AustLit

'Australian writing has been discussed in the context of Postcolonialism since the mid-1970s when the Australian government introduced "Multiculturalism" as an immigration policy. The binary structure of the Anglo-Celtic as central and the non-Anglo-Celtic as marginal was dissolved and cultural diversity and pluralism were celebrated in Australia. The Australian cultural identity therefore would be defined not as a unified or homogenous identity but as fluid representations of identity such as "differences and others," given the mix of dominant and marginal cultures. However, the post-colonial is sometimes burdened by the discourse of the colonized and is inexorably fissured.

In the mid-1990s Helen Darville, a young Australian writer, created a sensation in the Australian literary scene by writing a novel in the guise of a Ukrainian immigrant (Darville is of Anglo-Celtic origin). The Hand That Signed the Paper was awarded several important Australian literary prizes. But the book became controversial among historians with special interest in twentieth century European history as well as Jewish people whose families had been destroyed in the Holocaust. For the book suggests that Jews and Bolsheviks are to blame for the man-made famine of 1932-33 during which several million Ukrainian peasants starved to death. Some historians said this was not factual and some Jewish Australians criticised the novel as anti-Semitic.

The author's real identity was then revealed; Helen Demidenko was not a Ukrainian immigrant but an Australian of Anglo-Celtic origin, Helen Darville. The resulting debate highlighted the division between literary critics infatuated with the free play of texts and commentators who emphasize the ideological power of politics or history. It seems that the run of prizes for Demidenko's novel largely reflects the triumph of the critics' detached aestheticism, but the judges of the Miles Franklin prize were accused of ignorance or lack of understanding of the historical events. It is also assumed that the author's ethnic identity in the multicultural society weighed with the judges more heavily than it should have. The judges might have leaned more or less toward "political correctness." In fact, it may even be possible to argue that Demidenko pretended to be a Ukrainian knowing the judges' tendency toward "political correctness".

Moreover, those who have paid a great deal of attention to the literary works written by authors with ethnic identities are usually Australians of Anglo-Celtic origin and are not migrants with ethnic identities. This trend signifies that Australian literature in the multicultural context is still controlled by Anglo-Celtic Australians. And so the Australian cultural identity is not really defined as fluid representations but is still the binary structure of the Anglo-Celtic and non-Anglo-Celtic.

The debate has also highlighted the increasingly problematic status of national and international literary projects. The judgement of the Miles Franklin Award exposed a weakness or crisis in the nationalist literary project which the Award represents. It might be said that the increasingly rapid globalization of cultures and cultural production via multinational information technologies through immigration and exile, tourism and trade has made the notion of a bounded national literature increasingly problematic.

Demidenko's case appeared initially to support Australian cultural identity as fluid, but a deeper examination still reveals the binary structure which represents Australian society before multiculturalism was introduced in the mid-1970s.' (Source: Gengo bunka)