Writing the Nation

Abstract

In this work Cynthia vanden Driesen examines how Patrick White inverts colonialist presentations of indigeneity in three of his novels: Voss, Fringe of Leaves, and Riders in the Chariot 1. As a contrasting text, she uses Conrad's Heart of Darkness as an example of well-known colonial work 2. She contends that 'Patrick White's project is unusual, in that it represents a white writer's attempt to "decolonize the mind", to stand away from the conditioning of a colonial culture and to reconstruct an image of a black world that subverts the orientalist stereotype' (xxxvi). Additionally, she distinguishes White's work from others' when he raises the possibility of white indigeneity, where the white settler 'belongs within the land as does the indigene' (xxvi). Under this perceptive mantle vanden Driesen claims White's work needs to be freshly investigated and lifts Writing the Nation above reflection of a national Aboriginal/white-settler tension to the more universal spectrum of transnational literature. Supporting the uninitiated reader, and following Edward Said's call for outlining an authorial 'inventory of traces' 3 , vanden Driesen provides her bordercrossing background as contextual placement for her perspective, supplies definitions, and produces a succinct analysis of the role, regional differences and importance of writers in settler-cultures in the broader post-colonial discourse, foregrounding Said's understandings of orientalism, and alternative representations of other cultures. With this introductory scaffolding, vanden Driesen, following Lawson, 4 opens with an historical overview of the socio-cultural awakening from 'amnesia' concerning white Australian perceptions of its indigenous peoples (1). Each novel is examined according to four themes presented as key indicators of colonialist outlook: indigenous autonomy, reversal of hegemony, transformation, and outcomes, with frequent reference to the historical events and existing records underpinning White's fictional re-interpretations of the facts. She notes, however, that the novels differ in time and setting, where, for example, Voss and Fringe of Leaves are set in colonial times, and have white protagonists enmeshed in a black world, while Riders in the Chariot has a black protagonist struggling within a white world (126). This difference affects the relationships between the characters and how they are positioned in society in each text. In regard to autonomy, vanden Driesen shows how in Voss, Patrick White presents the black world as 'a solid, even an ominous presence, able and willing to mount a challenge to white intrusion' contrasting it to Conrad's presentation in Heart of Darkness of a black world as being 'without social cohesiveness, [with] no