C.J. Dennis’ poetry in A Book for Kids (1922) exhibits a text that was emblematic of 1920s Australian literature and values. I have transformed the poem Old Black Jacko into an interview with a female indigenous health care worker in contemporary society.
The base text is a true representation of the values, and thus the literature, of 1920s Australia – a society struggling with the assimilation of the native people into white society after colonialism and Federation, the social organisation of the patriarchy typical to Eurocentric culture, and a system based on capitalism. The era saw the distinctive divide between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples grow as the Australian soldiers of WWI returned home victoriously, the non-indigenous …show more content…
Line 7: ‘But his lubra says…:’
The use of the term ‘lubra’ is an example of the lexicon of Australian racism, in which it is an offensive noun used synonymously with an indigenous woman. The inclusion of the term in the poem showcases the power construct between the native people and the colonisers. It also serves as an example of the phallocentrism through the binaries constructed through the notion of ownership of women.
Line 7/8: ‘”…mine tink dat Jacky, him shmoke plenty too much baccy:”’
The poor speech of the ‘lubra’ serves as an allusion to the colonial observation that the native people of Australia were uneducated and unintelligent. The stereotype was reinforced in the text demonstrating Australia’s acceptance of the stereotype in the 1920s.
The poem consists of two verses, 6 lines in the first verse, and 2 lines in the second. The poem is based on a rhyming scheme of A,A,B,C,C,B,D,D, and the imagery is literal rather than figurative. The accompanying caricature is sympathetic to the intended reading, but invokes a deeper sense of racist …show more content…
The first obvious difference is the genre, where the base text’s genre is a poem and the transformed text is an interview. I abandoned the phallocentric undertones in the base text by creating a contrast and assigning the two protagonists in the transformed text an obviously female gender. I removed the colonial features of the text through the adoption of a postcolonial energy in both the questions and answers. I kept the basis of the protagonists title ‘Old Black Jacko’ but transformed the essence of it, changing it slightly to ‘Old Black Jackie.’ I did this to highlight the blatant connotations of racism in the base text, but also to draw attention to the fact that the reclamation by indigenous peoples of offensive titles and linguistics used in a derogatory manner against them is not considered offensive or politically incorrect. I transformed the protagonist’s view on smoking from one of support to one of disapproval. I did this to challenge the stereotypes constructed by non-indigenous peoples that generalises that all aboriginals smoke. While this stereotype was partially confirmed through the statistics offered by the protagonist in the transformed text, her negative stance on the matter as a health issue challenges the stereotype because she is disagreeing with a generalisation of her own
The base text is a true representation of the values, and thus the literature, of 1920s Australia – a society struggling with the assimilation of the native people into white society after colonialism and Federation, the social organisation of the patriarchy typical to Eurocentric culture, and a system based on capitalism. The era saw the distinctive divide between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples grow as the Australian soldiers of WWI returned home victoriously, the non-indigenous …show more content…
Line 7: ‘But his lubra says…:’
The use of the term ‘lubra’ is an example of the lexicon of Australian racism, in which it is an offensive noun used synonymously with an indigenous woman. The inclusion of the term in the poem showcases the power construct between the native people and the colonisers. It also serves as an example of the phallocentrism through the binaries constructed through the notion of ownership of women.
Line 7/8: ‘”…mine tink dat Jacky, him shmoke plenty too much baccy:”’
The poor speech of the ‘lubra’ serves as an allusion to the colonial observation that the native people of Australia were uneducated and unintelligent. The stereotype was reinforced in the text demonstrating Australia’s acceptance of the stereotype in the 1920s.
The poem consists of two verses, 6 lines in the first verse, and 2 lines in the second. The poem is based on a rhyming scheme of A,A,B,C,C,B,D,D, and the imagery is literal rather than figurative. The accompanying caricature is sympathetic to the intended reading, but invokes a deeper sense of racist …show more content…
The first obvious difference is the genre, where the base text’s genre is a poem and the transformed text is an interview. I abandoned the phallocentric undertones in the base text by creating a contrast and assigning the two protagonists in the transformed text an obviously female gender. I removed the colonial features of the text through the adoption of a postcolonial energy in both the questions and answers. I kept the basis of the protagonists title ‘Old Black Jacko’ but transformed the essence of it, changing it slightly to ‘Old Black Jackie.’ I did this to highlight the blatant connotations of racism in the base text, but also to draw attention to the fact that the reclamation by indigenous peoples of offensive titles and linguistics used in a derogatory manner against them is not considered offensive or politically incorrect. I transformed the protagonist’s view on smoking from one of support to one of disapproval. I did this to challenge the stereotypes constructed by non-indigenous peoples that generalises that all aboriginals smoke. While this stereotype was partially confirmed through the statistics offered by the protagonist in the transformed text, her negative stance on the matter as a health issue challenges the stereotype because she is disagreeing with a generalisation of her own