AustLit

The nineteenth century has long been a source of fascination for Australian writers and historians as the origins of white settlement are continuously disentangled. As rapid changes in technology, economic restructuring and political innovations in the last thirty years have made the questions of values and future direction more urgent, re-evaluations of the past, focused by the Bicentennial of white settlement in 1988, have played a role in this quest. This thesis will discuss the ways in which certain aspects of the nineteenth century are represented in the recent Australian imaginary and what these representations imply about contemporary Australian culture.

It will become clear that in recent times, Australian historical disciplines have been enriched by a proliferation of voices and methods. However, most historical novelists and historians do not paint the voices unmediated - there is a system of ethics in most interpretative frameworks. This thesis will analyse fictional representations in terms of the ethical debates informing both modern literature and historiography. There will be three subject areas: "Depictions of Britain", "Convictism" and "Relations with Aborigines."

The first chapter will examine various representations of nineteenth-century Britain in recent Australian literature. This will include examinations of the relevant sections in Barbara Hanrahan's The Albatross Muff (1977), Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda (1988), Michael Noonan's Magwitch (1982), Peter Carey's Jack Maggs (1997), David Malouf's The Conversations at Curlow Creek (1996) and Bryce Courtenay's The Potato Factory (1995).

The prison settlements of colonial Australia have been an equally popular subject over the period under discussion. Therefore, the second chapter will examine Jessica Anderson's The Commandant (1975), Come Danger, Come Darkness (1978) by Ruth Park, Rodney Hall's The Second Bridegroom (1991), Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish (2001) by Richard Flanagan, Christopher Koch's Out of Ireland (1999) and Thomas Keneally's novel The Playmaker (1987). As interjections to these accounts will be the historical arguments of Robert Hughes, Michael Roe, Stephen Nicholas, Ian Duffield and Lloyd L. Robson. In the third chapter, recent representations of social and personal relations between Aborigines and white settlers will be examined. The chapter will focus upon Patrick White's A Fringe of Leaves (1976), Liam Davison's The White Woman (1994), Grace Bartram's Darker Grows the Valley (1981), Jack Davis's Kullark (1984), Rodney Hall's The Second Bridegroom (1991), David Malouf's Remembering Babylon (1993) and Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972).

Representations of violent relations will also be examined. There are copious fictional accounts of settlers slaughtering Aboriginal people. Among others, the thesis will consider Mudrooroo's Dr Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World (1983), Mark Svendsen's Poison Under Their Lips (2001), Carmel Bird's Cape Grimm (2004), Queen Trucanini by Nancy Cato and Vivienne Rae Ellis (1976), Jack Davis's Kullark (1984), Eric Willmot's Pemulwuy: The Rainbow Warrior (1987), Kate Grenville's The Secret River (2005), Robert Drewe's The Savage Crows (1976), Thea Astley's A Kindness Cup (1975) and Sam Watson's The Kadaitcha Sung (1990). Parallel to these studies will be discussions of the historical works of Henry Reynolds, Geoffrey Blainey, Bain Attwood, Keith Windschuttle and Lyndall Ryan.

This dissertation explores the political and theatrical ramifications which occur through Canadian Cree playwright Tomson Highway's appropriation of a dominant Western structural form. Within the field of art music, sonata form is accepted as the most important structural design to emerge not only during the classical period, but arguably throughout musical history. Its dramatic potential in instrumental music is unrivalled, and perhaps only the theatricality and emotion of opera can equal or surpass its ability to elicit this potential.

Play with music.

The story concerns Semyon Podsekalnikov, an unemployed Russian who is completely dependent upon his wife's meagre wage. When she mistakenly concludes that Semyon plans to commit suicide, she seeks help from a neighbour. The word spreads and, before too long, Semyon is urged by an intellectual, a writer, a butcher, a priest, and a 'femme fatale' to carry out his suicide plans on the behalf of a particular cause. Swayed by visions of glory, Semyon agrees to do it. But at his farewell banquet, he begins to have his doubts and ultimately rejects the notion of suicide.

Borrowing heavily from vaudeville, commedia dell' arte, clowning, and the Hollywood musical, this production of The Suicide also incorporated a good deal of music and musical performance, including original songs by Clay Djubal: 'Suicide (Let's Commit It)' and 'Happy Face.'

Play with music.

The story begins with the arrival of silly English 'new chum,' Charles Harold Vane Somers Golightly at the Spencer Street Railway Station. A local con artist, Robert Copeland, offers to show Charles around the city, in an attempt to take advantage of him. The scenes move briskly to the Burke and Wills Memorial, then out to Fairholme House on the outskirts of Melbourne. Later scenes include a Chinese opium den and Flemington during the running of the Melbourne Cup. Other characters include Dick Ledger (a 'revolutionary' who speaks on behalf of the 'down-trodden wukkin' man wot is a slave every day o' the week and ain't erlowed to git 's beer on a Sunday'), Detective Lynch and Inspector Lannigan (both with an eye on Copeland), Polly Sweetapple, Frank Seymour, Mother Crosbie, Maggie, Dorothy, Joseph Westley, and Hang Hi.

The musical score, including both pre-taped music accompaniment and live performance, juxtaposed contemporary sounds and styles (rock and pop) with traditional forms such as folk/traditional ballads and Chinese music. Original songs written for the production were 'Marvellous Melbourne', 'Villain's Theme', 'Hero's Theme', 'Mother Crosbie's Girls', 'Heroes and Villains', and 'Opium Den Musak.'

'In this project two groups of aboriginal families are cornpared. One group of aboriginal families consists of families where the members were born and brought up in Cherbourg Settlement. The other group consists of aboriginal families born and brought up in Dunwich on Stradbroke Island.

'Aboriginal families living in Cherbourg are subject to the Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act. In March 1965 this Act was slightly changed and made a bit more liberal. On Stradbroke Island the Aboriginal families have never been subjected to this Act.

'Writer interviewed ten families of which at least one member is of Aboriginal descent and born and brought up in Cherbourg and now residing in Brisbane. She also interviewed another group of ten families of which at least one member of the family was born and brought up in Dunwich on Stradbroke Island and now residing in Brisbane. Writer wanted to investigate the way the Act had effected these Cherbourg families and to what extent and in what ways these families would differ from the Dunwich people who never have been subjected to the Act.

'Writer realises that these two groups are too small to make statistical inferences. Nonetheless useful generalizations can be obtained by the comparison of the two groups. Writer did not have the opportunity to work with bigger samples as firstly, she lacked the time to work on bigger samples, and secondly, for the simple reason, that the writer could not find many more Dunwich families who are at present living in the Brisbane area. If there are more, then writer has not been able to find out who they are and where they are living. Lower income families, such as widows, separated or deserted wifes, were excluded as writer preferred to apply the survey on families where wife as well as husband were present. Also single people were excluded. (Publication abstract)