SEMINAR - Kazue Nakamura - "Brown Rabbits and Yellow Butterflies: Yellow Peril in Australia" (Monash U, Clayton, Vic) [17.08.2010]
Orientalism in Australia
Brown Rabbits and Yellow Butterflies: “Yellow Peril” in Australia
Presenter: NAKAMURA, Kazue, Professor of Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan (Comparative Literature and Culture)
Date: 10 September (Fri) 2010
Time: 16:00-17:00
Venue: Japanese Studies Centre (Bldg.54), Monash University, Clayton
Abstract:
Discourse of “Yellow Peril” includes the myth of promiscuity, which makes Asians both appalling and attractive. On the appalling side Asians are “brown rabbits” invading white Australia with their fertility and the devastating power of their masses. On the attractive side Asians are mostly effeminate or “en-butterflied.” The analysis of such stereotyped images of Asians is a popular theme for Australian cultural history. Interestingly, however, Japanese studies on “Yellow Peril” often underestimate, or even disregard, the role of Australia in this much discussed problematic ideology. This seminar presentation was first conceived as a response to Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia 1850-1939 by Prof. David Walker (Deakin University), and tries to understand the tenacious fantasy called “Asians” from a Japanese viewpoint. Racial and sexual imageries used to support Orientalism in Australia and some other countries are discussed, from Charles H. Pearson’s famous National Life and Character(1893), Milca Eliade’s Maitreyi (1933) to Alison Tilson’s recent film Japanese Story (2003).
Profile:
Nakamura Kazue specializes in the study of comparative literature and culture, with special interest in ethnic and sexual minorities. She also is the author of the collection of poetry Lazrus the Lizard as well as two collections of columns and essays, writer of short stories, translator of Caribbean, Black British and other transcultural literatures in English. She is currently in Melbourne as a visiting researcher to the Japanese Studies Centre of Monash University.
The presentation will be conducted in English.
Enquiries: kazue.nakamura@monash.edu
All are welcome.