Darkness Subverted
Aboriginal Gothic in Black Australian Literature and Film
1st Edition
Published on 18. February 2010
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-3-89971-768-6 (ISBN)
Description
At the heart of the Gothic novel proper lies the discursive binary of »self« and »other«, which in colonial literature was quickly filled with representations of the colonial master and his indigenous subject. Contemporary black Australian artists have usurped this colonial Gothic discourse, torn it to pieces, and finally transformed it into an Aboriginal Gothic.This study first develops the theoretical concept of an Aboriginal Gothic and then uses this term as a tool to analyse novels by Vivienne Cleven, Mudrooroo, Kim Scott, Sam Watson, and Alexis Wright as well as films directed by Beck Cole and Tracey Moffatt. It centres on the question of how a genuinely European mode, the Gothic, can be permeated and thus digested by elements of indigenous Australian culture in order to portray the current situation of Aboriginal Australians and to celebrate a recovered cultural identity.
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Persons
Author
Dr. Katrin Althans, geboren 1978 in Gütersloh, ist zurzeit Lehrkraft für besondere Aufgaben am Englischen Seminar der Universität Münster.
Series Editor
Prof. Dr. Uwe Baumann lehrt Anglistik: Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft an der Universität Bonn.
ISNI:
ISNI:
Prof. Dr. Marion Gymnich lehrt Anglistische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft an der Universität Bonn.
Prof. Dr. Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp lehrt am Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie der Universität Bonn.
Content
At the heart of the Gothic novel proper lies the discursive binary of 'self' and 'other', which in colonial literature was quickly filled with representations of the colonial master and his indigenous subject. Contemporary black Australian artists have usurped this colonial Gothic discourse, torn it to pieces, and finally transformed it into an Aboriginal Gothic.This study first develops the theoretical concept of an Aboriginal Gothic and then uses this term as a tool to analyse novels by Vivienne Cleven, Mudrooroo, Kim Scott, Sam Watson, and Alexis Wright as well as films directed by Beck Cole and Tracey Moffatt. It centres on the question of how a genuinely European mode, the Gothic, can be permeated and thus digested by elements of indigenous Australian culture in order to portray the current situation of Aboriginal Australians and to celebrate a recovered cultural identity.>