Representing Convicts
New Perspectives on Convict Forced Labour Migration
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-7185-0239-3 (ISBN)
Description
A study of convict history, focusing largely on the penal colonies of early colonial Australia and on transportation, a system of forced migration utilising free labour. Between 1787 and 1868 more than 160,000 individuals were transported from Britain and its colonies for penal offences. This text finds similarities between penal transportation and other systems of unfree migration, such as slavery and indentured labour, not only in economic terms, but also in terms of culture and experience of the convict migrants. Central to this study is the analysis of texts on transported convicts, which seeks to deconstruct both primary and secondary sources. Previously convicts have been the subject of historical stereotyping, and this book suggests a departure in convict studies. Particular attention has been given to convict women and the penal stations. New approaches include an analysis of representations of the convict body.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
2 maps, bibliography
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
Weight
300 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7185-0239-3 (9780718502393)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
Introduction, Ian Duffield and James Bradley. Part 1 Convict texts: problematic passages - "Jack Bushman's" convict narrative, Ian Duffield; virtual reality, Toni Johnson-Woods; Margaret Catchpole's first ride, Tina Picton Phillips; from Keneally to Wertenbaker - sanitizing convicts, Ruth Brown. Part 2 Questioning the "convict class": representing convict women, Deborah Oxley; "contumacious, ungovernable and incorrigible" - convict women and workplace resistance, Van Diemen's land, 1820-1839, Kirsty Reid; a zone of silence - Queensland's convicts and the historiography of Moreton Bay, Tamsin O'Connor; convict workers, penal workers and Sarah Island - life at Macquarie Harbour, 1822-1834, Hamish Maxwell-Stuart. Part 3 Classifying bodies: the genealogy of the modern subject - Indian convicts in Mauritius, Clare Anderson; embodied explorations - investigating convict tattoos and the transportation system, James Bradley and Hamish Maxwell-Stuart; "what punishment will be sufficient for these rebellious hussies?" headshaving and convict women in the penal factories, 1820s-1840s, Joy Damousi.