Indigenous Australians’ Persistence in Survival in Jack Davis’s The First Born Trilogy

• Main Authors: Shao,Pei Jung, 邵姵蓉
• Other Authors: Jiang,Tsui Fen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/18592823504913976912

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 英國語文學研究所 === 96 === Indigenous Australians have lived in Australia for 40,000 years. They develop their own system of religion and mythology, social conventions, language and arts, observing a life that can make both the environment and human beings prosperous. But Aboriginals are driven to extinction by the White who intend to possess their land. Because of large scale of massacres and diseases, both the number of Aboriginal population and their culture are endangered. Indigenous Australians become the marginalized minority in Australian society. Therefore, with the reference to Mikhail Bakhtin’s idea of the chronotope, Pierre Nora’s concept of memory and related Aboriginal culture, this thesis aims to discuss that Jack Davis, in The First Born trilogy, presents the oppression of White Australian society to Aboriginal people and displays Aboriginals’ persistence in survival through the reconstruction of Aboriginal memory and the empowerment of Aboriginality. Chapter One includes the general historical background of the contact between the White and Aboriginals, the introduction to Jack Davis and his plays, and the criticism on Davis’s trilogy. In Chapter Two, I take advantage of Bakhtin’s idea of the chronotope to discuss the severe social environment of indigenous Australians who are oppressed by the White Australian government and the social consequences of Aboriginals’ disadvantaged position in society. Chapter Three aims to utilize Pierre Nora’s concept of memory to analyze that Davis, through stories, dances, and dream visions, creates lieux de mémoire to preserve Aboriginal memory. Chapter Four concentrates on the empowerment of Aboriginality, which offers a subversive force for Aboriginals to fight against the White persecution and have their voice heard. Chapter Five is the concluding chapter to wrap up these three plays.