Beyond empire: Australian cinematic identity in the twenty-first century

Abstract

Beyond empire: australian cinematic identity in the twenty-first century aBstraCt Australian cinema has played and continues to play an important part in the formation and formulation of Australia. This article explores the relation between Australia and empire through the analysis of three iconic cinematic characters: Barry McKenzie, Mick Dundee and Kenny Smyth. The point of departure is the notion that Australianness has been constructed as an identity caught between empires, between the old (British) empire and the new (American) empire. Australian cinema itself has been for most (if not all) of its history caught between the British Empire and the American Empire. Yet, recently there are signs that Australian films are repositioning Australia as part of the Global Village, suggesting that Australian national identity might be moving beyond the imperial articulations of Australianness. The evolution of the relation between Australia and Anglo-Empire symbolized by the three characters studied here hints at the possibility of a twenty-first century post-imperial Australianness.

Prisons and picnics: tough talk and accent in Australian TV drama

“…In their study from the 1960s, Alex Mitchell and Arthur Delbridge (1965) identified three main varieties of Australian accent: ‘Broad’, ‘General’ and ‘Cultivated’. During the 1970s, when Prisoner first aired, this ‘Cultivated’ accent still endured despite being in sharp decline partly due to the new nationalism of the period, which was actively promoted by government and emphasised cultural self-definition and newfound appreciation of Australian English and the Australian accent (see Cao, 2012: 243; Doig, 2013). Before this, Australian film and broadcast media were heavily dominated by imported content from Britain and America, reflecting broader, cultural subservience to both these Anglo empires (see Cao, 2012; Cunningham, 1989).…”

“…During the 1970s, when Prisoner first aired, this ‘Cultivated’ accent still endured despite being in sharp decline partly due to the new nationalism of the period, which was actively promoted by government and emphasised cultural self-definition and newfound appreciation of Australian English and the Australian accent (see Cao, 2012: 243; Doig, 2013). Before this, Australian film and broadcast media were heavily dominated by imported content from Britain and America, reflecting broader, cultural subservience to both these Anglo empires (see Cao, 2012; Cunningham, 1989). At this time, broadcast media were largely voiced in ‘Cultivated Australian’, which Bruce Moore (2008: 129) describes as ‘a product of Empire’ that registers the ‘curious blend of Australianness and Britishness that framed notions of nationalism in twentieth-century Australia’.…”