Women and the Bush
Forces of Desire in the Australian Cultural Tradition

How the concept of 'the typical Australian' has evolved across a range of cultural forms.

Kay Schaffer (Author)

9780521368162, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 1 November 1990

248 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.4 cm, 0.32 kg

"Women and the Bush is a thoroughly fascinating and provocative book, one that deserves to make a strong impact on Australian literary and cultural criticism." Marian Arkin, Antipodes

Images of Australian identity, and of Australian nationhood, are social and cultural constructs. There are several dominant themes and elements, one of the most pervasive being the Australian bushman confronting a vast and barren landscape. This is a specifically Australian conception of the battle between Man and Nature. Throughout the myths, traditions and literary creations of Australia are underlying assumptions about gender and sexual difference: assumptions about masculinity and femininity within the nationalist tradition, which affect perceptions today. In this new critique, Kay Schaffer applies the insights of feminist scholarship and of literary analysis to examine the national character. She looks at how the concept of 'the typical Australian', and the woman who stands in relation to him, has evolved across a range of cultural forms, including historical and literary texts, film and the media. She concentrates in particular on the writings of Henry Lawson and of Barbara Bayton. The circulation of ideas about these writers, their contribution to a national mythology, and the different ways their importance has been represented to modern readers, is explored and discussed. This thoughtful and provocative study will interest readers concerned with Australian literary and cultural history, as well as the broader questions of Australia's changing self-image. It will be of particular value to those interested in feminist approaches to culture and society.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Culture, language and the self
2. In search of a national identity
3. The bush and women
4. Landscape representation and national identity
5. Henry Lawson: the people's poet
6. Barbara Bayton: a dissident voice from the bush
7. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

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