Black and White on Black: Whiteness and Masculinity in the Works of Three Australian Writers - Thomas Keneally, Colin Thiele, and Patrick White.

<p>White depictions of Aborigines in literature have generally been culturally biased. In this study I explore four depictions of Indigenous Australians by white Australian writers. Thomas Keneally's <em>The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith</em> (1972) depicts a half-caste Aborigine's attempt to enter white society in a racially-antipathetic world that precipitates his ruin. Children's author Colin Thiele develops friendships between white and Aboriginal children in frightening and dangerous landscapes in both <em>Storm Boy</em> (1963) and <em>Fire in the Stone</em> (1973). Nobel laureate Patrick White sets <em>A Fringe of Leaves</em> (1976) in a world in which Ellen Roxburgh's quest for freedom comes only through her captivity by the Aborigines. I use whiteness and masculinity studies as theoretical frameworks in my analysis of these depictions. As invisibility and ordinariness are endemic to white and masculine actions, interrogating these ideological constructions aids in facilitating a better awareness of the racialized stereotypes that exist in Indigenous representations.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

MA (Master of Arts)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - unrestricted

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor dc:publisher

East Tennessee State University

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Byrge, Matthew Israel

• whiteness
• Australia
• Aborigine(s)
• post-colonialism
• race studies
• masculinity
• Arts and Humanities
• Communication
• English Language and Literature
• Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication
• Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America
• Social and Behavioral Sciences

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright by the authors.

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1717

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-3072