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Uncanny parallels: Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale, violence, and the Vandemonian past
Citation
Harman, K, Uncanny parallels: Jennifer Kent's The Nightingale, violence, and the Vandemonian past, Studies in Australasian Cinema, 14, (1) pp. 35-46. ISSN 1750-3175 (2020) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Studies in Australasian Cinema on 22/04/2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17503175.2020.1756172
DOI: doi:10.1080/17503175.2020.1756172
Abstract
Set in mid-1820s Van Diemen’s Land, The Nightingale depicts a dark and disturbing
Tasmanian past populated with redcoats, convicts, Aboriginal people, and a few free
settlers. Controversial scenes include the repeated rape of a young female convict, the
murders of her husband and infant, and the rape and murder of an Aboriginal woman.
Uncanny parallels can be drawn between the on-screen experiences of the white
female lead, and the violence visited on the bodies of Tasmanian colonial woman
Elizabeth Tibbs, her husband, and infant in 1826. After situating the film within its
historical context, this paper provides a mimetic reading through elaborating these
parallels. It interrogates key points of divergence between these fictional and historical
accounts of women’s lives to explore what they reveal about gender, class, race,
violence, and justice in colonial Van Diemen’s Land and its depiction in twenty-first
century Australia.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | history, Tasmania; Australia, film, The Nightingale, convicts |
| Research Division: | History, Heritage and Archaeology |
| Research Group: | Historical studies |
| Research Field: | Australian history |
| Objective Division: | Culture and Society |
| Objective Group: | Understanding past societies |
| Objective Field: | Understanding Australia's past |
| UTAS Author: | Harman, K (Associate Professor Kristyn Harman) |
| ID Code: | 137773 |
| Year Published: | 2020 |
| Deposited By: | Office of the School of Humanities |
| Deposited On: | 2020-03-04 |
| Last Modified: | 2022-08-29 |
| Downloads: | 23 View Download Statistics |
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