| Finding Eliza: Power and Colonial Storytelling Contributor(s): Behrendt, Larissa (Author) |
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ISBN: 0702253901 ISBN-13: 9780702253904 Publisher: University of Queensland Pr (Australia) OUR PRICE: $16.10 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2016 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Australia & New Zealand - General - Literary Criticism | Australian & Oceanian - Social Science | Discrimination & Race Relations |
| LCCN: 2015514702 |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 5" W x 7.7" (0.60 lbs) 204 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Australian - Cultural Region - Oceania |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A vital Aboriginal perspective on colonial storytelling Indigenous lawyer and writer Larissa Behrendt has long been fascinated by the story of Eliza Fraser, who was purportedly captured by the local Butchulla people after she was shipwrecked on their island in 1836. In this deeply personal book, Behrendt uses Eliza's tale as a starting point to interrogate how Aboriginal people - and indigenous people of other countries - have been portrayed in their colonizers' stories. Citing works as diverse as Robinson Crusoe and Coonardoo, she explores the tropes in these accounts, such as the supposed promiscuity of Aboriginal women, the Europeans' fixation on cannibalism, and the myth of the noble savage. Ultimately, Behrendt shows how these stories not only reflect the values of their storytellers but also reinforce those values - which in Australia led to the dispossession of Aboriginal people and the laws enforced against them. |