A Comparative Study Of Capricornia And Carpentaria From The Perspective Of Post-Colonialism

Capricornia,is a masterpiece by the well-known Australian writer Xavier Herbert,dealing with the inter-racial relationships of the period.Also,a sweeping epic,Carpentaria is a novel concerning aborigines written by the aboriginal writer Alexis Wright,which confirms her position as an outstanding novelist in Australian literary circles.Through a close reading,it can be found that both novels are two fantastic examples about aboriginal endeavor against white domination,but there are differences between their strategies in subversion to white domination.The thesis conducts a comparative study of Capricornia and Carpentaria from a post-colonial perspective.So far both studies on the two novels at home and abroad have made great achievements,whereas the comparative study of the two books is rare from the perspective of post-colonialism.Therefore,this study is of novelty,particularity and flexibility.On the basis of Homi K.Bhabha's theory of post-colonialism,the thesis uses method of comparative study to analyze the similarities and differences in Capricornia and Carpentaria from two aspects:the aboriginal marginalization caused by colonization and anti-colonial strategies and then to trace the causes for such features from historical backgrounds and author's experiences so as to compare their progressiveness about writers',understanding of racial relations between the whites and the aborigines and the solution to racial confrontation of the two groups.Five Chapters are included in the thesis.Chapter One serves as the introduction which consists of four parts,a brief introduction to Xavier Herbert and Alexis Wright including their literary achievements,writing styles and characteristics,literature review on Capricornia and Carpentaria about the related studies and findings at home and abroad,Homi K.Bhabha's theory of post-colonialism as well as the significance and framework of the thesis.The main body part is composed of Chapter Two,Chapter Three and Chapter Four.Taking advantage of Homi K.Bhabha's theory of post-colonialism,Chapter Two dwells upon similarity between Capricornia and Carpentaria about the manifestations of aboriginal marginalization.The marginalization reflected is not only confined to marginalized identity of the colonized,but encompasses marginalization on land and culture.Chapter Three focuses on the differences of the two works,revealing the different anti-colonial strategies on the subversion to aboriginal marginalization in the process of anti-colonization.The duality of the protagonist Norman Shillingsworth's^incomplete subversion in Capricornia and plurality of three aboriginal characters,(Normal Phantom,Angel Day,Will Phantom)hybridized subversion to the white authority in Carpentaria,are explored to make a comparison on the progressiveness of the two novels.Chapter Four traces causes for these features in two works,of which one is social,having to do with the background of the time,and the other is personal,related to the authors' own experiences.Chapter Five gives a conclusion of this thesis.It can be concluded that from the perspective of post-colonialism,Carpentaria is of less progressiveness and exposes its limitation because of the lasting effects of Xavier Herbert's colonial awareness and superiority of white civilization.Aborigine compromises with the whites over white domination on land and culture in the anti-colonial process in novel and Herbert's arrangement of such compromise identifies the reasonableness of white colonial domination and can not solute the confrontation between aborigines and whites.With the influence of Racial Reconciliation Movement and Wright's progressive aboriginal"Self' awareness with close attention on the interactions between aborigines and whites as well as deep concern with vital interests(land and culture),Wright's Carpentaria is more progressive.Its progressiveness can be summarized into three aspects.Firstly,it presents a more comprehensive tendency of anti-colonization.Secondly,its anti-colonial process is more thorough and complete than Capricornia because the process touches on root of aboriginal vital interests.Thirdly,during the process of hybridized subversion,cultural integration and cultural collusion between aborigines and whites have become an inevitable fact.By such subversion,it is possible to leave space for racial reconciliation between two races.