A Cultural History of the Bushranger Legend in Theatres and Cinemas, 18282017

Andrew James Couzens

Description

A cultural history of the bushranger legend on stage and screen from colonial to contemporary Australia.

The bushranger legend is an important component of Australia’s cultural history, with names like Ned Kelly and Ben Hall still provoking strong, if ambivalent, responses. Storytellers mobilize this legend in unique and exciting ways that reflect upon both the cultural and actual history of bushrangers, as well as speaking to contemporary concerns and driving debate on the national character. ‘A Cultural History of the Bushranger Legend in Theatres and Cinemas, 1828–2017’ is a multidisciplinary investigation into the history of cultural representations of the bushranger legend on the stage and screen, charting that history from its origins in colonial theatre works performed while bushrangers still roamed Australia’s bush to contemporary Australian cinema. It considers the influences of industrial, political and social disruptions on these representations as well as their contributions to those disruptions.

‘A Cultural History of the Bushranger Legend in Theatres and Cinemas, 1828–2017’ is a comprehensive cultural history of representations of bushrangers in cinema and colonial theatre. Beginning with the bushranger legend’s establishment, it explores the formative years of the representational tradition, identifying the origins of characteristics and the social and industrial mechanisms through which they passed from history to popular theatre. Tracing the legend’s development, the book interrogates the promotion of these characteristics from a contested popular history to an officially sanctioned national outlook in the cinema. Finally, it analyzes the contemporary fragmentation of the bushranger legend, attending to the dissatisfactions and challenges that arose in response to political and social debates galvanized by the 1988 bicentenary.

The cultural history recounted in ‘A Cultural History of the Bushranger Legend in Theatres and Cinemas, 1828–2017’ provides not only an into the role of popular narrative representations of bushrangers in the development and reflection of Australian character, but also a detailed case study of the specific mechanisms at work in the symbiosis between a nation’s values and its creative production. Bushrangers have had a heightened though unstable significance in Australia due to the nation’s diverse population and historical insecurities and conflicts over colonial identity, land rights and settlement. Community often defined the bushrangers in their stage and screen appearances, and the challenges that these marginalized communities faced were absorbed into the political and social mainstream. ‘A Cultural History of the Bushranger Legend in Theatres and Cinemas, 1828–2017’ is an insight into the process through which the bushranger legend earned its cultural resonance in Australia.

List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: Defining the Bushranger Legend; Part 1: Establishing the Legend; 1. The First Bushranger Melodrama; 2. Alfred Dampier and the Nationalistic Melodrama; 3. Wild West Shows and Wild Australia; 4. Hippodramas and Edward Irham Cole; Part 2: Developing the Legend; 5. The Bushranger Genre from Stage to Screen; 6. The Bushranger Ban; 7. British and American Interventions in the Bushranger Legend; 8. Radical Nationalism and the Bushranger Legend; Part 3: Fragmenting the Legend; 9. Historical Revisionism and the Bushranger Legend; 10. Diversification and Inclusiveness of the Bushranger Legend; 11. Globalization of the Bushranger Legend in Outlaw Road Movies; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Arts
• Theatre
• Performing arts

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 31 janvier 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781783088935
• Langue: English

