School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemFrom Achilles to Anzac: classical receptions in the Australian Anzac narrative( 2016)The Anzac narrative lies at the heart of Australian national identity and this thesis demonstrates how its authors have drawn upon classical narratives to attain and maintain this position. Since the first Australian soldiers landed on Gallipoli’s beaches at dawn on 25 April 1915, allusions to the classical world have been drawn upon to compose the Anzac narrative. The proximity of Gallipoli to the presumed site of the legendary Trojan War (on the other side of the Dardanelles) ignited the imaginations of soldiers, journalists, historians, poets, novelists, artists and politicians. From the outset, Anzac soldiers were likened to ancient Greek warrior heroes and the Gallipoli campaign was compared with the mythical Trojan War. After the Great War ended, large-scale commemoration of those killed in service to their nation commenced in Australia. The idealised image of the Anzac soldier based on the ancient warrior heroes from mythical narratives endured during this period, but was coupled with ideologies from fifthcentury BCE Hellenic democracies, which venerated those soldiers who died in service to their state in order that their deeds be remembered for evermore. Anzac commemoration, like the commemoration of ancient Greek citizen-soldiers, was focussed on equal recognition for all those who died, and memorialised the dead in such a way that their sacrifices inspired the surviving citizens to dedicate themselves to the improvement of their community for future generations. Integral to the coupling of ancient Greek and Anzac commemorative practices was the Australian War Correspondent and Official Historian, C.E.W. Bean. Bean was classically educated and drew on his knowledge of the past to create a detailed record of wartime events as a legacy for the Australian people of the time, and also those of the future. To provide context, the thesis commences with a survey of classical reception in Australia prior to the Great War. It then traces the many ways the classics were drawn upon to compose the Anzac narrative. During the war, journalistic, literary, historical and personal narratives focussed on the strength and beauty of the Anzac soldier, and comparisons to the heroes of ancient Greek mythology were common. After the war, commemorative efforts dwelt on the magnitude of sacrifice, emphasising that building a prosperous Australian future would ensure that these losses incurred would not be in vain. To do this, democratic commemorative practices and funerary rituals of fifthcentury ancient Greek states were employed in Australian commemorative efforts. These established a strong link between Anzac commemoration and ancient Greek ancestor hero cults. After the Second World War, the Anzac narrative dwindled before being revived in the 1980s, in part, by Peter Weir’s film Gallipoli, which transformed the imperialist Anzac narrative into a nationalist story of Australian maturity and independence for a new generation of Australians in need of a distinct national identity. The classics have been written into the very foundations of the Anzac narrative and function to elide space and time, connecting the Australian people to Europe and the Western tradition. Associating Anzac deeds with the classical tradition positioned Australia as a descendant of great civilisations and has ultimately shaped a cult of Anzac reminiscent of ancient Greek ancestor hero cults.
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ItemThe Great War in the Australian imagination since 1915( 2012)This thesis traces the history of the Great War in the Australian imagination from 1915 until 2000. It examines chronologically the principal ways that the war has been interpreted in various mediums, including official history, academic history, memoir, fiction, film, family history, popular history and political discourse. The history of representation of the Great War reveals how preconceptions regarding such concepts as race, empire, nation, class, gender and family identity have shaped the forms that the event has taken in the Australian imagination. Initial representations of the war were shaped overwhelmingly by the ideology of martial nationalism, which held that war was the ultimate test of manhood and nationhood. It was Australians’ overwhelming relief that they had passed the test of nationhood that provided the impetus for the Anzac legend. During the 1930s, returned soldiers produced works of fiction and memoir, the most popular of which presented the war as a tragic, often horrific event. The suffering was redeemed by the humour and camaraderie of the men and the pride they took in their cause. After the Second World War adherents to Marxist philosophy challenged the Anzac legend, not least through their attack on the imperial link that was an integral component of Australian remembrance of the Great War. Radical historians failed in their attempt to merge the categories of class and nation in the form of the Australian working-class male, in part because of the willingness of the digger to fight for the imperial cause. While they were inclined to celebrate the deeds of the Anzacs, radical nationalists perceived the Great War as the wrecker of Australia’s pre-1914 programme of social reform. Memory of the Great War has always been a barometer of Australia’s relationship with Great Britain. As Britain withdrew from the imperial embrace in the 1960s, Australians sought new means of conceiving their national identity. After a period of decline, caused in part by the leaching of opposition to the Vietnam War into commemoration of the Great War, the Anzac legend was revived in the 1980s. Its new incarnation was excised of imperial, racial and martial rhetoric and fitted with a much-enhanced strain of anti-British sentiment.The rise of memory studies and the burgeoning interest in trauma gave impetus to psychological interpretations of the Great War during the 1980s and 1990s, which sought to understand the event in a context outside nationalism. While cultural historians have developed the historiography of grief and trauma, the majority of family historians conceive their forebears’ war experience within the narrative of Australian nationhood. The strengthening nexus between politics and Great War commemoration since 1990 has consolidated the Anzac legend at the centre of Australian national iconography. Today, as throughout most of the ninety eight years since it began, memory of the Great War in Australia remains within the thrall of nationalism.