School of Culture and Communication - Theses
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ItemSpirit possession and healing rites in a Balinese village( 1978)This thesis seeks to describe and analyse a ritual known as the sanghyang dadara-dadari. It is a religious ritual, which will be shown to communicate through its use of known symbolic, metaphoric and metonymic forms of language and behaviour, the nature of the supernatural, and the interaction between the supernatural and the people of this Balinese village. It is the nature of this supernatural power, the cosmological order, and the role which this ritual played in the religious belief system of this village between 1974-6, that this thesis seeks to clarify. In addition, I will attempt to identify any change which may have occurred in the form or content of the ritual over the past fifty years, and attempt to account for the reasons for this change. In order to do this the scope of the study has been widened to include all accounts of the ritual in Bali, and three other rituals of the same genre, including one example from Java, which have been recorded between 1901 and 1970. The existing literature concerning the sanghyang dadara-dadari is meagre. Only very sketchy accounts have been located, the majority written by foreigners who just happened to observe the ritual and described it for the benefit of other foreign tourists, as one of the weird and exotic attractions of this island. Written with this aim in mind, accurate accounts of the ritual cannot be expected. These accounts cover a period between 1925 and 1941 only. Since that date no written records of the ritual have been located, which suggests, and which is supported by my research during my period of field work in Bali, that the ritual is now defunct in those villages where it was recorded prior to 1941 and in any other villages where it may have been part of the religious belief system. Only in Cemenggacn has it continued to flourish. It was therefore important to record it on tape and observe many performances in order to provide an accurate record. (From Preface)
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ItemThe theme of melancholy in Wordsworth's poetry( 1974)My concern in this essay is to focus attention on an aspect of Wordsworth's work to which I have given the general name of a "theme of melancholy". I wish to suggest by this not some habitual melancholy of attitude, or an elegiac note, though both of these are involved in the theme, but rather something which is inherent in all his work, present as one of the shaping conditions of his poetry. We speak of Wordsworth as a revolutionary, poet above all as one who was concerned with the release of feeling, and who achieved that release in great and lasting modes; yet I believe that, if we are to say this, we must also take account of the pervasiveness of this "melancholy" in his work. The considerations involved in such an account must have an important bearing on our sense of his work as a whole, and they seem to me also to offer terms in which we may explore the reasons for the extreme difference in quality which is manifested in it.(From Introduction)
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ItemThe life and work of Ludwig Becker (1808-1861): with a critical analysis of his Australian oeuvre and an appreciation of his contribution to artistic and scientific developments in Victoria( 1978)Ludwig Becker’s name has long been associated with the Great Exploring Expedition of 1860-61 and the work he executed during the Expedition as artist, naturalist and geologist. But details of his life and training have been obscure and work undertaken prior to the Expedition relatively unknown. Becker was no superficial or flamboyant character but a true scholar. He appeared content to remain in the background, sharing his knowledge and contributing much to the cultural life of early Melbourne, always the worker while others took the honours. During the research for this study of Becker’s life and work I realised that it would be enhanced by extending the critical analysis into the scientific field. I sought some guidance from scientific specialists. I acknowledge with gratitude the advice given me by Mr John Calaby, Division of Wild Life Research, C.S.I.R.O., Canberra; and Mr Alan West, Curator of Anthropology, both of the National Museum of Victoria. Help provided on a specific point is acknowledged in the relative note. The scientists confirmed that Becker was able to identify correctly almost all living species of the animal world that he sketched, providing a considerable amount of data which they can hardly fault. In all other respects this thesis is an original work. It provides a biographical study of Becker in three sections. The first covers his life prior to his arrival in Australia; the second covers nine years spent in Tasmania and Victoria; and the third tells of the part he played on the Expedition until his death. There is a lengthy critical appraisal of his artistic work, the German tradition which moulded him and comparisons with other artists, especially William Strutt. There is also a chapter on his promotion of the arts in Victoria. Appendices, including hitherto unknown (in Australia) biographical details of Hermann Beckler, with whom he was closely associated on the Expedition, as well as full notes to the text, provide additional information and sources. The second volume contains the Catalogue of Becker’s work. That prior to the Expedition cannot claim to be complete but does give the fullest information available to date. The catalogue of the sketches of the Expedition is complete. These sketches and other documentary material, including reports, letters and meteorological observations on which I have based my study of this section are in the collection of the Royal Society of Victoria, now part of the special collections held in the La Trobe Library, State Library of Victoria. Also in the La Trobe Library are the Minutes in manuscript of the Victorian Society of Fine Arts which I believe worthy of inclusion as a lengthy appendix in this study.
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ItemTom Roberts and Australian impressionism, 1869 to 1903( 1962)“To Tom Roberts, from whose quick perception and expression of the principles of impressionism in the year 1886, sprang the first national school of painting in Australia”. It was thus that Arthur Streeton in 1915, dedicated an exhibition catalogue to his friend and teacher, Tom Roberts. In this study, I propose to investigate the implications of such a claim. My thesis will be divided into four sections as follows: The first contains a discussion of the sources of Roberts’ art in Australia, England and Europe; and of the works which he brought back to Australia in 1885. It was these works which Streeton claimed had a profound effect on the painters of Melbourne. The second section is primarily concerned with the question of the nature of Roberts’ principles of impressionism; with the question of the development of such principles in the Australian context during the second half of the 1880’s. Also discussed is the nature of Roberts’ influence on the formation of the ‘national school of painting’. Section three centres around a discussion of Roberts’ subject-matter. In it are raised the problems of Roberts’ allegiance to a realist-impressionist programme and of the nature of his response to the Australian environment. The fourth section deals with the developments in Roberts’ maturing style and attitudes inspired by the change of place and of time, in the Sydney of the 1890’s.
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ItemJames Blackburn: civil engineer, surveyor and architect: his life and work in Van Diemen's Land (1833-1849)( 1970)The theme of this thesis is the elucidation in detail of the life of an early Australian professional mana and convict – in a sense – made good, and to discuss his projected and remaining achievement in Tasmania – with special emphasis (as this thesis is submitted within the domain of local Art History rather than in the wider field of Australian History) on his architectural work. At the time of commencement (1956-57) this combination of full-scale biography from primary source material with a professionally-orientated survey of a man’s life work was totally new to the Australian visual arts. Biographies such as a life of Francis Greenway by M.H. Ellis (1949) for instance, contained no analysis, comprehension or even real consideration of the only thing, ultimately, which made Greenway worth writing about for a serious audience – his architecture. There is still extremely little of this duality as far as nineteenth century artists are concerned, and none whatsoever in the field of early architecture. The concern here, as expressed in the title, is with James Blackburn’s life and work in the island of Tasmania – the “set task” (admittedly a self-chosen one) expires, in fact, in the year 1849 when he settled permanently in what was to become the State of Victoria. An epilogue has, notwithstanding, been appended both to round off the biographical narrative and to include for anyone interested such information as has been obtained with brief and desultory spare-time explorations outside the periods of research of the main bulk of the thesis text. A sustained and prolonged onslaught would not alter the outlines of Blackburn’s life in Melbourne, but might (and might not) give more details of his schemes and yield further undertakings as City Surveyor. If it be borne in mind that prior to this investigation the only three statements which had been made about Blackburn in Melbourne were to the effect that he was “Father of the Melbourne Water Supply” and that he died in 1852 after falling from a horse (the latter two inaccurate) it will be seen that a reasonable expansion of knowledge has been achieved, and the last chapter many not appear objectionably gratuitous in this context. (From Introduction)