‘A Major Theme of Post colonial literatures is the Concern W
Paul KellyPost colonial literature and imperial history pass like ships in the night. Indeed, the emblematic preoccupation of Australian literature: canonical and contemporary, with the post colonial status of Australia and the hybrid nature of her culture is testimony to the notion that Australia is entrenched in a crisis of identity, seemingly yearning for a defined concept of ‘Australian-ness.’ Literature is most often a forum for exploring the unsaid and the unaddressed within society and thus it makes sense that this journey for a ‘place and a space: and an effective identifying relationship between the two’ has remained a major concern for the Australian author; the search for a new language and imagery a long and agonizing one. There are complexities and perplexities surrounding the difficulty of conceiving how a colonized country can ‘use language as a tool for revenge’ in order to reclaim its identity ‘in a language that is now but was not its own language, and genres which are now but were not genres of the colonized.’ Certainly the images and constructions of ‘Australian-ness’ are hazy and although her nat . . .
’ As such Lawson seems to convey that when something is not created in Australia and does not have its roots in English heritage then it is unnatural reducing the quest for an identifying place to a simple set of dichotomies. He was stimulated by a notion of ‘Australian-ness’ yet rather than expressing a split between the land and society, Lawson’s short story ‘Brighten’s Sister-in-Law,’ reiterates recurring ‘traditional’ themes of his works; the common working man and woman growing in stature through their struggle with Australian nature; ‘the place was only a dusty little pastoral town in the scrubs. ’ Similarly the Anglo-Saxon couple are readily shown how to ‘slaughter and to pluck and to dress’ by the Macedonian family. ’ Lawson’s further explores ideas of a national identity through his use of quintessential Australian language referring to be ‘on the Gulgong’ and living in an ‘old shanty. Slessor explores the sensation of a hybrid identity for the new settler using Old-English expressions such as ‘whey faced anonymity’ to describe the ‘monstrous continent’ and as such mourns the idea that Australians are displaced from their own country yet unable to find a unique voice with which to describe the new country, resulting in a feeling of displacement and alienation. ’ A similar shifting of the author’s mood and attitude towards place can be found in ‘Cinema Point’ which, in detailing the transition from the raw, open space to the city observes the contradiction between what Australians believe to be their place and which they realistically feel more at home in. Furthermore, the plight of the characters which co-exists with a growth in the power of nature begs the question of whether firstly, the nation can be tamed, and if so, can the individual and this landscape co-exist? Whilst the mental environment of those living in Australia was almost entirely English, the physical environment has never been and over a period of time this ‘persistent un-English physical environment, which we cannot escape’ has transformed the way in which Australian writing has sought to recover itself from its English heritage in order to develop and Australian-ness. Winton’s concern with the importance of defining the self against the natural landscape is evidenced in the way the Anglo-Saxon couple must be taught by the new migrants to embrace nature where as the Macedonian couple are presented as much more accepting of change and the other and more willing to see the boundaries created by Anglo-Saxon heritage defeated than the older couple. ’ The absence of any mention of society or the individual in ‘South Country’ seems to reiterate the idea that society and the land ‘bruised with flesh of thunderstorms’ cannot find a plane on which to mutually exist. His poem ‘South Country’ laments Australia’s lack of association with the ‘flat earth of empty farms. ’ The speaker is able to escape into this alien landscape at night and thus it is only when he cannot see the landscape that he feels comfortable in it. ’ Similarly, if we accept this heritage ‘too wholeheartedly’ it will be difficult to embark upon the journey of turning Australia, Australian. Philip Mead’s ‘Melbourne or the Bush’ debates the disjunction urban dwellers feel when placed in the rural setting; the holistically Australian landscape. The hybrid national character of Australia suggests that it could be impossible to write directly from an Australian experience and as such, perhaps the achievement of an effective identifying relationship between the self and the land is the task for the nation and not for its artists.
Common topics in this essay:
Eastern Asiatic, Wintons Neighbours, Writing Australia, Similarly Anglo-Saxon, Slessor Hope, Hope Slessor, Australian-ness Literature, AD Hope, South Country, Australia Winton, australian society, national identity, post colonial, australian literature, identity crisis, holistically australian, attitude towards, english heritage, democratic spirit australia, developing self, idea australians, effective identifying relationship, idea australians displaced, |
Acceptance Essays
