Closing Up On The Near North

Travel literature and its study have been given increasing attention since mid-twentieth century. As an integral part of travel literature, the travel novels in Australian literature have also interested many Australian critics. After Vietnam War, Australians began to turn to Asia. Correspondingly, many Australian writers have published numerous Asia novels during the past few decades. Different from previous works in both content and styles with regard to the representation of Asia, contemporary Asia novels demonstrate Australians’new perceptions of Asia and of themselves. Asia novels in contemporary Australian literature generally fall into two phases. Asia novels in the 1960s and 1970s demonstrate Australians’temptation towards and fear of Asia when they initially turned to Asia, while those published in the 1980s and 1990s demonstrate Australians’increasing desire to embrace Asia and their deep-rooted doubt toward Asian cultures. Choosing four Asia novels respectively written by Christopher Koch, Robert Drewe, Nicholas Jose and Alex Miller, this dissertation researches into the unique characteristics of White Anglo-Celtic Male writers’representation of Asia. Through a close examination of these writers’attitudes in writing about Asia, it also probes into the adjustments and changes of contemporary Australians’perceptions of Asia and themselves as a nation.This dissertation consists of six chapters:Chapter One is the Introduction. It begins with a brief review of Asia novels in Australian literature, and then examines the contemporary critical theorizing about travel literature as the imaginative construction of exotic places, and the role travel literature plays in the construction of national identity. This chapter also offers an overview of the studies on contemporary Australian travel novels set in Asia done at home and abroad. Finally, this chapter explains the research purpose, methodology, theoretical framework and significance of the dissertation.Chapter Two focuses on Christopher Koch’s novel The Year of Living Dangerously (1978) and analyzes contemporary Australians’overwhelmingly positive attitudes toward Asia that emerged as a result of the country’s turn to Asia. While presenting Australians in love with Asia in the 1960s, The Year of Living Dangerously bespeaks the zeitgeist of Australia while the country just began to open itself to Asia. Though the social reality of Indonesia is negatively depicted in the novel, The Year of Living Dangerously mainly demonstrates Australians’fascination of Asian cultures. On one hand, there is an attraction to Indonesian art (wayang kulit). On the other, the Australian characters see in Indonesia a clear confirmation of the inevitability of duality and double aspect in Australian national identity. The Year of Living Dangerously represents Asia as a country full of cultural temptations. However, this kind of representation of Asia exposes the Orientalism in Australians’perception of Asia as an imaginative place.Chapter Three offers a comment on Robert Drewe’s novel A Cry in the Jungle Bar (1979) and analyzes Australians’anxiety and fear of Asia in their Asia encounter. A Cry in the Jungle Bar represents Asia as a place of hot weather, immoral sex and chaotic situation, which poses a threat to Australians in Asia. The novel goes to great length in describing the negative reality of Asia, and features an Australian character who suffers through all these and more in his Asia encounter. Similar to Australians’fascination with a romanticized Asia in The Year of Living Dangerously, the fear of Asia as depicted in A Cry in the Jungle Bar is also based on the Australian orientalization of Asia.Chapter Four analyzes Nicholas Jose’s novel Avenue of Eternal Peace (1989) and explores the contemporary Australians’cultural reservations and doubt toward Asia in the 1980s. Australians began to“embrace”Asia from the 1980s. The representation of Asia since then has tended to be more positive. Avenue of Eternal Peace features an Australian doctor who aims at learning the Chinese medical treatment of cancer. The novel represents China as a country of cultural diversity and social complexity. However, contemporary Australians’cultural biases toward China are hidden in the deep structure of the novel. Avenue of Eternal Peace suggests that the mystic culture of Chinese people remains an obstacle to Australians’attempt at embracing Asia.Chapter Five focuses on Alex Miller’s Miles Franklin Award winning novel The Ancestor Game (1992) and further explores Australians’attitudes toward Asia after the 1980s, when Australia further implements the policy of multiculturalism within the country and continues“embracing Asia”outside of the country. The Ancestor Game presents a picture of a multiculturalist Australia made up of varied ethnicities and diverse cultures. All characters in multiculturalist Australia in the novel seem to keep a memory of their familial genealogy. However, the Chinese ancestor complex leads to their unwillingness to integrate into Australian society. The Ancestor Game suggests that Australia is closer to Asia\China in the period of embracing Asia. But multiculturalist Australia would never live up to that name if the Asians\Chinese don’t give up playing“the ancestor game”.Chapter Six is the Conclusion. It points out that Australian writers have mainly adopted two strategies in the process of constructing Australian national identity, namely, constructing the typical Australian“Bushmen”or“Diggers”as a yardstick for the typical Australians or, constructing an“Other”with Asians, Aborigines and women to offset White Anglo-Celtic Male identity. The four Asia novels discussed in this dissertation belong to the latter. It is also argued that Asia novels in contemporary Australian literature share at least two features in common with regard to their representation of Asia. On one hand, contemporary Australians have mixed feelings of desire and doubt in their Asia encounter. On the other, though the representation of Asia shows no racialist prejudice in these works, contemporary Australian writers’deep-rooted biases toward Asian cultures point unmistakably to their Orientalist nature. Obviously, contemporary Australian writers are reorienting themselves in perception of Australian national identity in the Asia encounter. However, their representation of Asia hasn’t completely gone beyond traditional Orientalism.