Extrait

A Cultural History of the Bushranger Legend in Theatres and Cinemas, 1828–2017
ANTHEM STUDIES IN AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Anthem Studies in Australian Literature and Culture specializes in quality, innovative research in Australian literary studies. The series publishes work that advances contemporary scholarship on Australian literature conceived historically, thematically and/or conceptually. We welcome well-researched and incisive analyses on a broad range of topics: from individual authors or texts to considerations of the field as a whole, including in comparative or transnational frames.
Series Editors
Katherine Bode – Australian National University, Australia
Nicole Moore – University of New South Wales, Australia
Editorial Board
Tanya Dalziell – University of Western Australia, Australia
Delia Falconer – University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
John Frow – University of Sydney, Australia
Wang Guanglin – Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, China
Ian Henderson – King’s College London, UK
Tony Hughes-D’Aeth – University of Western Australia, Australia
Ivor Indyk – University of Western Sydney, Australia
Nicholas Jose – University of Adelaide, Australia
James Ley – Sydney Review of Books, Australia
Andrew McCann – Dartmouth College, USA
Lyn McCredden – Deakin University, Australia
Elizabeth McMahon – University of New South Wales, Australia
Susan Martin – La Trobe University, Australia
Brigitta Olubas – University of New South Wales, Australia
Anne Pender – University of New England, Australia
Fiona Polack – Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Sue Sheridan – University of Adelaide, Emeritus, Australia
Ann Vickery – Deakin University, Australia
Russell West-Pavlov – Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen, Germany
Lydia Wevers – Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Gillian Whitlock – University of Queensland, Australia
A Cultural History of the Bushranger Legend in Theatres and Cinemas, 1828–2017
Andrew James Couzens
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2019
by ANTHEM PRESS
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or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
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Copyright © Andrew James Couzens 2019
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-891-1 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-891-5 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e-book.
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Defining the Bushranger Legend
Part 1 Establishing the Legend
1. The First Bushranger Melodramas
2. Alfred Dampier and the Nationalist Melodrama
3. Wild West Shows and Wild Australia
4. Hippodramas and Edward Irham Cole
Part 2 Developing the Legend
5. The Bushranger Genre from Stage to Screen
6. The Bushranger Ban
7. British and American Interventions in the Bushranger Legend
8. Radical Nationalism and the Bushranger Legend
Part 3 Fragmenting the Legend
9. Historical Revisionism and the Bushranger Legend
10. Diversification and Inclusiveness of the Bushranger Legend
11. Globalization of the Bushranger Legend in Outlaw Road Movies
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Figures
1 Photo of BDC Bendigo front entrance Market Square, PXD 735, vol. 2, p. 9, E. I. Cole Collection of Theatre and Circus Photographs, Newscuttings, 1903–1940, and Realia, 1897. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
2 Photo of Cole’s Hippodrome Adelaide 1914, PXD 735, vol. 1, p. 6, item c, E. I. Cole Collection of Theatre and Circus Photographs, Newscuttings, 1903–1940, and Realia, 1897. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
3 Photo of Woods–Williamson production of Alfred Dampier and Garnet Walch play, 1890, IE3420175, Perier Collection: Photographs of Streets and Buildings in Sydney, Canberra and the Blue Mountains. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
4 Photo of Sydney Hippodrome view of audience, PXD 735, vol. 1, p. 9, item c, E. I. Cole Collection of Theatre and Circus Photographs, Newscuttings, 1903–1940, and Realia, 1897. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
5 Photo of Cole’s Hippodrome Adelaide 1914 interior, PXD 735, vol. 3, p. 19, item b, E. I. Cole Collection of Theatre and Circus Photographs, Newscuttings, 1903–1940, and Realia, 1897. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
6 Playbill/programme ‘King of the Road’ reverse, PXD 735, vol. 3, p. 33, E. I. Cole Collection of Theatre and Circus Photographs, Newscuttings, 1903–1940, and Realia, 1897. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
7 Complete damaged playbill BDC ‘King of the Road’, PXD 735, vol. 3, p. 106, E. I. Cole Collection of Theatre and Circus Photographs, Newscuttings, 1903–1940, and Realia, 1897. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
8 Publicity illustrations for ‘Ned Kelly and his Gang’, PXD 735, vol. 3, p. 86, E. I. Cole Collection of Theatre and Circus Photographs, Newscuttings, 1903–1940, and Realia, 1897. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
9 Publicity illustrations for ‘Ned Kelly and his Gang’, PXD 735, vol. 3, p. 87, E. I. Cole Collection of Theatre and Circus Photographs, Newscuttings, 1903–1940, and Realia, 1897. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
10 Poster [?]‌ for ‘The Bushranger’, PXD 735, vol. 1, p. 96, E. I. Cole Collection of Theatre and Circus Photographs, Newscuttings, 1903–1940, and Realia, 1897. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
11 Page from Australasian Sketcher with attachments, PXD 735, vol. 3, p. 10, E. I. Cole Collection of Theatre and Circus Photographs, Newscuttings, 1903–1940, and Realia, 1897. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
12 Publicity illustrations for Thunderbolt series, PXD 735, vol. 3, p. 84, E. I. Cole Collection of Theatre and Circus Photographs, Newscuttings, 1903–1940, and Realia, 1897. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
Acknowledgements
This research was only possible due to the generous support and guidance of numerous scholars and institutions. In particular I must thank Jane Stadler and Stephen Carleton who supervised my research and provided invaluable insight. Several other people have provided support and feedback either as readers or in the context of academic conferences: Tom O’Regan, David Carter, Ben Goldsmith, Mark Ryan, Stephen Gaunson, Janet Wilson and Adian Danks have all made suggestions that shaped my research. I especially wish to thank Richard Fotheringham for kindly loaning me a folio of relevant research he had compiled on Wild West shows.
My archival research was kindly supported by the many institutions I visited: The State Library of Western Australia, the Mitchell Library housed within the State Library of NSW, the National Archives of Australia, the National Library of Australia, and the National Film and Sound Archives. These institutions and their staff provide a repository of wisdom that enriches the opportunity for cultural scholarship. The images published within this monograph are courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales.
Introduction: Defining the Bushranger Legend
‘Bail up!’ On the roads of rural Victoria and New South Wales throughout the nineteenth century, but particularly during the gold rushes of the 1850s–60s, these words signalled a peculiarly national encounter. Gold escorts, mail coaches, banks and homesteads were all targets of these outlaws, known in Australia as bushrangers. Even now their names – Ned Kelly, Captain Thunderbolt, Ben Hall, Dan Morgan – recall specific engagements with cultural traditions and ideologies that resonate with national concerns. Though their historical reign is now long past, their cultural reign continues unabated. Bushrangers remain a core component to the self-identification of many Australians, especially those able to trace their family history back to colonial Australia. Yet the cultural influence of bushrangers reaches beyond these family legacies and embeds itself within certain national traditions of self-definition. They have become greater than the sum of their parts, their role in Australian cultural memory far exceeding their direct influence on Australian history, resulting in the formation of a constantly evolving bushranger legend.
One of the most powerful avenues for this legend’s cultural dissemination is the visual representation of bushrangers in popular entertainments. Throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, the cinema has been the most significant site for this cultural phenomenon. However, before cinema technologies provided the opportunity for mass popular entertainment, colonial theatre conventions established ideological and representational traditions associated with bushrangers that Australian films would also exhibit du