The Politics of Identity in Australia

This superb collection of essays provides a comprehensive introduction to political discourse on identity.

Geoffrey Stokes (Edited by)

9780521586726, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 June 1997

236 pages
23 x 15.3 x 1.7 cm, 0.355 kg

Issues of identity are central to many historical and current debates in Australia. This superb collection of essays represents a significant rethinking of received ideas on identity, and reveals how issues of identity lie at the heart of Australian political thought, and form the foundation of Australian society and culture. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the political discourse surrounding Australian identity through key themes including identity theory, the manipulation of identity for political ends, gender and sexuality, immigration and national identity, citizenship and Aboriginality, and literature and film. The book rejects many of the assumptions underlying contemporary political debates, including the promulgation of a singular national identity in historical fact or as a political goal. This is a thought-provoking study of identity, its links with nationalism, and its potentially divisive effects.

Part I. Theorising Identity: 1. Situating Australian national identity in theory and practice Jeff Archer
2. 'Other times': Thatcher, Hawke, Keating and the politics of identity Carol Johhson
3. Universal obligations: liberalism, religion and national identity Gregory Melleuish
Part II. Gender and Sexuality: 4. 'Manly, true and white': masculine identity and Australian socialism Michael Leach
5. 'Stirring tales': Australian feminism and national identity, 1900–1940 Marilyn Lake
6. The making of an Australian civic identity: the bodies of men and the memory of war Helen Pringle
7. (Homo)sexual identities, queer theory and politics Denis Altman
Part III. Race, Place and Citizenship: 8. Racialism and democracy: the legacy of White Australia John Kane
9. Immigration and national identity: multiculturalism James Jupp
10. Australia and Asia: place, determinism and national identities Wayne Hudson and Geoff Stokes
11. Citizenship and Aboriginality: two conceptions of identity in Aboriginal political thought Geoff Stokes
Part IV. Culture, Literature and Film: 12. Political identity in contemporary Australian literature: David Malouf, Peter Carey and M. D. Fletcher
13. Australian film and national identity in the 1990s Graeme Turner.

Subject Areas: Biography: historical, political & military [BGH]