AustLit

'Monsters, argue Jane and Lewis Gordon, have plagued humanity for millennia. Their continued presence in the modern age therefore, is nothing new. What is new, rather, are what such 'disastrous people' are made to symbolise, and the roles they are made to play, in order to ensure continued existence of the anti-black, colonial nation. In this paper I examine the specific colonial/ racist conditions that have led to the recent resignification of Australia's indigenous people as monstrous beings whose very presence within the national space poses a threat to the nation's white identity. Having done so, I attempt to articulate, via the work of Lewis Gordon, the conditions to which humanity must aspire if we are to avoid such tragic occurrences.'  (Publication abstract)