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From colonial outsider to postcolonial insider: some screen adaptations from Australia and New Zealand/Aotearoa

Wilson, J. M. (2013) From colonial outsider to postcolonial insider: some screen adaptations from Australia and New Zealand/Aotearoa. In: Dwivedi, O. P. and Kich, M. (eds.) Postcolonial Theory in the Global Age: Interdisciplinary Essays :. Jefferson, North Carolina: MacFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 59-72.

Item Type: Book Section
Abstract: This paper examines the ways that screen adaptations of novels in the cinema of Australia and New Zealand/Aotearoa have contributed to new versions of national identity by redeploying and redefining images of the colonial past that were previously represented in oral and literary formats. By reinforcing and critiquing the dominant narrative motifs of the Lost Child in Australia and the Man Alone in New Zealand, often by reinterpreting them from more recent and global perspectives, screen adaptations of novels help reconstruct the national imaginary in relation to the postcolonial and global contemporary. Films examined include Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Roger Donaldson’s Sleeping Dogs (1977), and Brad McGann’s In My Father’s Den (2004). Each, in different ways, rearticulates cultural constructions of male protagonists to show new dimensions of heroism in the national imaginary.
Uncontrolled Keywords: screen adaptations, Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa, colonial outsider, postcolonial insider, man alone, the lost child
Creators: Wilson, Janet M
Editors: Dwivedi, Om Prakash and Kich, Martin
Publisher: MacFarland & Company, Inc
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: Faculties > Faculty of Education & Humanities > English and Creative Writing
Research Centres > Centre for Critical and Creative Writing
Date: 1 December 2013
Date Type: Publication
Page Range: pp. 59-72
Title of Book: Postcolonial Theory in the Global Age: Interdisciplinary Essays :
Place of Publication: Jefferson, North Carolina
Number of Pages: 206
Language: English
ISBN: 9780786475520
Status: Published / Disseminated
Refereed: Yes
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/11558

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