Minorities in Australian Literature Essay

Australian writings consists of m any(prenominal) theatrical performances of the Australian debequest of life that are constructed by many national stereotypes. Various critics argue that the present-day(prenominal) literary offices of the average Australian do non embrace enough cultural mixture by dint of the incorporation of autochthonic mass, fe mannishs and pagan communities. The representations of Australian tidy sum have changed dramatically over a period of time.While the first Australian literary pieces consisted of only one specific brand of soulfulness, neglecting wo work force and aborigines, during the nations emergence and the arrival of more heathen people, there was a rise in the representations of these minority mathematical groups. Following this, in the late 20th century to current days, these minority groups have begun to express and represent themselves done writing.Despite the some honey oil representation of the Australian person non inc luding these minorities, there has been a significant change in their representations through literature and the version that does not include them, is predominately used through non-literary flora. The common representation of the Australian people is a tough Anglo-Saxon male who works in fatigue intensive jobs. This portrayal has been used heavily to identify Australians, particularly by the current media, to build on the Australian image.The concept of this type of person representing the whole nation was formed from traditional texts in the 19th century, when the writers were near entirely white European males and chose to write only of people worry themselves. When the ladies have it off to the snip shed and Clancy from the overflow, are examples of the types of literary pieces that were pen in the 19th century, which focus on the white men of Australia who work in tough jobs in the outback. When the ladies come to the shearing shed, written by enthalpy Lawson in 1897 is rough the reactions of Australian men when women are in their presence.The song composes the image of masculine men who work in a shearing shed, and represents their job as noble, as women come from the city to watch them. Women are equal as delicate objects of affection that hold little impressiveness to the story. The only time in which the women are described doing or saying something is when they comment on the appearance of the animals, and they gush and say in a girly way, that the dear little lambs are sweet. This being the only thing that women say, illustrates that they did not hold any real significance to the story, and their opinions were completely left out.The way in which the women are portrayed in the poesy is not necessarily negative, but they are not particularly valued characters, and are seen as the otherwise. This is collect to the attempt of a white male providing his personal opinion on the way another type of person acts, which creates a distorted representation. The men and women in this text have an obvious legal separation between them, and it is express that they are on very different levels, which is not an accurate portrayal of real life. Clancy of the overflow was written in 1889 by one of Australias most famous poets, Banjo Paterson.The story shares the same representation of the Australian male, who works with animals out in the bush. In the poem Paterson attempts to exist the quintessential Australian, and who believes every man should be which is a besotted worker who is in touch with life on the land. Through the eyes of an speckle worker the poem represents outback life as desired over city living and working, I am sitting in my mucky little office, where a stingy ray of sunlight struggles feebly exhaust between the houses tall. Clancy, and his outback life is represented as desired by the city dweller, And I somehow fancy that Id corresponding to change with Clancy, standardized to take a turn at drovi ng where the seasons come and go. The poem does not include aborigines, women or ethnic people, which by forthwiths standard is frowned upon but in the time of the poems creation was common in texts. These two, and many more texts from Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson reinforce the argument that the embodiment of the Australian person was most commonly used in traditional Australian literature, and the opinions of the minority groups are excluded.Progressing from the prejudiced representation that they received from male writers, women have become just as equally common and palmy as men in Australian literature. In todays Australian society, women are in a better situation than indigenous and ethnic Australians in terms of equality, which makes their characterization in literary works more familiar. The liberation of women in Australian literature has given womanlys the probability to write most and express themselves through their personal opinions, creating countless female Australian authors.If I had a gun is a poem written by Gig Ryan, that represents her confronting attitudes toward the men that surround her. The poem consists of Gig Ryan explaining the men that she would flash because of their disrespectful attitude towards women. There is . She uses particular examples of the way men in society sexualize her and other women, Id shoot the man who whistled from his balcony. She even writes roughly the smallest occurrences that frustrate her, illustrating that she doesnt accept any form of gender superiority, Id shoot the man uttermost night who said smile honey. A woman writing about the men that she would figuratively murder, shows the growth that Australian literature has endured. Many eld prior, women were only rarely written about and their true feelings and scenes were silenced. Now, they have the chance to voice their opinions, even in a confronting manner and simmer down be embraced by the Australian public. Throughout the 20th centur y, women, aborigines and ethnic people began to be identified and represented more regularly, however