Paternalism and Complicity
Or How Not to Atone for the ‘Sins of the Father’
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8891935 |
|---|---|
| Authors | F Probyn-Rapsey (0000-0002-3908-0816, The University of Sydney, corresponding author), Fiona Probyn |
| Year | 2007 |
| Publication date | 2007-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Australian Literary Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-9697 • E-ISSN: 1837-6479 |
| Publisher | Australian Literary Studies (PUBLISHER • AU) |
| DOI | 10.20314/als.45c983a9f5 |
| OpenAlex | W2204004932 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
The cultural politics of Australian colonialism revolve around discourses of paternalism and the ' protection' of Aboriginal people. Understanding how paternalism reproduces itself transgenerationally, and between whites and Aboriginal people, between subordinated groups, between women, is one way to approach its limits. Starting with this premise, I examine the ways in which paternalism reproduces itself, such that even today white paternalistic attitudes towards Aboriginal people and culture are pervasive. I focus here on Mary Ellen Jordan' s Australian memoir Balanda: My Year in Arnhem Land (2005), which is critical of, and complicit with, the biopolitical power of paternalism and its accompanying rhetoric of 'protection ' . I read this memoir within the context of a broader, shifting genealogy of protection within Australian cultural history, teasing out some of the implications of the capacity of paternalism to mutate and to retain its cultural and political influence
Complicity · Law and economics · Paternalism · Political science · Sociology · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Philosophy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |