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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ItemWith my needle: embroidery samplers in colonial Australia( 2008)This thesis examines a group of more than one hundred needlework samplers stitched in the Australian colonies during the nineteenth century. It uses them as documents of social history to examine the lives of individual girls and women during that time, and to trace changing expectations of girls, especially in the later decades of the century. Although there are many individual stories that can illuminate certain aspects of Australian history such as migration, settlement, and death and mourning, these samplers are most useful as documents in the examination of girls' education and the social expectations transmitted through the education system. It addresses the contradiction between the sampler's continuing presence in girls' schooling and the increasing irrelevance of the skills embodied in it. The thesis argues that needlework samplers retained their place in girls' education well into the twentieth century because of their significance as symbols of feminine accomplishment. They were physical expressions of a definition of respectability that was based on the `feminine ideal' of the nineteenth century and allayed anxiety about girls' involvement in formal schooling.
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ItemBeyond the book: reshaping Australian public history in the Web 2.0 environment( 2008)With digital media and the web becoming increasingly pervasive in our everyday lives, few historians have considered in depth the impact that this is having on the ways that history is represented and communicated in the public sphere. This thesis is an examination of how the practice of public history in Australia is being reshaped in the Web 2.0 environment. In the context of new media theory, public history practice is considered in relation to identifiable changes in the ways the web is used and understood. The public historian’s concern with interpreting the past to a public audience means that changing social practices and information patterns are pertinent to their work. This thesis highlights the ways in which different forms of history are being produced, distributed and consumed on the web. It focuses on the potential role of the web user as an active producer of personal and creative interpretations of the past and on how experimental public history practices in the Web 2.0 environment have emerged in response to changing audiences. This study argues that the rise of Web 2.0 is reflected by personalised, ubiquitous, democratic and innovative public history practices on the web. Through an in depth analysis of The Powerhouse Museum collection search and YouTube as case studies, this thesis shows how increased participation, the proliferation of user-generated content, social networking and existing practices by users in the Web 2.0 environment reshapes public history. This thesis goes beyond conceiving of the web as a site of historical source material, both digitised and born-digital, to an understanding of the value of participatory media and informal communication in enabling the sharing of historical knowledge and materials between and among networks of people on the web.
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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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ItemThe role of the chaplaincy in the Bermudian convict establishment( 2007)The role of the chaplaincy in the Bermudian convict establishment is best delineated by a case study of one of the longest serving chaplains, Rev. Robert Mantach (1795 - 1853). In the face a monumental adversity, Mantach established and superintended schools on board each hulk at Ireland Island. He helped both educated and Irish Roman Catholic prisoners obtain mitigation of sentences. His experiences as chaplain will help demonstrate how the British Government perceived the role of chaplain and how chaplains were instruments of Government policy and the extent to which this was consistent with their sacred function.
