Darwinism and images of race in the Australian popular press (c.1860-1900)

Abstract

This thesis began as an examination of the influence of Darwinism on images of racial types in the Australian illustrated popular press. Taking a broad scope, encompassing depictions of the Irish, Chinese, Aborigine and South Sea Islander, I soon discovered that a single focus on social Darwinist influence was perhaps more restrictive than revealing. Consequently, although I maintain Darwinian evolutionary theory is at the hub of influences on the iconography of racial types, I have allowed my analysis to range outside the Darwinian influence to encircle a more complex ideological construction of these racial images. Nevertheless, I have kept the core of the study as a demonstration of the significant impact of Darwinian evolutionary theory on the iconography of racial groups. I argue that the influence of the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species on racial representations was mainly on the modification of existing iconographic stereotypes, but I also claim that the evolutionary impact did produce new images or types. The principal focus is the Australian popular illustrated and comic press. However, to investigate the derivation of particular iconographic types, selected English and American sources are also examined.