Women and the bush : forces of desire in the Australian cultural tradition / Kay Schaffer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schaffer, Kay, 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Australian literature--History and criticism.

Australian literature.

Women in literature.

Women and literature--Australia.

Women and literature.

Sex role.

Australia.

National characteristics, Australian.

Frontier and pioneer life in literature.

Frontier and pioneer life--Australia.

Frontier and pioneer life.

Sex role in literature.

Sex role--Australia.

Arts, Australian.

Australia--Civilization.

Civilization.

Physical Description:

xv, 229 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Summary:

Images of Australian identity, and of Australian nationhood, are social and cultural constructs. There are several dominant themes and elements, one of the most pervasive being the Australian bushman confronting a vast and barren landscape. This is a specifically Australian conception of the battle between Man and Nature. Throughout the myths, traditions and literary creations of Australia are underlying assumptions about gender and sexual difference: assumptions about masculinity and femininity within the nationalist tradition, which affect perceptions today.

In this new critique, Kay Schaffer applies the insights of feminist scholarship and of literary analysis to examine the national character. She looks at how the concept of 'the typical Australian', and the woman who stands in relation to him, has evolved across a range of cultural forms, including historical and literary texts, film and the media. She concentrates in particular on the writings of Henry Lawson and of Barbara Baynton. The circulation of ideas about these writers, their contribution to a national mythology, and the different ways their importance has been represented to modern readers, is explored and discussed.

Kay Schaffer's study will interest readers concerned with Australian literary and cultural history, as well as the broader questions of Australia's changing self image. It will be of particular value to those interested in feminist approaches to culture and society.

Contents:

Overview of the Study xii

Chapter 1 Culture, Language And The Self 1

To Find a National Identity 1

The Australian Tradition 4

Women in the National Tradition 5

Culture, Language and the Self 8

Cultural Constructions 15

The Myth of the Typical Australian 19

Landscape Representation: Woman as Other 22

A Question of Origins 23

On Desire 24

Methods and Intentions 25

Chapter 2 In Search Of A National Identity 28

Naming a National Tradition 29

Henry Lawson as Founding Father 34

The Call for an Indigenous Culture before Lawson 38

Validations 40

Lawson and Divergent Approaches to the Code of Nationalism 41

Rethinking the Question of Origins 45

Women and Questions of National Identity 50

Chapter 3 The Bush And Women 52

The Colonial Context 59

Exploring the Landscape 60

No Place for a Woman 62

Feminist Perspectives on Women in Australia 65

Deconstructing the Woman in Australian Cultural Studies 70

The 'Bush Mum' Revisited 70

Current Feminist Approaches to Questions of National Identity 73

Chapter 4 Landscape Representation And National Identity 77

The Pre-texts of a Colonial Culture 79

The Dispersement of 'Woman' and the Idea of Australia 81

An Australian Nationalist Tradition 85

The Theme of Two Mistresses 85

Hancock's Australia 86

Heseltine and Modern New Critical Approaches 87

McQueen and New Left Approaches 89

Common Assumptions 91

Dispersement of 'Woman': The Gold Rush 91

Palmer and Ward on the Gold Rush 95

Modernists and Manning Clark 98

Women Writers and the Battle with the Land 102

Henry Handel Richardson and the Critics 103

Male Standards and Female Dissidence 106

Chapter 5 Henry Lawson: The People's Poet 112

The Construction of Henry Lawson 113

Women in Lawson's Fiction 118

Lawson Criticism: The Uses of the Feminine 128

A Re-reading of 'The Drover's Wife' 132

A Search for Origins 137

Biographical Studies of Lawson's Personality 139

Chapter 6 Barbara Baynton: A Dissident Voice From The Bush 148

The Construction of Barbara Baynton 150

Women in Baynton's Fiction 151

'The Chosen Vessel'

and the Critics 153

Themes in Baynton's Work 156

Critical Judgements 157

Baynton's Bush 159

Textual/Sexual Strategies 161

A Re-reading of 'The Chosen Vessel' 163

Speculations 173

The Presence of the Past: New Fictions 174

The Bush and Women: Some Enduring Fictions 176

Reading the Cultural Codes 179

The National Character 179

A Game of A-Luce through the Looking Glass: or, 'Woman' through the Australian Bush Tradition 183.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

052136244X

0521368162

OCLC:

18163967