BOOK
Inside Australian Culture
Baden Offord | Erika Kerruish | Rob Garbutt | Adele Wessell | Kirsten Pavlovic | Ashis Nandy | Vinay Lal
(2014)
Additional Information
Book Details
Abstract
“Inside Australian Culture: Legacies of Enlightenment Values” offers a critical intervention in the continuing effects of colonization in Australia and the structures it brought, which still inform and dominate its public culture. Through a careful analysis of three disparate but significant moments in Australian history, the authors investigate the way the British Enlightenment continues to dominate contemporary Australian thinking and values. Employing the lens of Indian cultural theorist Ashis Nandy, the authors argue for an Australian public culture that is profoundly conscious of its assumptions, history and limitations.
‘Inside Australian Culture digs into Australia’s past to provide an open scrutiny of the values that shape a culture and a nation. I commend this book for encouraging lively debates on how to foster an inclusive, equal Australia.’ —Elisabeth Porter, University of South Australia
‘Through powerful analysis, the five voices in this book propose a new normative rationale to counteract the modern fundamentalisation of Enlightenment underpinning Australian public culture.’ —Susan Ballyn, University of Barcelona
‘This book is a bold statement on issues of deep importance in Australian life: our cultural history, our racial politics, and the shape of our public culture. The authors have produced a highly readable and also disturbing book, most relevant to our disturbing times.’ —Raewyn Connell, University of Sydney
Given Australia’s status as an (unfinished) colonial project of the British Empire, the basic institutions that were installed in its so-called ‘empty’ landscape derive from a value-laden framework borne out of industrialization, colonialism, the consolidation of the national statist system and democracy – all entities imbued with British Enlightenment principles and thinking. Modernity in Australia has thus been constituted by the importation, assumption and triumph of the Western mind – materially, psychologically, culturally, socio-legally and cartographically. ‘Inside Australian Culture: Legacies of Enlightenment Values’ offers a critical intervention into the continuing effects of colonization in Australia and the structures it brought, which still inform and dominate its public culture. Through a careful analysis of three disparate but significant moments in Australian history, the authors investigate the way the British Enlightenment continues to dominate contemporary Australian thinking and values. Employing the lens of Indian cultural theorist Ashis Nandy, the authors argue for an Australian public culture that is profoundly conscious of its assumptions, history and limitations.
‘This book is a bold statement on issues of deep importance in Australian life: our cultural history, our racial politics, and the shape of our public culture. The authors have produced a highly readable and also disturbing book, most relevant to our disturbing times.’ —Raewyn Connell, University of Sydney
‘Inside Australian Culture digs into Australia’s past to provide an open scrutiny of the values that shape a culture and a nation. I commend this book for encouraging lively debates on how to foster an inclusive, equal Australia.’ —Elisabeth Porter, University of South Australia
“Inside Australian Culture: Legacies of Enlightenment Values” offers a critical intervention in the continuing effects of colonization in Australia and the structures it brought, which still inform and dominate its public culture. Through a careful analysis of three disparate but significant moments in Australian history, the authors investigate the way the British Enlightenment continues to dominate contemporary Australian thinking and values. Employing the lens of Indian cultural theorist Ashis Nandy, the authors argue for an Australian public culture that is profoundly conscious of its assumptions, history and limitations.
