Expressions of Dislocation in the Settler Colony of Australia; The Australian Gothic

Abstract

The settler colony of Australia has historically been perceived as the “weird” antipodean underbelly of Europe, its society predominantly built on the uncanny manifestations of displaced European value systems, art forms and understandings inherited through colonisation. I have felt this displacement of culture particularly strongly as a composer working within the Western classical discipline. In this thesis I contextualise these feelings within a survey of works to demonstrate that themes of dislocation have been a constant preoccupation for Australian artists seeking to reflect on a sense of place and define an artistic identity. One expression that has been used to tap into and further intensify feelings of uncanny dislocation in Australia is the Gothic. Drawing primarily on the analyses of Gerry Turcotte, Jo Jones, Ken Gelder and Emma Doolan, I demonstrate how the displacement and transformation of the Gothic – a form that both expresses ideas of dislocation and is displaced from European culture itself – reflects the broader circumstances of cultural inheritance in settler societies. In Australia it has been used especially to pull apart and redefine local and national identity and to critique the legacies of colonialism. The Gothic has brought my own artistic practice into focus. My composition portfolio reflects the Gothic’s dual capacity via two structurally interlinked collections and through various themes of dislocation that include the treatment of motivic and harmonic material, landscape representation and ideas of place. I compose with layered acts of dislocation that offer new perspectives, simulating the breakdown of European forms found in Gothic expressions and the hauntings of cultural echoes. Through my creative process I have explored the tension between wanting to reject a set of inherited cultural values and traditions and the opposing, simultaneous recognition of the inability to escape these cultural echoes, even if they are part of the picture of a problematic colonial legacy.