Lyn Dickens | The University of Sydney (original) (raw)

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Publications by Lyn Dickens

Research paper thumbnail of The “shattered racialised person” and (post)multiculturalism in Australia

This paper argues that both that the conventional theories of race and class, as well as the libe... more This paper argues that both that the conventional theories of race and class, as well as the liberal discourses of multiculturalism are inadequate to understand the formation of new diasporic, multiracial identities and their capacity to resist the hegemonic forces of cultural globalization. Drawing from Ghassan Hage’s notion of the “shattered racialised person”, this paper analyzes the diasporic predicaments of mixed race Australians in two contemporary Australian novels, The World Waiting to be Made and The Lost Dog. According to Hage, non-white, visibly different Australians identify themselves as part of the nation, only to be continually mis-interpellated and racialized as outsiders, an experience which results in a sense of fragmentation.

This paper contends that neither the liberal discourses of multiculturalism, which are based on fixed conceptions of incommensurable difference, nor the Leftist critics who rely on the rigid categories of class, race and ethnicity, are adequate to understand the “fragmented” or rather “shattered” character of the (Australian) multiracial subject under the aegis of globalization. Thus, the term “post-multiculturalism” here not only refers to the failures of multiculturalism at large, but the need for “a deeper commitment to a more far-reaching multiculturalism” (Hage 1998: 24) on account of the “shattered racialised” subject. Such an approach, the paper suggests, requires a theoretical ground that is not necessarily built upon the experiences of the diasporic subjects, but the transcultural encounters of the very postcolonial domain of nation formation. To that end, the essay draws from concepts such as créolization and Relation, as found in Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation, which, despite their Caribbean roots, have far-reaching applications to the Australian context.

Research paper thumbnail of Transcultural Horizons and the Limitations of Multiculturalism in'The World Waiting to be Made'

Australian Studies, Jan 1, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of Marginalising Multiraciality in Miss Saigon: an Analysis of Print Media’s Effect on People of Mixed Race

Research paper thumbnail of Fragmenting Feminism and the Familiar: The Death of the Universal Woman and the Process of Peace

Conference Presentations by Lyn Dickens

Research paper thumbnail of “To stroll around the back of knowledge”: interventions and alternative value in  contemporary Australian literatur

Papers by Lyn Dickens

Research paper thumbnail of Transcultural Horizons and the Limitations of Multiculturalism in 'The World Waiting to be Made

Australian Studies, Jun 16, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of The ‘Shattered Racialised Person’ and (Post)multiculturalism in Australia

Reworking Postcolonialism, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of “Creole Beauty”: constructions of Eurasian femininity in This Earth of Mankind, The Persimmon Tree and The Travel Writer

This paper explores the endurance of this racial and sexual stereotype by examining four Eurasian... more This paper explores the endurance of this racial and sexual stereotype by examining four Eurasian characters in three texts: Annelies in This Earth of Mankind (Pramoedya Ananta Toer: 1982), Anna in The Persimmon Tree (Courtenay: 2007) and mother and daughter Ghislaine and ...

Research paper thumbnail of “Creole Beauty”: constructions of Eurasian femininity in This Earth of Mankind, The Persimmon Tree and The Travel Writer

This paper explores the endurance of this racial and sexual stereotype by examining four Eurasian... more This paper explores the endurance of this racial and sexual stereotype by examining four Eurasian characters in three texts: Annelies in This Earth of Mankind (Pramoedya Ananta Toer: 1982), Anna in The Persimmon Tree (Courtenay: 2007) and mother and daughter Ghislaine and ...

Research paper thumbnail of Intervening in the racial imaginary: ‘mixed race’ and resistance in contemporary Australian Literature

Research paper thumbnail of The “shattered racialised person” and (post)multiculturalism in Australia

This paper argues that both that the conventional theories of race and class, as well as the libe... more This paper argues that both that the conventional theories of race and class, as well as the liberal discourses of multiculturalism are inadequate to understand the formation of new diasporic, multiracial identities and their capacity to resist the hegemonic forces of cultural globalization. Drawing from Ghassan Hage’s notion of the “shattered racialised person”, this paper analyzes the diasporic predicaments of mixed race Australians in two contemporary Australian novels, The World Waiting to be Made and The Lost Dog. According to Hage, non-white, visibly different Australians identify themselves as part of the nation, only to be continually mis-interpellated and racialized as outsiders, an experience which results in a sense of fragmentation.

This paper contends that neither the liberal discourses of multiculturalism, which are based on fixed conceptions of incommensurable difference, nor the Leftist critics who rely on the rigid categories of class, race and ethnicity, are adequate to understand the “fragmented” or rather “shattered” character of the (Australian) multiracial subject under the aegis of globalization. Thus, the term “post-multiculturalism” here not only refers to the failures of multiculturalism at large, but the need for “a deeper commitment to a more far-reaching multiculturalism” (Hage 1998: 24) on account of the “shattered racialised” subject. Such an approach, the paper suggests, requires a theoretical ground that is not necessarily built upon the experiences of the diasporic subjects, but the transcultural encounters of the very postcolonial domain of nation formation. To that end, the essay draws from concepts such as créolization and Relation, as found in Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation, which, despite their Caribbean roots, have far-reaching applications to the Australian context.

Research paper thumbnail of Transcultural Horizons and the Limitations of Multiculturalism in'The World Waiting to be Made'

Australian Studies, Jan 1, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of Marginalising Multiraciality in Miss Saigon: an Analysis of Print Media’s Effect on People of Mixed Race

Research paper thumbnail of Fragmenting Feminism and the Familiar: The Death of the Universal Woman and the Process of Peace

Research paper thumbnail of “To stroll around the back of knowledge”: interventions and alternative value in  contemporary Australian literatur

Research paper thumbnail of Transcultural Horizons and the Limitations of Multiculturalism in 'The World Waiting to be Made

Australian Studies, Jun 16, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of The ‘Shattered Racialised Person’ and (Post)multiculturalism in Australia

Reworking Postcolonialism, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of “Creole Beauty”: constructions of Eurasian femininity in This Earth of Mankind, The Persimmon Tree and The Travel Writer

This paper explores the endurance of this racial and sexual stereotype by examining four Eurasian... more This paper explores the endurance of this racial and sexual stereotype by examining four Eurasian characters in three texts: Annelies in This Earth of Mankind (Pramoedya Ananta Toer: 1982), Anna in The Persimmon Tree (Courtenay: 2007) and mother and daughter Ghislaine and ...

Research paper thumbnail of “Creole Beauty”: constructions of Eurasian femininity in This Earth of Mankind, The Persimmon Tree and The Travel Writer

This paper explores the endurance of this racial and sexual stereotype by examining four Eurasian... more This paper explores the endurance of this racial and sexual stereotype by examining four Eurasian characters in three texts: Annelies in This Earth of Mankind (Pramoedya Ananta Toer: 1982), Anna in The Persimmon Tree (Courtenay: 2007) and mother and daughter Ghislaine and ...

Research paper thumbnail of Intervening in the racial imaginary: ‘mixed race’ and resistance in contemporary Australian Literature