‘Through powerful analysis, the five voices in this book propose a new normative rationale to counteract the modern fundamentalisation of Enlightenment underpinning Australian public culture.’ —Susan Ballyn, University of Barcelona
Table of Contents
Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
---|---|---|---|
Inside Australian Culture | i | ||
Title | iii | ||
Copyright | iv | ||
CONTENTS | v | ||
Foreword IS AUSTRALIA A VICTIM OF THE ETHICAL LIMITS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT? A MODEST FOREWORD FOR AN IMMODEST VENTURE | vii | ||
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | xiii | ||
Chapter One INTRODUCTION | 1 | ||
Overview | 1 | ||
As Others See Us | 3 | ||
Towards a Reflective Culture | 8 | ||
Structure and Style of the Book | 10 | ||
Part One GETTING INSIDE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC CULTURE | 13 | ||
Chapter Two THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND TRADITION IN EARLY COLONIAL SOCIETY | 15 | ||
Born Modern: Securing an Enlightenment Social Order | 16 | ||
Support and Resistance: The Persistence of Tradition | 22 | ||
Colonisation: Shaping an Enlightenment Tradition | 28 | ||
Conclusion | 31 | ||
Chapter Three AUSTRALIAN VALUES AND THEIR PUBLIC CULTURE(S) | 33 | ||
The Public Sphere and Its Architecture | 34 | ||
The Arena of Public Culture | 37 | ||
Public Culture and Contemporary Australian Values | 37 | ||
Constructing or Negotiating Citizenship | 40 | ||
Conversations in the Public Culture | 41 | ||
Part Two THREE MOMENTS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT | 45 | ||
Chapter Four MOMENT ONE. AN ACT TO REGULATE CHINESE IMMIGRATION (1858): CELESTIAL MIGRATIONS | 47 | ||
Golden Hordes | 48 | ||
New South Wales and the Bill | 50 | ||
The Select Committee | 53 | ||
The Report of the Select Committee | 59 | ||
Chapter Five MOMENT TWO. CUBILLO V. THE COMONWEALTH (2000): THE ‘HISTORY DEFENCE’ – STANDARDS OF THE TIME | 63 | ||
Cubillo v. the Commonwealth | 66 | ||
Lorna Cubillo, née Nelson | 68 | ||
Peter Gunner | 69 | ||
The Judgement on History | 73 | ||
History and Colonisation | 75 | ||
Chapter Six MOMENT THREE. AUSTRALIAN LOCALISM AND THE CRONULLA RIOT (2005): THE ‘BARBARIC LAW’ OF ‘HE WHO WAS THERE FIRST | 79 | ||
Introduction | 79 | ||
The Local Context: Cronulla Beach, Sunday, 11 December 2005 | 81 | ||
A Description of the Cronulla Riot as an Eruption of Localism in Sydney Print Media | 83 | ||
Australian Localism and the Cronulla Riot | 89 | ||
Conclusion | 94 | ||
Part Three WORKING WITH THE NECESARY OTHER | 95 | ||
Chapter Seven THE CLOSING OF PUBLIC CULTURE TO COMMUNAL DIFFERENCE\r | 97 | ||
The 1858 Bill: Traditions of Tolerance and Exclusions of Enlightenment | 99 | ||
Cubillo v. the Commonwealth (2000): History, Civilisation and Accountability | 103 | ||
The Cronulla Riot (2005): The Psychology of Exile | 108 | ||
Conclusion | 111 | ||
Afterword THE EMPTINES WITHIN AND WITHOUT: ENLIGHTENMENT AUSTRALIA AND ITS DEMONS | 115 | ||
NOTES | 123 | ||
Preface and Acknowledgements | 123 | ||
Chapter One. Introduction | 123 | ||
Chapter Two. The Enlightenment and Tradition in Early Colonial Society | 125 | ||
Chapter Three. Australian Values and Their Public Culture(s) | 128 | ||
Chapter Four. Moment One. An Act to Regulate Chinese Immigration (1858): Celestial Migrations | 128 | ||
Chapter Five. Moment Two. Cubillo v. the Commonwealth (2000): The ‘History Defence’ – Standards of the Time | 130 | ||
Chapter Six. Moment Three. Australian Localism and the Cronulla Riot (2005): The ‘Barbaric Law’ of ‘He Who Was There First’ | 134 | ||
Chapter Seven. The Closing of Public Culture to Communal Difference | 137 | ||
Afterword. The Emptiness Within and Without: Enlightenment Australia and Its Demons | 140 | ||
INDEX | 143 |