VSA2800

Colonial/postcolonial: Australian art and film

Leigh Astbury and Deane Williams

8 points - 4 hours per week - Second semester - Clayton - Prerequisites: Two subjects at first-year level in visual culture or a comparable discipline

Objectives Upon completion of this subject students will have a sound general knowledge of major issues in colonial Australian visual culture and their critique in contemporary art, film and theory; have an understanding of postcolonial theory and its relevance to Australian visual culture, both past and present; studied the inter-relationship of both still and moving media in constructing changing cultural identities

Synopsis This subject explores major issues in Australian visual culture since white settlement from a postcolonial perspective. It is organised thematically, rather than chronologically, in order to focus on some key areas of social and cultural identity which find expression across various forms of the visual arts and visual media. Areas for study will include the imaging of settlement from the colonial era to the present; the changing conception of Australia's cultural relationship with the South Pacific and its inhabitants; the apparent need to create popular colonial heroes such as the bushranger and explorer; the meaning of the war experience for the Australian populace; the issue of race relations in both colonial and postcolonial contexts; and, inevitably, the perennial appeal of the landscape in Australian visual culture. The 1950s, which have been customarily dismissed as an era of conservative torpor and lassitude in Australian society and culture, will be re-assessed as a period that sowed the seeds of a new internationalism and multi-culturalism. By drawing together past and present, the thematic approach will emphasise the social and conceptual underpinnings of myths of cultural and national identity, and their later critique by recent artists, filmmakers, and writers. Attention will thus be paid to important re-readings of Australia's colonial culture by contemporary artists and filmmakers such as Gordon Bennett, Linda Sproul, Ross Gibson and Tracey Moffatt. Here and elsewhere students will be encouraged to engage with issues of representation across various visual media. The writings of major theorists who have been influential in the re-evaluation of colonial cultures will be necessarily addressed. Students will frequently be asked to consider visual material in the light of theories of postcolonialism. They may examine, for example, how ideologies of imperialism in visual culture intersect with other ideologies such as those of race and gender.

Assessment First essay (2000 words): 35% Second essay (2500 words): 45% Visual test (1.5 hours): 20%

Preliminary reading

Engberg J Colonial postcolonial Museum of Modern Art at Heide, 1996

Recommended texts

Ashcroft B Griffiths G and Tiffin H (eds) The post-colonial studies reader Routledge, 1995
Gibson R South of the west: Postcolonialism and the narrative construction of Australia Indiana U P, 1992
McLean I White Aborigines: Identity politics in Australian art CUP, 1997
Turner G National fictions: Literature, film and the construction of Australian narrative Allen and Unwin, 1986
Williams D Mapping the imaginary: Ross Gibson's camera natura, The Moving Image, 1996

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