Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Chronology
- Introduction: The Emerging Canon
- 1 Indigenous Life Writing: Rethinking Poetics and Practice
- 2 Australian Aboriginal Life Writers and Their Editors: Cross-Cultural Collaboration, Authorial Intention, and the Impact of Editorial Choices
- 3 Contemporary Life Writing: Inscribing Double Voice in Intergenerational Collaborative Life-Writing Projects
- 4 European Translations of Australian Aboriginal Texts
- 5 Tracing a Trajectory from Songpoetry to Contemporary Aboriginal Poetry
- 6 Rites/Rights/Writes of Passage: Identity Construction in Australian Aboriginal Young Adult Fiction
- 7 Humor in Contemporary Aboriginal Adult Fiction
- 8 White Shadows: The Gothic Tradition in Australian Aboriginal Literature
- 9 Bold, Black, and Brilliant: Aboriginal Australian Drama
- 10 The “Stolen Generations” in Feature Film: The Approach of Aboriginal Director Rachel Perkins and Others
- 11 A History of Popular Indigenous Music
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
8 - White Shadows: The Gothic Tradition in Australian Aboriginal Literature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Chronology
- Introduction: The Emerging Canon
- 1 Indigenous Life Writing: Rethinking Poetics and Practice
- 2 Australian Aboriginal Life Writers and Their Editors: Cross-Cultural Collaboration, Authorial Intention, and the Impact of Editorial Choices
- 3 Contemporary Life Writing: Inscribing Double Voice in Intergenerational Collaborative Life-Writing Projects
- 4 European Translations of Australian Aboriginal Texts
- 5 Tracing a Trajectory from Songpoetry to Contemporary Aboriginal Poetry
- 6 Rites/Rights/Writes of Passage: Identity Construction in Australian Aboriginal Young Adult Fiction
- 7 Humor in Contemporary Aboriginal Adult Fiction
- 8 White Shadows: The Gothic Tradition in Australian Aboriginal Literature
- 9 Bold, Black, and Brilliant: Aboriginal Australian Drama
- 10 The “Stolen Generations” in Feature Film: The Approach of Aboriginal Director Rachel Perkins and Others
- 11 A History of Popular Indigenous Music
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
Summary
The discussion of a Gothic tradition in Australian Aboriginal literature is highly controversial. First, there is the debate over the European origin and colonial legacies of the Gothic; second, there is the exploitation of Aboriginal culture in (Western) Gothic fiction; third, there is the argument that Aboriginal cultural beliefs should not be mistaken for the Gothic. Concerning the European origin of and the abuse of Aboriginal customs in Gothic fiction, one can say that Aboriginal authors engage critically with the Gothic and enter into a state of creative resistance. Combined with elements of Aboriginal tradition and culture, the European Gothic in this creative resistance mutates into an Aboriginal Gothic as a way to negotiate issues of Aboriginal cultural strength and identity. Ranging from the reversal of colonial binaries to the Gothic realities of everyday life, contemporary Aboriginal literature emphasizes the subversive and transgressive qualities that lie at the heart of the Gothic. To understand the uneasy relationship of Australian Aboriginal literature with the Gothic, it is necessary to first explore the Gothic's place in literary and cultural history. Let us therefore start with an overview of the Gothic and the shadows it brings.
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- Information
- A Companion to Australian Aboriginal Literature , pp. 139 - 154Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013