From The Perspective Of Foucault's Power Theory: Quest For Lost Identity Of Marginalized Group In The Australian Novel Drylands

As one of the most popular writers in Australia,Thea Astley has not received the same amount of critical attention as afforded to some of her contemporaries,such as Patrick White.During her writing career of more than fifty years,she constantly puts her attention on describing the small town life in northern Australia,that is the Queensland area.Most of her stories are Australian themes,which is very peculiar to most writers.Her fiction about small town life reflect the small residents' life attitude and their values.She harshly criticizes the narrow-minded regionalism and Philistinism in her work,which has been quite impressive to any reader who has ever lived in a small town.Her description can point right into the center and essence of the small town life.The most impressive character in her fiction has always been loners,misfits,and outsiders,and usually they can not gain secular success.In her last novel Drylands which also focuses on depicting small town life,Astley still does not give up her attention on the marginal group among which the author concentrates mostly on depicting female characters and Australian aboriginal people and social outcasts.The author shows the reader how power operates in microcosmic aspects through depicting how the marginalized group lose their identity gradually in modern disciplinary society.The author also shows us the process how the disciplined individual fight back and how to gain their identity back.In Drylands,the author manages to investigate the essence of marginal problems through observing the way power operates in different power relations.This paper consists of four parts:introduction(chapter one),theoretical foundation(chapter two),main body(chapter three,chapter four,chapter five)and conclusion(chapter six).The introduction part includes the first chapter.The first chapter mainly introduces the author's life and creation experience,and briefly sorts out related studies at home and abroad,and points out the significance,methodology,of this paper.The overview of chapters is also included in this part.The second chapter mainly introduces Foucault' s power theory and the way power operates in local forms,providing theoretical foundation for later analysis in the dissertation.The main part includes chapter three,chapter four,and chapter five.The main part of the dissertation mainly elaborates the specific performance of various power relations in the work of Thea Astley-Drylands.In Drylands,the author mainly focuses on these three kinds of marginal groups in the modern disciplinary society-the oppressed woman,the aboriginal group,the social outcasts.The third chapter discusses the power relation between man and woman,including the regulations on woman's discourse and body and thus leads to woman's identity lost.Woman's rebellion is also included in this part.Chapter four discusses the power relation between white people and the aboriginal people.It shows how the white authority uses power to persecute the aboriginal people and how the aboriginal people try to find their identity back.Chapter five analyses the power relation between individual and company.Like the two power relations discussed above,the relationship between employee and the company also is one kind of power relation.In Drylands,the author shows reader how the individual is oppressed and how individual uses the power techniques to build a false identity in modern disciplinary society.The conclusion summarizes the dissertation and make a careful conclusion.According to Foucault's power theory,any relation can be seen as a power relation.In the novel Drylands,three different power relations are presented-the relation between women and men,the relation between Australian aboriginals and white people,and the relation between individuals and company as a social mechanism.Through the description of the marginalized group,namely women,Australian aboriginals,and social outcasts who lose themselves and perform self-redemption under the operation of power,Astley shows readers the essence of the marginal problems.Behind the loss of marginalized people is power operation through techniques of discourse and body.Through these different groups of power mechanisms,Astley suggests that power is ubiquitous in modern disciplinary society.Only by awakening oneself,returning to tradition,or disguising identity,modem people in dilemma can escape from the intervention of power and gain inside freedom.