{"id":17213,"date":"2011-10-22T22:28:57","date_gmt":"2011-10-22T22:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=17213"},"modified":"2013-02-08T19:13:15","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T19:13:15","slug":"dreams-and-nightmares-of-a-white-australia-representing-aboriginal-assimilation-in-the-mid-twentieth-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=17213","title":{"rendered":"Dreams and Nightmares of a White Australia: Representing Aboriginal Assimilation in the Mid-twentieth Century"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dreams and Nightmares of a White Australia: Representing Aboriginal Assimilation in the Mid-twentieth Century<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Lang Publishing Group<\/a>
\n2009
\n257 pages
\nWeight: 0.410 kg, 0.904 lbs
\nPaperback ISBN:\u00a0\u00a0978-3-03911-722-2
\nSeries: Studies in Asia-Pacific \u201cMixed Race\u201d<\/a> (Volume 3)<\/p>\n

Catriona Elder<\/a><\/strong>, Professor of Sociology
\nUniversity of Syndney<\/em><\/p>\n

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By the mid-twentieth century the various Australian states began changing their approaches to Aboriginal peoples from one of exclusion to assimilation. These policy changes meant that Aboriginal people, particularly those identified as being of mixed heritage, were to be encouraged to become part of the dominant non-Aboriginal community\u2014the Australian nation.<\/p>\n

This book explores this significant policy change from a cultural perspective, considering the ways in which assimilation was imagined in literary fiction of the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on novels from a range of genres\u2014the Gothic<\/a>, historical romance, the western and family melodrama\u2013it analyses how these texts tell their assimilation stories.<\/p>\n

Taking insights from critical whiteness studies<\/a> the author highlights both the pleasures and anxieties that the idea of Aboriginal assimilation raised in the non-Aboriginal community. There are elements of these assimilation stories\u2014maternal love, stolen children, violence and land ownership\u2014that still have an impact in the unsettled present of many post-colonial nations. By exploring the history of assimilation the author suggests ideas for a different future.<\/p>\n

Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n