- Title
- 'Across the long, dry stage': discourses of landscape in Australian drama
- Creator
- Makeham, Paul Benedict
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 1996
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- This thesis is concerned with the representation of landscape in nine Australian plays. The introduction examines the functions and effects of landscape discourses within Australian culture generally, and on the stage in particular. The introduction is followed by three chapters, each of which examines three plays. In the sequence in which they are discussed, the plays are: At Dusk (1937) by Millicent Armstrong; Pioneers (1919) by Katharine Susannah Prichard; The Drovers (1919) by Louis Esson; The Fields of Heaven (1982) by Dorothy Hewett; Too Young For Ghosts (1985) by Janis Balodis; Inside the Island (1980) by Louis Nowra; Bran Nue Dae (1990) by Jimmy Chi and Kuckles; The Kid (1983) by Michael Gow; and Aftershocks (1991) by Paul Brown and the Workers' Cultural Action Committee. The readings proposed here proceed on the understanding that landscapes are systems of representation rather than autonomous topographical entities. Landscapes are thus conceivable as textual formations, constituted of discourses and inscribed with a variety of ideologies. In the context of these readings, 'discourse' refers both to the spoken (dialogic) and the visual (scenic) modes of dramatic expression. A wide range of thematic concerns and dramaturgical forms is encompassed by these nine plays; accordingly, a, variety of reading strategies is applied to them. In each of the plays examined, landscape and character are shown in a dynamic, mutually determining relationship, even in those realist works in which landscape is rendered as 'background' to the primary sites of interpersonal action. With regard to its structure, the thesis traces a movement from early realist one-act plays set in bush landscapes, to more recent, non-realist works of full-length set partially or wholly in cities. This structure might be characterised as a movement from the landscapes of 'nature' to the cityscapes of 'culture'.
- Subject
- Australian drama; landscape; discourse analysis; representation
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1312573
- Identifier
- uon:22432
- Rights
- Copyright 1996 Paul Benedict Makeham
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 136 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 29 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |