totally not stolen from anonymous (fr tho i added the adaptation/transformation bit)
Brenda Matthews (The Last Daughter)
- Regression? Loss, abandonment, rejection; love, search for identity
- Brenda was âadoptedâ by a white family, though eventually was returned to her original family
- One of the last people to be returned to their families
- 1905 - 1965: Stolen Generation, Matthews was taken from her family three years after the stolen generation and was not recognised as part of it
- 1973: âWeâre here to take the children awayâ; forcible displacement from family
- By this point, it was illegal to do this; though they went to court, eventually the case was lost
- Alcoholism â escapism, coping with issues
- 1977: Returned to family, however, disconnected from siblings, identity stolen
- After some time, she wished to see her family that she was fostered in, but her sister had already passed away
- Dressed up the same
- At age 6, she found out that she was of different ethnicity from her foster family
- Essentially stolen twice, from both her original family and foster family
- Taken away as disconnected from her white family, then felt disconnected from original family when returned
- Learned of the connection to land and her origin
- Separation from family
- Belonging and connection
Sense of identity
- Duality (J and H noooooo) of Australiaâs identity
- As a child, she was used to not experiencing racism/discrimination
- She thought she and her sister were the same, e.g. skin colour
- Sought to heal herself after
Forgiveness
- Her mother and grandmother had been taken away from their families
- Cannot change the past
- Cannot change the world without changing oneself
Q&A
- Enacting positive change
- Acknowledging what has happened, identifying the truth and understanding complexity of the now and the future
- How Indigenous culture is shared and taught in schools
- Most of the spirituality and Indigenous identity has been left behind, but is making its way through the education system
- Art and story telling to bring about reconciliation
- Song and dance is usually used to express stories
- Move past the hurtful stories of the Stolen Generation etc. and act on the healing stories of Indigenous culture
- Thoughts about Voice to Parliament
- Screw you how dare you bring politics into this centrist for life
- Conflicts between identity shared between two different cultures
- Could not find identity within any side due to conflict, but managed to reconcile with the past and find her âhomeâ
- Attempts to reconcile are dull and lack depth
- why bring contest and conflict into this sadge :(
- Taking responsibility for own story, change will come about as long as it is recognised
- No prior acknowledgment that she was part of the Stolen Generation
- Truth will hurt, but recognising truth is the only way change will happen
- Impact on life from sharing her story
- Wonderful impact, understanding of truth
- Collective story, we can all be healed
Claire Jones - Unpacking Australian Historical Fiction
- AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia - attempt to map cultural groupings of Indigenous Australia
- Shows the general locations of larger groupings of people which include clans, dialects, or individual languages in a group
- Australia: a European (and Spanish) construction Great South Land 1570 by Autilis
- Accurate placement of landforms were not possible, due to them not exploring the area prior
- Rather the large area âTerra australis nondum cognitaâ was a figment of their imagination
- What is historical fiction
- Historical fiction is a literary genre where the story takes place in the past
- Historical novels capture the details of the time period as accurately as possible for authenticity, including social norms, manners, customs, and traditions
- Limits?
- âTo be deemed historical (in our sense), a novel must have been written at least 50 years after the events described, or have been written by someone who was not alive at the time of those events (who therefore approaches them only by research)â ~ (Historical Novel Society, n.d.)
- Other styles (experimentation) of novel are also considered, e.g.:
- alternate histories (Fatherland)
- pseudo-histories (Island of the Day Before)
- timeslip novels (Lady of Hay)
- historical fantasies (King Arthur trilogy)
- multiple-time novels (The Hours)
- Is Historical Fiction a paradox?
- 5 Common Elements of Historical Fiction
- Setting - The g is the most important par of a historical fiction novel. It should take place during an authentic period in history and be set in a real historical place. For example, New York City during the Great Depression or Paris, France during WWII
- Plot - The plot in a historical fiction novel is a combination of a real events and fictional events. You can invent characters, cities and events, but they still must make sense to the time period. For example, a novel set in London, Engalnd in 1666 would benefit from incorporating the Great Fire of London, a major turning point in the cityâs history
- Characters - The characters can be real, fictional or both, but they should all look, speak and act in ways that accurately reflect the era
- Dialogue - register, vernacular, diction
- Conflict
- 5 Common Elements of Historical Fiction
- Are literature and history antagonists?
