Suchergebnisse

This article argues that the assimilation policy adopted by the Australian government during the 1950s was based on a denial of a migrant's past. The assumption that the migrant would readily merge into Australian cultural life ignored the ways in which past stories and memories shape the self. Through an analysis of the Good Neighbour Councils I explore the nature of assimilation that was based on a neglect of collective war memories of immigrant groups. This perspective is distinguished from that adopted by several theorists of the day such as W.D. Borrie and Jean Martin whose studies were less crude and one‐dimensional. The experiences of Greek migrants are examined to consider how Greek war stories could not often find expression or recognition in the assimilationist climate of the post‐war period.

This article considers the way in which the Great War created unique conditions where medical intellectuals became part of a wider canvas of debate about psychology and medicine; mind and body; and, more broadly, crossed the artificial divide between the humanities and the medical sciences. Medicine has not been usually identified as a field for "intellectuals" as such. The nature of cultural and social analysis lends itself more readily to those working in the fields of sociology, political science, literature and history. But the medical intellectuals who are the subject of this article can be seen as extending our understanding of the relationship between the self and society. Such an intellectual engagement was considerably assisted, it is argued, by the advent of the Medical Journal of Australia a month before the outbreak of war. which initially served to document practices associated with medical science, but quickly evolved into a journal that connected medicine to the broader society and wider culture. The devastating impact of the war provided an extraordinary context within which these discussions took place, and radically challenged many assumptions held by the medical profession, especially with regard to the relationship between the mind and the body.

Explores the issue of the widow's pension & charity in interwar Australia, drawing on an analysis of the records of the Charity Organization Society in Victoria & the views of charity workers. That the survival of the family preoccupied the state rather than the plight of widows seems to be informed by the fantasy of finding the perfect mother with the pension designed to prevent further family fragmentation & keep the mother in the home. The expectation that children would provide for their families dated from the early 19th century & is also fueled by fantasies about motherhood, children, & the family that framed the attitudes of interwar charity workers who, along with the state, assumed an emotional bond between children & widows. The interwar period evidenced much resistance to this assumption on the part of children. The 1930s professionalization of social work ushered in a shift that led to more actual listening to women & attempted directing of their behavior rather than merely observing their economic situation. It is argued that professionalization did not transform the extant moralism, but lent a new language through which to frame poverty. Analysis of studies on the role of silence or denial in families as protection from stigma or legal condemnation underpins a discussion of the impact of gossip & rumor in deriving the assumptions about poor families; at issue is how silence, secrecy, & evasion were interpreted by charity workers who viewed such behavior as deceitful & deceptive. In this light, workers employed shame to obtain information from widows & exert their sociopolitical power. In terms of legislation & charity work, familial notions of the responsible mother & doting children were enforced. However, neither widows nor children conformed to these ideas, & actual family relations were rife with the kind of fragmentation the state sought to ameliorate via the widow's pension. J. Zendejas

Explores the issue of the widow's pension & charity in interwar Australia, drawing on an analysis of the records of the Charity Organization Society in Victoria & the views of charity workers. That the survival of the family preoccupied the state rather than the plight of widows seems to be informed by the fantasy of finding the perfect mother with the pension designed to prevent further family fragmentation & keep the mother in the home. The expectation that children would provide for their families dated from the early 19th century & is also fueled by fantasies about motherhood, children, & the family that framed the attitudes of interwar charity workers who, along with the state, assumed an emotional bond between children & widows. The interwar period evidenced much resistance to this assumption on the part of children. The 1930s professionalization of social work ushered in a shift that led to more actual listening to women & attempted directing of their behavior rather than merely observing their economic situation. It is argued that professionalization did not transform the extant moralism, but lent a new language through which to frame poverty. Analysis of studies on the role of silence or denial in families as protection from stigma or legal condemnation underpins a discussion of the impact of gossip & rumor in deriving the assumptions about poor families; at issue is how silence, secrecy, & evasion were interpreted by charity workers who viewed such behavior as deceitful & deceptive. In this light, workers employed shame to obtain information from widows & exert their sociopolitical power. In terms of legislation & charity work, familial notions of the responsible mother & doting children were enforced. However, neither widows nor children conformed to these ideas, & actual family relations were rife with the kind of fragmentation the state sought to ameliorate via the widow's pension. J. Zendejas

This paper reflects on the impact of gender in the writing of history by considering the reception of Creating A Nation, the first gendered history of Australia. It argues that while there has emerged an impressive volume of feminist history and with it has come an important acceptance of women's historical experience, the reception of 'gender' within the historical profession has paradoxically been ambivalent and ambiguous. This is the case because of an unease about feminist theory and its relevance to history. There also remains a prevailing belief that a gendered neutral historical place exists, to which historians can retreat.