the cause such that she remained for almost a decade. In her spare time, though, she continued to write – and not just prose. More and more she wrote for the theatre, attempting to push into a world of which she had always dreamed. Blessed with a beautiful singing voice, she had long desired to be on the stage. This was impossible, though; her voice, she believed, had been ruined by bad training in her youth. To write for the stage, then, though a poor substitute, was at least in the field of her original ideal. Miles’ plays, though, are not remembered today, and are little thought of in scholarship, are considered, in fact, to have failed. This gives the false impression that they were always little thought of. Her correspondence, however, reveals that at least five of the plays were produced, indicating a certain level of success. Miles Franklin’s theatrical work, then, is surely worthy of further examination. This thesis looks at five of the plays in the light of Miles’ life and in the light of the society in which she found herself. In turn, it uses the plays to reveal something of the nature of the playwright herself and to show that Miles Franklin’s theatrical writing did not fail as once thought. In addition, it provides a complete bibliography of the plays (inclusive of locations), lists the duplications as they appear under alternate titles and provides synopses of a large number. This will make up for a gap in Miles Franklin scholarship and will facilitate other scholars in accessing the plays. This thesis, then, is an introduction to a new facet of Miles Franklin scholarship.'

Source: Abstract.