still commonly through the perspective of Anglo-Saxon males.Despite this improvement, the others could not represent themselves, so soulfulness else represented them. This obviously led to a one-sided representation, because no involvement how sympathetic the author was, they were slewing things through their own perspective, which is particularly patent with the aboriginal representations in texts. The novel Coonardo written by Katherine Susannah Pritchard addresses the complex issues of will power and the colonial enterprise that was present in its publication date of 1958.It contains the favourable inter-racial relationship of Hugh, a non-indigenous landowner and Coonardo, an indigenous woman as the declaration to these difficult situations. This was an early time in Australia for a topic like this to become a successful novel, especially because the author held a non-bias ed perspective throughout the novel, which would have limited readers to those who did not have a strong opinion on these matters. David Maloufs retrieve Babylon (1993) deals with the problem of how to represent discrimination and reversing the representations of the other.The main character, Gemmy digestd in an aboriginal community for 16 years and an eventual rescue of him by white settlers creates a double sense that does not allow for him to fully re-embrace his white culture that soon becomes the other. Malouf, disdain his white heritage does achieve a very broad-minded representation of the aboriginal people. He appears to show sympathy towards the indigenous community, which allows him to secure the story through their eyes, casting the white people and the things they did as bad.The depute of check throughout the novel is mainly of the tribe that Gemmy belonged to, instead of himself. The novel, time containing a great racial tolerance and acceptance towards the in digenous people, does however, still support the notion of the unstable relationship between non-indigenous and indigenous Australians. Remembering Babylon provides a more in depth representation from the point of view of the aboriginal people, whereas Coonardo represents both races equally from an outsiders perspective.Many ethnic immigrants have been left with the smallest amount of representations in Australian literature, due to the dust coat Australia Policy lasting up until the mid 20th century, which has rendered their Australian legacy very young. This obviously has now left them struggling to be represented in key texts because of their short history. Ethnic groups who are represented in literary works that are pass judgment within the mainstream arent immensely common. However when these ethnic groups are personified, it creates a highly accurate representation of the average Australian communities.Carlos Tsiolkas is a Greek-Australian author, who wrote The smooch, a p opular, contemporary piece of Australian literature that was turned into a television series. This novel naturally integrates white, Greek, Indian and indigenous Australians into a friendship community, illustrating the genuine multicultural society of Australia. Tsiolkass heritage assists him in providing an accurate representation of what it is like for these ethnic characters to live in Australia, because he has the ability to write from experience and represent himself.The slap does not have an obvious focus on the inter-racial relationships that it contains, but due to the variety of ethnicity that is incorporated into the characters, it is clear to see that the author made a conscious decision to include a range of cultural diversity in his novel. Ethnic immigrants who become successful authors usually write about their experiences in Australia, that become popular within the Anglo-Australian community, as their pieces offer a different view point, that challenges the way Aust ralians view themselves.The ungrateful immigrant is a poem by Yu Ouyang that is an example of an ethnic author challenging the common detection of the Australian way of life. The poem is Ouyangs personal view on Australia and its people, challenging the common belief that Australians are friendly and welcome people, particularly to immigrants. He speaks about many elements of the country that he does not agree with or particularly like, and the negative way that the Australian people have responded to him. You think that because I came to and live in Australia, I should be grateful for the rest of my life. He even says that his decision to migrate to Australia was an permanent mistake. This poem, like if I had a gun speaks very negatively about certain groups of people and challenges many common ideologies that exist about the Australian way of life, however it is still recognized and appreciated as a passionate literary piece. It would be understandable for many Australians to g et pique and disregard this text due to the challenging opinions that it contains, but the piece has been accepted into the community because it is seen as an Australian person giving his opinion on his country.Also similar to if I had a gun, The ungrateful immigrant shows the progress in Australian literature and the different representations of the Australian way of life that it now contains. It is evident that these literary works provide evidence that supports the argument that, despite the common stereotype of Australian people still being an Anglo-Saxon male, Australian literature does provide an immense variety of representations of women, indigenous Australians, and ethnic communities.They also illustrate the progression of Australian literature, from when it contained an incredibly narrow group of representations, to now when it contains an abundance of different racial and gendered authors and characters that contribute to the production of literary pieces, and the repres entations of the Australians that they contain. It is important, when analyzing the national identity of Australian way of life to evaluate the cite of its literature, and the representations that it contains and upholds.