- History is about facts and time, while literature is about fiction and language
- In The Order of Things Foucault argues is that the relationship between literature and history might be more complicated than this binary suggests. He explains systems of understanding, including subjects or disciplines
- The work of historian Hayden White follows this line of thinking. White points out that history is intimately involved in the re-presentation of prior events
- History is always being made rather than something safely secured in what we might call and recall as the past. So, the practice of writing history relies on interpretation and representation, the very devices of fiction and fiction reading
- White concluded, not uncontroversially, that âhistory is no less than a form of fiction than the novel is a form of historical representationâ. The historical record is a discursive entity
- Mantelâs BBC lecture - Can these bones live
- âIn the Old Testament, God asked the prophet Ezekiel âCan these bones live?â He answered yes: and so do I. The task of historical fiction is to take the past out of the archiveâ and essentially reanimate it
- A dialogue with the past - âMost historical fiction is, I like to think, in dialogue with the pastâ
- A story of Australia - William Dampier wrote in 1688 that the country was waterless and âthe inhabitants [âŠ] the miserablest people in the world,â and went on the complain at length about the files
- Colonial Australia (1788-1901)
- Two different cultures
- Indigenous/âtraditionalâ and European/Modern (try not to place them in opposition of each other)
- Different world views, different epistemologies
- Different perspectives on nature, family, wealth, country, etc.
- One recorded history
- Self-definition: redefining identity and a new nation
- Lucky country
- Isolated country
- Egalitarian
- Brave
- Brutal
- Some traditional/dominant Australian identities and literary archetypes
- Drover/Stockman
- ANZAC
- Lost child
- Bushranger
- Underdog/Battler
- Bush versus City
- Indigenous mystic
- Emerging Themes
- The complications of belonging
- Importance and consequences of historical truth - dealing with cultural guilt
- Facing the limitations of the traditional Australian National Identity
- The connection and violence and masculinity
- Connections between trauma of national experience
- Achieving reconciliation and atonement
- Indigenous self-determination
- âGenre texts essentially asks the audience âDo you still want to believe this?â Popularity is the audience answering, âYesâ. Change in genres occur when the audience says, âThatâs too infantile a form of what we believe. Show us something more complicated."" - Leo Brady, The World in a Frame
- Now the story is far more complex
- How do they change? What becomes the method of complication?
- Experiment within a genre
- Revise, âcorrectâ or deconstruct a genre or narrative
- Contextual Complexity
- Are historical fictions about the past?
- Or are they about the present
- They are both!
- Most importantly, they are a dialogue with the past.
- Australian Historical Fiction
- A dialogue with people from specific moments
- No Sugar
- The Secret River
- That Deadman Dance
Cloudstreet and Realism
- Will you look at us by the river! The whole restless mob of us on spread blankets in the dreamy briny sunshine skylarking and shiacking about for one day, one clear, clean , sweet day in a good world in the midst of our living. Yachts run before an unfelt gust with bagnecked pelicans riding above them, the city their twitching backdrop, all blocks and points of mirror light down the waterâs edge.
- Parts of the text are not real and often have grammatical errors, but attempt to emulate Australian register
- Using historical fiction to talk about the issue with Australiaâs past
Adaptation and Transformation
Transformation
- Texts are connected
- Changing the form/shape of a text
- Appropriation, adaptation, subversion, parody
- Methods of Transformation
- Intertextuality
- Adaptation
- Translation
- Transcription
- Parody
- Pastiche
- Bricolage
Intertextuality
- Reading practise
- Writing practise
- The significance: ideas that might develop as a result of recognition
Generic and Formal Relationships
- Allegory (story with a deeper meaning)
- The Crucible
- Tragedy (play with tragic events and an unhappy ending)
- Hamlet
Allusion: specific references to text
- Religious/biblical allusion
Representation, ideologies, ideas
- Connecting Australia Ideas
- The Frontier
- Post-colonial ideas
- Legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonised people, and the effects on the land