Dismantling of the dominant European discourse in the poetry of Jeanine Leane
Until very recently a marginalised voice in Australian literary studies, Australian Indigenous literature has obtained an important role in the articulation of Indigenous peoples’ political thought, constituting an indictment of white Australian racism, a recuperation of neglected Aboriginal hist...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2020
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15721/1/37949-134989-1-PB.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15721/ http://ejournals.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1304 |
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| Summary: | Until very recently a marginalised voice in Australian literary studies, Australian Indigenous
literature has obtained an important role in the articulation of Indigenous peoples’ political
thought, constituting an indictment of white Australian racism, a recuperation of neglected
Aboriginal history, and a call for change. Based on the premise that literature can play an
important role in both maintaining and disrupting the exercise of power, and written against
the backdrop of post-colonial theory, the article deals with the collection of poems Dark
Secrets: After Dreaming A.D. 1987-1961 (2010) by the contemporary Australian Indigenous
author Jeanine Leane. Taking Leane’s poetry as exemplary of post-colonial textual resistance
to colonialist representations, the article shows how the poet, relying on the “transgenerational
blood memory” intervenes in the presupposed irreducible division between subjugating and
subjugated cultures, that is, the assumptions about whiteness as a static privilege-granting
category and a system of dominance upon which the logic of coloniality often stands. I argue
that, by mobilising various techniques and strategies to challenge the reproduction of whiteness
and affirm Indigenous Australians’ authentic, rather than an imposed cultural personality,
Leane’s verse performs both personal and collective empowerment of Indigenous Australians,
and represents an important site for the renegotiation of inter-racial relationships. |
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