The earlier Australian poems focused on the male convict who had little respect for gaolers and soldiers, as Frank the Poet reflects in his satire ‘A Convicts Tour of Hell’ This attitude towards authority continued into the gold fields with poets writing about the disagreements with the law and the attempts to circumnavigate them. ‘Licence Hunting’ provides an example of the gold fields and the unity created between men as they battled against the system. ‘Captain Bumbles Letter’, a sarcastic verse, portrays the distain for soldiers and lawmakers, demonstrating the lack of respect for the authorities. Bushrangers became yet another element in the antiauthoritarian Australian image, romanticised in poems, verses, stories and folksongs of legends such as ‘The Wild Colonial Boy’. Again, these are male centric stories, pursuing the image of the underdog and the hatred of an unfair legal system. The poorer settlers, who believed that the system had let them down, welcomed this building up of mythical legends or exaggeration of heroic personalities. Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson produced many stories that supported the criminal or lawless side of society with popular works such as, ‘The Captain of the Push’ and ‘Waltzing Matilda’.
The convict culture that provided the foundations of Australia came from a law breaking society and one that endured what many found to be excessive punishment. It is therefore not surprising that an antiauthoritarian attitude developed and continued into the next century. From this history also came a strong bonding, particularly between the men who outnumbered the women. This gender imbalance guaranteed that many of the men would never have a permanent female companion or get married. Male relationships naturally developed on the road, in the gold mines and in the workforce. Poems often tell the story of men and their mates; any mention of women in these works often relates to a sexual interest or is a derogative passing comment. When women are included as characters in these works, they are often presented only in association to the male character of the story as occurs for example in Squeakers Mate by Barbara Baynton. Here the female character is not referred to by name but rather is identified as the main characters mate throughout the story. Mateship is a virtue found in most images of Australia it is the blood running through the veins of Australianness. Kylie Tennant’s novel The Battlers, tells a story of Swagmen and workers forced to leave home and travel the road to find work. Tennant’s main characters, Snow and Dancy, are unlikely partners, drawn together through necessity to survive and the persistence of misfortune. Whilst on the road, they find companionship and loyalty, and most of all mateship, the essence of Australianness. It was a dream of those who existed in undesirable conditions of the city, to live a better life somewhere else as depicted in Paterson’s Clancy of the Overflow. Many writers used qualities such as these to model their main characters in their stories.
Louis Stone’s character Jonah, in his novel by the same name, is loyal to the Push yet also to the people in his life. The character of Jonah changes with the birth of his son and the need to support him, transcending the typical Larrikin image into a loyal successful businessperson. These qualities of egalitarianism are common virtues of Australianness. Many Australian writers focused on the masculinity of their characters. Very few provided a balance in gender without involvement of a male character. C.J. Dennis wrote a series of stories based on a larrikin, The Sentimental Bloke, originally published in The Bulletin, later published by Angus and Robertson Publishers. In this series of vernacular verses, Dennis tells a story about Bill, ‘The Bloke’ who is a street larrikin. Dennis, through truth, simplicity and genuine emotions, humanises Bill when he meets a girl named Doreen. As Louis Stone had also achieved in Jonah, the larrikin Push leader changes when he discovers his son in a box and knocked for six by his own emotions. The ‘Sentimental Bloke’ is also changed by the influence of a girl named Doreen
These strong images of men contribute to the masculine Australian image of a strong hard man with a soft romantic and sentimental core. In classic tales, chivalry was a virtue of most heroes. This quality is also found in many Australian characters who defend the reputations of their women, mates and country when required. Australian literary culture has focused primarily on the influences of masculinity. The obvious question is why women have not had the same level of recognition. As Kay Schaffer states in her book Women and the Bush, there is no separate autonomous position for women as women are what men are not. Her meaning is that femininity represents the opposition of masculinity, where masculinity in the Australian character is not challenged by femininity but complimented and supported by the fact women are different. Miles Franklins My Brilliant Career supports this where her character Sybylla continually struggles to accept the femininity of her gender, preferring the mateship and casual relationship with the masculine gender. Franklin recognises the limitations that women played in influencing their surroundings. The men made the hard decisions whilst the women maintained the home. Kay Schaffer states that language assumes the national identity is masculine. Although this may not be as common today, gender played an important role in language and the creation of images. Images of convicts in chains, gold miners panning the rivers, bushrangers and Larrikins are all male images.
In conclusion, early Australian literature focused on the dominance of men in its population. Heroes and legends developed through popular stories, mostly built on the life experiences of the writers themselves. Often characters were developed from the lawless members of society. This antiauthoritarian behaviour became a characteristic of many Australian images, such as bushrangers and larrikins. The lack of jobs in the city forced men to leave home looking for work. Men outnumbered the women on the road and mateship between the men became a strong bond that developed into an important element of Australianness. The strongest of images, either in the bush or from a city street, always involved men. The masculinity of the Australian icons very rarely involved women, and then only in a supportive role. The larrikin is a masculine image of Australianness arising from the struggle to survive the poverty of the depression. The image of the swagman travelling from town to town looking for work, and the stories of bushrangers or stockmen romanticised the lifestyle of the bush. With few feminine characters found in iconic stories, the virtues of Australianness were firmly embedded in masculinity. Feminist may find where women played their roles in history often supporting their men, but Australianness has a very masculine disposition. Through the constructs and images of antiauthoritarianism, mateship and larrikinism, the literary writers have developed an iconic persona representing the true character of Australianness. This Australian character is a strong masculine figure, invariably a person who dislikes authority, enjoying his freedom on the streets by moving from job to job. He is a true mate, always supportive and willing to fight for a good cause. A larrikin in the city or a stockman in the bush, he has pride and dignity, happy with his lot in life. Although there is a place for women alongside this image of Australianness, it is a masculine image, developed from the legends and myths of Australian history.
Reference List
An Anthology of Australian Verse and Song, (eds) Grant, D., Newman, J. and Seal, G. 2009 LCS12, Writing the Nation: Australian Literature to 1950, Curtin University of Technology.
Baynton, Barbara Speakers Mate, cited in Readings, 2009 LCS12, Writing the Nation: Australian Literature to 1950, Curtin University of Technology.
Blake, L.J. 1968, Australian Writers, Rigby Limited, James Place, Adelaide.
Dennis, C.J. 1915, The Sentimental Bloke, cited in An Anthology of Australian Verse and Song, (eds) Grant, D., Newman, J. and Seal, G. Writing the Nation: Australian Literature to 1950, LCS12 2009, Curtin University of Technology
Franklin, Miles (1901) 2001, My Brilliant Career, Harper Collins Publishers, Australia.
Paterson, A.B. (Banjo) Clancy of the Overflow, cited in an Anthology of Australian Verse and Song, (eds) Grant, D., Newman, J. and Seal, G. Writing the Nation: Australian Literature to 1950, LCS12 2009, Curtin University of Technology.
Schaffer, Kay 1988, Women and the Bush: Forces of Desire in the Australian Cultural Tradition, University of Cambridge, UK.
Stone, Louis (1911) 2003, Jonah, imprint 2003, Richmond Ventures Pty Limited, Sydney.
Tennant, Kylie (1941) 2002, The Battlers, A&R Classics, Harper Collins Publishers, Australia.
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