School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemZazou, Zazou Zazou-hé: a youth subculture in Vichy France, 1940-44( 2007)In the late 1930s, French singer Johnny Hess launched his career in the cabarets ofParis. In 1939, he released the hit song “Je Suis Swing”. The catchy chorus proclaimed: “Je suis swing, je suis swing, dadou dadou je m'amuse comme un fou, je suis swing, je suis swing, zazou zazou zazou-hé”. In the winter of 1941, an eccentric group of young people began to gather in cafes on the Champs-Elysées and in the Latin Quarter of Nazi occupied Paris. They called themselves Zazous. This thesis is a history of the Zazou youth subculture in press, film and literature. It uses contemporary popular culture to explain a socio-cultural phenomenon which emerged under the Vichy regime and the Nazi Occupation. Three case studies each introduce a different representation of the Zazous. The first case study is the caricature of the Zazou in the collaborationist press. The second case study is Richard Pottier's 1942 film Mademoiselle Swing. The third case study is the Zazou as literary subject in Boris Vian's Cent Sonnets and Vercoquin et le plancton. In reading the Zazou through a cultural prism, each chapter details a different element of the subculture's function within the "parent" culture. The collaborationist press were writing for supporters of the Vichy regime and actively promoting the values of the National Revolution. Mademoiselle Swing was a popular representation seeking a wide, perhaps even a mass, audience. Boris Vian wrote his novel and poetry from within the subculture itself; his intended audience was familiar. These case studies reveal as much about the Vichy regime as they do the Zazous: the subculture is a mirror in which Occupation culture is reflected. The Zazous posed real ideological problems for Vichy. However, in reacting so vehemently, the regime in fact magnified the Zazous' social influence. In examining the Zazous, not only does a defined "world" of youth emerge, but we also uncover the incoherent nature of the Vichy regime. The thesis also traces a chronological evolution of the Zazous from “Je Suis Swing” in 1939 to their effective dissolution with the introduction of the Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO) in the winter of 1942-43.
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ItemIndigenous representation in Australia's frontier and foreign wars( 2005)This thesis investigates the evolving perception of Australian identity and its impact on the commemoration of Indigenous soldiers. Structured around three case studies, this thesis follows a chronological timeline of commemorative practices characteristically colonial in its presentation of Indigenous Australian communities. The first chapter focuses on colonial constructions of national identity and its influences on the legacy of Captain Reginald Saunders, the first Aboriginal Australian to be commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army. Referencing his 1960s biography and textual memorial, The Embarrassing Australian by Harry Gordon, this thesis argues that it is only through the language of assimilation that Saunders was accepted as an "Australian" and appropriately commemorated for his military achievement. The second chapter highlights evolving perceptions of Australian history and national identity and the impact of Indigenous soldier commemoration within the Australian War Memorial. While the Memorial initially disregarded the Indigenous Australian contribution to the war effort, it has since evolved to acknowledge their role within its galleries. The final chapter looks at museums and their representation of Indigenous soldiers during the Frontier Wars. The portrayal of Indigenous soldiers, either as savages or warriors, among the museum displays and storyboards reflect how the nation chooses to publicly commemorate them. The methods adopted by museums reveal their rejection or acceptance of the Indigenous story of European colonization. By showing how forms of representation are tied to historical moments in regards to Indigenous soldiers and linking these commemorative trends with Australian national identity this research both adds to the body of literature on Australian commemoration and foreshadows an evolving trend where perceptions of "nation" are increasingly willing to embrace an Indigenous past into its definition.
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ItemVirtualisation: the convergence of virtuality and digitality in contemporary Australian art and architectural representation( 2001)This thesis critically examines ‘the virtual’ and ‘virtualisation’, as it was used in Australian visual culture and its discourse between 1997 and 2001. The thesis focuses on Melbourne’s Federation Square project, and its representation, during the period of the Square’s construction, and specific non-digital works by Mathieu Gallois and Callum Morton. ‘Virtualisation’, in this thesis, is located at the convergence of two concepts: digitality and virtuality. Rather than confuse the two, as does much digital theory and practice, this thesis reflects upon and separates the two discourses. It then attempts to analyse the ways they converge in recent Australian art. This thesis works outwards from writings by Brian Massumi, Anna Munster and especially Pierre Levy. It argues that virtualisation represents a key aesthetic in Australian visual culture in the late- 1990s. Virtualisation requires that we focus on the virtual experience and perception of art - and on concepts such as affective response - that is signified by, and intelligible through, such operations as electronic interactivity and digital hypertext. By focusing on viewer response, this thesis challenges particular studies of the effects of digital media on non-digital visual culture. These effects have hitherto been limited to issues of form and imagery. Viewers can only see this phenomenon in the work of artists such as Patricia Piccinini, Stelarc and Megan Walch; they do not, themselves, experience ‘virtualisation’. This thesis wishes to put viewers and their perceptions back in the picture. The consequences of my argument are that space, self and the act of perception require reconsideration. Digitality is affecting ‘real’ space beyond the digital print, the computer terminal and the Internet. It affects subjectivity, and awareness of self within very real virtualities. We become cyborgian, but through neither technological prostheses nor computerised clothing. We become cyborgian in the acts of perception and inter-personal negotiation. However, virtualisation is complicated by other, socio-cultural, factors. Can this reconsideration of self be dissociated from contemporary commercial interests in the technologisation of the self and space? Is virtualisation a potentially liberative aesthetic? This thesis considers specific Australian concerns, including Australian cultural policies and artists’ theories of relational aesthetics in the 1990s. I ultimately argue that virtualisation amounts to a commercial aesthetic. Federation Square proffers the ‘realisation’ of architectural and commercial determinations of self, rather than ‘virtualisation’ of the self. Mathieu Gallois’ art, despite its initial deconstruction of the ‘realisation’ of commercial potentiality, proposes a naïve performativity that ultimately reifies the commercialist underpinnings of virtualisation. And though Morton's models frustrate that same performative, they also rely upon commodification for their success. This thesis concludes by doubting whether virtuality is possible in a period of hyper-commercialism and highly-determined cultural experiences. The aesthetic of' virtualisation proposed in this thesis remains problematic and fragile in its actualisation, or at least on the digital ‘ground’.