Writing the Colonial Adventure: Race, Gender and Nation in Anglo-Australian Popular Fiction, 1875-1914

238 Pages·1996·4.22 MB·English

by  Robert Dixon

WRITING THE COLONIAL
ADVENTURE

WRITING THE COLONIAL
ADVENTURE
Race, Gender and Nation in Anglo-Australian
Popular Fiction, 1875-1914
Robert Dixon
Department of Humanities
University of Southern Queensland
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A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
National Library of Australia Cataloguing in Publication data
DixonR,o ber(tR obeWritl lia1m9)5,4 -.
Writitnhgec olonaidavle nturraec:eg ,e ndearn dn atiionn
Anglo-Austrpaolpiualna r f1i8c7ti5o-n1,9 14.
Bibliography.
Includiensd ex.
I. Adventusrteo riEensg,l i-sHhi stoarnyd c riticism.
2.A dventusrteo riAeuss,t ral-iHains toarnyd c riticism.
3.C oloniienls i tera4t.uIr mep.e rialiinls imt erature.
5.S exr olien l itera6t. uRraec.ea wareneisnls i terature.
7.N ationaliinls imt eraIt.uT riet.l e.
823.08709
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
DixonR,o ber1t9,5 4-
Writitnhgec olonial adventguerned:ea rnr dna actei,io nnA nglo­
Australpioapnu lfiacrt io1n8,7 5-191/R4o.b erDti xon.
p. cm.
Includbeisb liograrpehfeirceanlc (eps. )a ndi ndex.
I. Adventusrteo riEensg,l i-sHhi stoarnydc ritic2i.sP mo.p ular
litera-tGurreea Btr ita-iHni stoarnydc ritic3i.sE mn.g lish
fictio-n1 9tche ntu-rHyi stoarnydc ritic4i.sE mn.g lish
ficti-o2n0 tche ntu-rHyi stoarnydc ritic5i.sA md.v entusrteo ries,
Austral-iHains toarnydc ritic6i. sMma.s culin(iPtsyy choliong y)
litera7t.uIr mep.e rialiins ml iter8a.Nt autrieo.n aliins m
litera9t.uC roel.o niiens literI 0at.Su erxre o.l ien literature.
11.R acei n literIa.Tt iutrlee..
PR830.A38D15989 5
823.08709-dc20 95-2052
ISBN9 78-0-521-48h1a9r0d-b8a ck
ISBN9 78-0-521-48p4a3p9e-r8b ack
Coveirl lustrcaotvieoornf :T h e Lost Explorers byA lexandMearc donald.
PublisbhyeB dl ackained S onL,o ndon1,9 07E.v ereyf fohratsb een
madet ot racteh eo rigisnoaulr coeft hiisl lustrTahteip ounb.l ishers
woulbde p leasteodh eafrro m thec opyrihgohltd er.
For Alex and Lizzy

Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 The Romance of Property: RolfBoldrewood and Walter Scott 15
2 Outlaws and Lawmakers: Boldrewood, Praed and the ethics
of adventure 30
3 Israel in Egypt: The significance of Australian captivity
narratives 45
4 Imperial Romance: King Sowmon 's Mines and Australian
romance 62
5 The New Woman and the Coming Man: Gender and genre
in the 'lost-race' romance 82
6 The Other World: Rosa Praed's occult fiction 100
7 The Boundaries of Civility: Australia, Asia and the Pacific 118
8 Imagined Invasions: The Lone Hand and narratives of Asiatic
invasion 135
9 The Colonial City: Crime fiction and empire 155
10 Beyond Adventure: Louis Becke 179
Conclusion 197
Notes 203
Select Bibliography 215
Index 224
vii
Illustrations
1 Cover of The Lost Explorers 73
2 'Emu Bill gently pillowed his dying comrade's head upon
his knee , 77
3 "'Now, let 'em have it," the Hatter exclaimed, as he fired as
fast as he could use his repeater' 87
4 '"And now for you!", she cried, as she stepped over him
where he lay' 90
5 Cover of The Island Traders 122
6 Cover of The Pearl Divers of &ncador Reef 132
7 'The Unfinished Commonwealth', cover of the Lone Hand 134
8 'Defence', cover of the Lone Hand 138
9 'Mort's Dock as it Must Be', Lionel Lindsay's illustration
in the Lone Hand 142
10 'There is no help for it ...W e must fight our way out' 167
11 Portrait of Dr Nikola 170
12 'We set off, I running beside him' 174
13 'Two of them were carrying Miss Chesson' 194
viii
Acknowledgements
I began work on Writing the Colonial Adventure shortly after moving to
Townsville in 1984 and finished preparing the manuscript shortly after
moving to Toowoomba in 1994. The bulk of the writing was done during
two study leaves in 1989 and 1993. My first debt of gratitude is therefore
to the English Department, James Cook University, and the Faculty of
Arts, University of Southern Queensland, for giving me financial assist­
ance, technical support and the time to write. During the course of the
project I have received help from many generous colleagues in the form
of information, editorial advice and research assistance. I am particularly
fortunate to have had such skilled, stimulating and patient readers of
work in progress as Philippa Kelly, Tony Hassall, Elizabeth Perkins, Betty
Holt, Gina Mercer, Sylvia Kelso, Graeme Turner, Elizabeth Wehby, Kay
Ferres, Greg Manning, Francis de Groen, Laurie Hergenhan, Delys Bird
and Heather Jamieson. Patrick Morgan, Alan Brissenden, Cheryl Taylor,
Richard Fotheringham, Elizabeth Morrison, Paul Turnbull and the late
Barry Andrews freely shared the hard-won fruits of their own research.
Parts of chapters 3 and 5 were originally aired at conferences of the
Association for the Study of Australian Literature, and I am grateful to
many ASAL colleagues for their comments and support. My work was not
only facilitated, but positively inspired, by the fine collection of
nineteenth and early twentieth century Anglo-Australian books held by
the James Cook University Library. I also wish to acknowledge the
assistance of the staff of the Mitchell Library, the National Library, the
La Trobe Library, the Fryer Library, the British Library and the Sheffield
City Library. Kay Cameron, Jillian Bond and Susan Warbrick have given
expert secretarial and technical support. Finally, I am grateful to
Melpomene Kapodistria for sharing the many hours of anxiety without
ix
x ACKNOWLDEGEMENTS
which wntmg cannot be produced. This book is dedicated to our
daughters, Alexandra and Elizabeth Dixon.
Part of Chapter 3 was published as 'Rolf Boldrewood' s War to the Knife.
Narrative form and ideology in the historical novel', Australian Literary
Studies 12.3 (May 1986). An early version of Chapter 5 appeared as 'The
New Woman and the Coming Man: Gender and genre in the "lost-race"
romance', in Susan Margarey, Sue Rowley and Susan Sheridan, eds,
Debutante Nation: feminism contests the 1890s (Sydney: Allen and Unwin,
1993). Versions of Chapter 7 appeared as 'The Boundaries of Civility:
Colonial Discourse in Popular Fiction of the First Commonwealth
Decade' in Elizabeth Wehby and Margaret Harris, eds, Reconnoitres: Essays
on Australian Literature in Honour of G.A. Wilkes (Melbourne: Oxford UP I
Sydney UP, 1992); and 'The Unfinished Commonwealth: Boundaries of
civility in popular Australian fiction of the first commonwealth decade' in
Chris Tiffin and Alan Lawson, eds, De-scribing Empire: Post-colonialism and
textuality (London: Routledge, 1994). Part of Chapter 9 originally
appeared in 'Closing the Can of Worms: Enactments ofJ ustice' in B/,eak
House, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab and The Tax Inspector, Westerly 37.4
(Summer 1992). Permission to reproduce images copyright of the estate
of Lionel Lindsay kindly granted by Peter Lindsay.