AustLit

'It's a commonplace that modern textual production is inevitably informed by cultural legacy; this paper shows that Kenny [Jacobson, Clayton, dir. 2006. Melbourne: Thunderbox Films], an Australian mockumentary, fits within a longstanding genre of humorously packaged social criticism. We show that Kenny's unusual hero has a Celtic predecessor Niall (circa 1390), a leader willing to subject himself to abjection for the greater good. Amidst their humour, both tales offer direction about ideal masculine behaviour in respect of national identity formation. Both texts use land and water as motifs for leadership and in both tales debasement is the test that sets a benchmark for approaches to the construction of national and cultural identities. In Kenny, we suggest, willingness to take dedicated care with human shit models an ecological ideal for a future wherein one of the monsters threatening humanity is its own pollution. The ugly legacy from a history of cultural abuse troubles white Australians’ relationship with the land and with themselves. This paper shows traces back beyond colonization and settler unease to Celtic myths that provide enabling patterns for reviewing settler identity and provides a reading of Kenny through that lens.' (Publication summary)