From the ruins of colonialism : history as social memory /
Series: Studies in Australian historyPublication details: Cambridge [England] ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 1997.Description: viii, 249 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmISBN:- 0521562783
- 9780521562782
- 0521565766
- 9780521565769
Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Whitecliffe Library General Shelves | General | DU 108 HEA (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 0005096 |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 224-245) and index.
Introduction: From the Ruins of Colonialism -- Part I. In The Beginning -- 1. Captain Cook and Genesis: White Histories of Cook -- 2. Captain Cook and Death: Black Histories of Cook -- Part II. Installing Memory -- 3. We Remember For You: The Memory-work of Museums -- 4. 'History is Disliked': The Memory-work of Schooling -- Part III. In The Event -- 5. Battle Memories: Echoes of Eureka -- 6. Eliza Fraser and the Impossibility of Postcolonial History.
From the Ruins of Colonialism throws new light on history, social memory and colonialism. The book charts how films, books and storytelling, public commemoration and instruction have, in a strange ensemble, created something we call Australian history. It considers key moments of historical imagination, including Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal histories of Captain Cook, school-histories and museum exhibitions, and the gendering of events such as the Eureka Stockade and the shipwreck of Eliza Fraser. Chris Healy argues that the way in which the past is constructed in the public imagination raises pressing questions. He describes the predicament of European Australians who imagined a continent 'without history' while themselves being obsessed with history. He asks: what can history mean in a postcolonial society?