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ItemThe private face of patronage: the Howitts, artistic and intellectual philanthropists in early Melbourne Society( 2005)This thesis investigates a case of upper-middle class, private patronage in Melbourne, focusing on three decades between 1840 and 1870. Evidence points to the existence of a lively circle of intellectual and artistic activity around the Quaker family of Dr Godfrey Howitt and his wife, Phebe, from the Midlands who arrived at the Port Phillip District in 1840. The presentation of a group of fine, rare colonial water-colours and drawings to the National Gallery of Victoria by a direct Howitt descendant, Mrs James Evans in 1989, was the point of inspiration for this subject. Godfrey Howitt, one of the first experienced medical practitioners in the colony, had much in common with the Superintendent of Port Phillip. Their friendship gave the Howitts entrée into the uppermost social circles of the colony. Financially, the family prospered due to Howitt's professional practice which insulated them against economic downturns and provided a steady accumulation of wealth. While as a Quaker, Phebe Howitt had little background in the fine arts, she began to exercise patronage in support of her artist friends, most of who arrived with the gold rush in 1852. With it came Godfrey Howitt's elder brother, William, a famous English author. In London in 1850, William and Mary Howitt's daughter, the feminist painter and writer, Anna Mary, had become engaged to Edward La Trobe Bateman. A brilliant designer and cousin of Superintendent La Trobe, Bateman introduced the young, still struggling Pre-Raphaelite artists with whom he was closely associated, to the English Howitts. Arriving in Melbourne in 1852, William was followed shortly afterwards by Bateman and two artists, including the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor, Thomas Woolner. The gold rush also attracted Eugene von Guérard, and Nicholas Chevalier in due course. In 1856, as a guest of the Howitts' on her first Victorian visit, Louisa Anne Meredith, writer, botanical artist and social commentator, was introduced to their artistic and literary circle. The Howitts' friendship with these artists thus took on a very different hue from the normal patterns of patronage. Beyond commissioning works of art from artists returning empty handed from the gold fields, Phebe Howitt supported them in other ways until suffering a catastrophic stroke towards the end of 1856. During that period, the founding of the new Victorian colony's cultural institutions became a source of official artistic commissions for the first time. Through friends in influential positions like Justice Redmond Barry and Godfrey Howitt, Bateman was employed in various design projects for new public buildings and gardens. With the purchase of Barragunda at Cape Schanck in 1860, Godfrey Howitt assumed a central role as patron. In making the house available to Bateman and his artist friends, he and his daughter, Edith Mary, repeated the unusual degree of patronage formerly exercised by Phebe Howitt before her illness. By 1869, Woolner, Bateman and Chevalier had departed the colony and from 1870, von Guérard was taken up with the National Gallery of Victoria. Although succeeding generations of the family maintained contact with all the artists in their circle, by Godfrey Howitt's death in 1873, the prime years of Howitt patronage had passed.
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ItemHistorical context, patronage and decoration of the Melbourne Livy( 2000)The end of the fourteenth century saw the production in Paris of translations of the Latin classics in large, de luxe format, such as the Melbourne Livy manuscript. This study examines the historical development of French vernacular literature prior to these productions. It is argued that the demand for vernacular translations was not a sudden phenomenon but resulted from a tradition that had begun three hundred years earlier, a tradition that was aided by the political, social and cultural climate existing in France at that time. Possible reasons why Jean le Bon chose Pierre Bersuire for the task of translating Livy's History of Rome are investigated. It is concluded that Bersuire was ideally suited for the task because he had access to the most complete Livy texts available at the time, he was a renowned academic and humanist and was a respected, senior member of the Church. Examining the linguistics of the translation is outside the scope of this study but the success of the translation is measured by other factors: the dissemination of the text, the lavishness of its copies, the use of the manuscripts and the impact of the translation on other translations. The Melbourne Livy is argued to have belonged to the Burgundian Court and was possibly a New Year's Day gift to Philippe le Hardi from Dino Rapondi in 1400. Because of the lack of documentary evidence, the argument is based on stylistic comparisons between the Melbourne Livy and three other manuscripts, which are the only extant manuscripts that were produced by the Rapondi brothers for Philippe le Hardi. The comparison concentrates mainly on border decorations, but miniatures are also compared. The similarities in the decorative elements identified by these comparisons support the contention that the four manuscripts were all produced in the one workshop so may have been intended for the one patron - Philippe le Hardi. The illustrative programme is then studied from the point of view of influences that impacted upon it as well as its possible aims. Apart from relating the Melbourne Livy programme to previous Livy manuscripts and the wider genre of historical narrative, the political, social and didactic influences are also gauged. It is concluded that the Melbourne Livy adequately served the social and political aims of its patron. Finally, in an attempt to answer the question raised by previous scholars regarding the number of artists involved in the programme, a detailed study of the miniatures is undertaken. It is my belief that three, or possibly four artists were involved. My findings confirm the attribution by Millard Meiss that the miniatures of the 'first artist' relate to the Cite des Dames Master; and that the 'second artist' is most likely the Polycratique Master as suggested by Francois Avril. The remaining artist or artists were strongly influenced by this latter Master. Because of the highly collaborative nature of manuscript illumination, however, no decisive conclusions are drawn.
