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Whiteness=politeness: interest-convergence in Australian history textbooks, 1950–2010
Citation
Moore, R, Whiteness=politeness: interest-convergence in Australian history textbooks, 1950-2010, Critical Discourse Studies, 17 pp. 111-129. ISSN 1740-5904 (2020) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
DOI: doi:10.1080/17405904.2019.1637760
Abstract
This paper examines discursive change in Australia from 1950 to 2010 through the lens of critical whiteness studies. Using textbooks as records of dominant narratives, I evaluate discourses of whiteness and Aboriginality in Australian history textbooks over this period of substantial social change. I show that overt discourses of white exceptionalism and Aboriginal deficiency are only present in the earliest decades of my sample. However, these discourses persist in later decades in ‘polite’ forms, maintaining the racial status quo while enabling whites to be positioned favourably. I argue that discursive change only becomes embedded in textbooks if it bolsters the status of whites, evidencing Bell’s thesis of interest-convergence.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Whiteness, Australian history, interest-convergence, Aboriginality, discourse, ignorance |
Research Division: | Human Society |
Research Group: | Sociology |
Research Field: | Sociology of migration, ethnicity and multiculturalism |
Objective Division: | Culture and Society |
Objective Group: | Understanding past societies |
Objective Field: | Understanding Australia's past |
UTAS Author: | Moore, R (Dr Robyn Moore) |
ID Code: | 140071 |
Year Published: | 2020 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 3 |
Deposited By: | Office of the School of Social Sciences |
Deposited On: | 2020-07-23 |
Last Modified: | 2021-01-27 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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