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Always the Larrikin : Ben Mendelsohn and Young Aussie Manhood in Australian Cinema single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2014... 2014 Always the Larrikin : Ben Mendelsohn and Young Aussie Manhood in Australian Cinema
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Ben Mendelsohn is Australian cinema's quintessential working-class larrikin of his generation. This paper will consider the kind of young, masculine, roguish, destructive character that Mendelsohn has been playing since the 1980s. It will argue that by borrowing from his cinematic forefathers and adding his unique contemporary stamp to the mould, Mendelsohn incites audiences towards a particular brand of masculinity where being young, being male and being Australian is normalized and idealized. For good and for bad, Mendelsohn is a powerful text by which Australian society constructs, maintains, protects, challenges and teaches concepts of manhood.

'Luke: When I talk to her, she'll change her mind. You know why?

Helen: Why?

Luke: Two things, you're a wog and sheila, right. I'm an Aussie and I'm a bloke. So when she talks to me, she's going to pack shit!

(Mendelsohn as Luke in Nirvana Street Murder 1990) (Publication abstract)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies Materialities vol. 28 no. 6 2014 10903525 2014 periodical issue

    'The following papers were first presented in December 2012 at the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia conference on ‘Materialities: Economies, Empiricism and Things’, hosted by the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney. The theme for the conference was based on a renewed interest in questions of materiality, linking back to a long materialist tradition in Cultural Studies, and in methodological questions about how Cultural Studies should approach and understand cultural objects, institutions and practices. The renewal of this interest in the last 10 years has been furthered by attention to how human and non-human interactions are being transformed in a time of global economic and environmental change.' (Editorial introduction)

         2014     pg. 862-875
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Last amended 23 Mar 2017 10:05:17
862-875 Always the Larrikin : Ben Mendelsohn and Young Aussie Manhood in Australian Cinemasmall AustLit logo Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies
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