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ItemColonizing concepts of Aboriginal rights in land in Port Phillip and South Australia in the 1830s( 2002)At a time when Anglo-Australian law purports to recognize Indigenous systems of land ownership through the doctrine of 'native title', it is pertinent to examine previous discourses of 'recognition' and their impact within the process of colonization. As Patrick Wolfe points out, the uncompensated Indigenous owner presents a discomforting obstacle to non-Indigenous claims over land and national belonging in Australia. Dealing with the 'problem' of the uncompensated Indigenous owner was therefore an important element of the colonization process in colonies of settlement such as South Australia and Port Phillip. While Some resolution of the outstanding 'rights of the Aborigines' was necessary for the completion of colonization, to enable the colonizers to 'settle', it also threatened to undo or prevent colonization, demanding a return of the resources appropriated during colonization. Through the techniques observed in this thesis, colonizers constantly balanced these two actions. Deborah Bird Rose describes these twin operations as the left and right hands of conquest: …the right hand of conquest is conceptualised as beneficent: it brings productivity, growth and civilisation where these had not existed before, transforming nature into culture.. . Indigenous Australia was not, and is not now, a series of absences ... The task of the left hand of conquest is to erase all this specit1c life. The left hand creates the tabula rasa which the right hand will then transform into growth and civilisation ... Finally, there is inevitably a great disjunction between the concept of progress, and the practice of destruction. There are many strategies whereby the right hand can deny what the left hand is doing. This thesis observes three discourses through which colonizers managed this dual task of ‘protectin’ Aboriginal rights and peoples while also appropriating Aboriginal lands - discourses of legal rights, econOl11ic concepts of ‘property’ and humanitarian obligation. The very delineation of these three discourses operated as an exercise of power by which colonizers c1aiIned to 'manage' Aboriginal rights in land while excluding Indigenous voices. The lines of distinction between these discourses - between 'ancient occupation' and 'proprietary right to the Soil, between 'a plain and sacred right' and 'some portion of their own land, - were the points at which colonizers strategically denied Indigenous systems of law as sovereign entities and Indigenous people as land-owning subjects.
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ItemSydney Dance Company: a study of a connecting thread with the Ballets Russes( 2009)This thesis addresses unexplored territory within a relatively new body of scholarship concerning the history of the Ballets Russes in Australia. Specifically, it explores the connection between the original Diaghilev Ballets Russes (1909- 1929) and the trajectories of influence of Russian ballets that visited Australia. This thesis addresses unexplored territory within a relatively new body of scholarship concerning the history of the Ballets Russes in Australia. Specifically, it explores the connection between the original Diaghilev Ballets Russes (1909- 1929) and the trajectories of influence of Russian ballets that visited Australia. This study sketches the origins of the Ballets Russes, the impact its launch made on dance in the West, and how it progressed through three distinguishable phases of influence. It summarises the important features of the visits to Australia of Russian ballet companies from Adeline Genee in 1913 to the culturally altering impact of the revived Ballets Russes companies over three extended tours between 1936 and 1940. It charts the formation of viable ballet companies in Australia, commencing with Kirsova in 1939 and Borovansky in 1940, to the Australian Ballet in 1962 and the Sydney Dance Company led by Murphy between 1976 and 2008. Drawing on distinctions between classical and contemporary dance, it attempts to demonstrate the groundwork of example established by the Russian ballet, and, particularly, the revived Ballets Russes visits up to 1940. Data for this thesis was drawn from a personal interview with Graeme Murphy, original documentary research in public collections in Australia, government and Sydney Dance Company archives, newspapers and secondary literature.