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Women and the Bush

Forces of Desire in the Australian Cultural Tradition

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Paperback | 31 December 1990

At a Glance

Paperback
248 Pages

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21.59 x 13.97 x 1.42

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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 Bayton. 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. This thoughtful and provocative 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.

Industry Reviews

"Women and the Bush is a thoroughly fascinating and provocative book, one that deserves to make a strong impact on Australian literary and cultural criticism." Marian Arkin, Antipodes

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Society & Culture Social Groups Gender Studies Gender Studies: Women and Girls Sociology & Anthropology Sociology Sociology & Customs & Traditions Literature, Poetry & Plays History & Criticism of Literature General Literary Studies Biographies & True Stories

Biographies Historical, Political and Military Biographies

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
Overview of the Study	p. xii
Culture, Language And The Self	p. 1
To Find a National Identity	p. 1
The Australian Tradition	p. 4
Women in the National Tradition	p. 5
Culture, Language and the Self	p. 8
Cultural Constructions	p. 15
The Myth of the Typical Australian	p. 19
Landscape Representation: Woman as Other	p. 22
A Question of Origins	p. 23
On Desire	p. 24
Methods and Intentions	p. 25
In Search Of A National Identity	p. 28
Naming a National Tradition	p. 29
Henry Lawson as Founding Father	p. 34
The Call for an Indigenous Culture before Lawson	p. 38
Validations	p. 40
Lawson and Divergent Approaches to the Code of Nationalism	p. 41
Rethinking the Question of Origins	p. 45
Women and Questions of National Identity	p. 50
The Bush And Women	p. 52
The Colonial Context	p. 59
Exploring the Landscape	p. 60
No Place for a Woman	p. 62
Feminist Perspectives on Women in Australia	p. 65
Deconstructing the Woman in Australian Cultural Studies	p. 70
The 'Bush Mum' Revisited	p. 70
Current Feminist Approaches to Questions of National Identity	p. 73
Landscape Representation And National Identity	p. 77
The Pre-texts of a Colonial Culture	p. 79
The Dispersement of 'Woman' and the Idea of Australia	p. 81
An Australian Nationalist Tradition	p. 85
The Theme of Two Mistresses	p. 85
Hancock's Australia	p. 86
Heseltine and Modern New Critical Approaches	p. 87
McQueen and New Left Approaches	p. 89
Common Assumptions	p. 91
Dispersement of 'Woman': The Gold Rush	p. 91
Palmer and Ward on the Gold Rush	p. 95
Modernists and Manning Clark	p. 98
Women Writers and the Battle with the Land	p. 102
Henry Handel Richardson and the Critics	p. 103
Male Standards and Female Dissidence	p. 106
Henry Lawson: The People's Poet	p. 112
The Construction of Henry Lawson	p. 113
Women in Lawson's Fiction	p. 118
Lawson Criticism: The Uses of the Feminine	p. 128
A Re-reading of 'The Drover's Wife'	p. 132
A Search for Origins	p. 137
Biographical Studies of Lawson's Personality	p. 139
Barbara Baynton: A Dissident Voice From The Bush	p. 148
The Construction of Barbara Baynton	p. 150
Women in Baynton's Fiction	p. 151
'The Chosen Vessel'--and the Critics	p. 153
Themes in Baynton's Work	p. 156
Critical Judgements	p. 157
Baynton's Bush	p. 159
Textual/Sexual Strategies	p. 161
A Re-reading of 'The Chosen Vessel'	p. 163
Conclusion	p. 171
Speculations	p. 173
The Presence of the Past: New Fictions	p. 174
The Bush and Women: Some Enduring Fictions	p. 176
Reading the Cultural Codes	p. 179
The National Character	p. 179
A Game of A-Luce through the Looking Glass: or, 'Woman' through the Australian Bush Tradition	p. 183
Notes	p. 190
Bibliography	p. 209
Index	p. 222
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Women and the Bush

Forces of Desire in the Australian Cultural Tradition

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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