“Neither here and nor there does water quench our thirst”: Duty, Obedience and Identity in Greek-Australian and Chinese Australian Prose Fiction, 1971-2005

Abstract

This thesis presents original research: it examines the constructs of duty and obedience in post-World War II Greek-Australian and Chinese Australian literature and compares the strategies these first- and second-generation authors use to make their fictional characters deal with these concepts while living in Australia, the problems their characters face and the solutions they encounter.

This thesis analyses ten texts: six written by Greek-Australian authors and four by Chinese Australian writers. It aims to examine how the above-mentioned cultural concepts appear in these texts and influence the behaviour and thoughts of the characters. In doing so, this thesis aims to state and compare the strategies used.

This study looks at texts published in English by first- and second-generation Greek-Australian and first-generation Chinese Australian migrants during the period 1971- 2005. The date 1971 is significant because that year Australia saw the publication of the first English-language book written by a Greek-Australian. It was the poetry collection A Tree at the Gate, by Aristides George Paradissis. Also, it was the year when the People’s Republic of China and Australia re-established diplomatic relations twenty years after all ties between the two nations had been suspended. Likewise, the year 2005 is relevant as the racist Cronulla riots took place in December. The riots marked the end of the spirit of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and of the 2001 centennial celebrations of the Federation of Australia…

This thesis begins with an analysis of the immigration policies in Australia from the British invasion of the country in 1788 until 2011 and an analysis of the policy of multiculturalism. It then looks at the concepts of duty and obedience in Greek culture and in Chinese culture, how these concepts evolved especially during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and how they affect marriage and divorce, interpersonal and intergenerational relations, patriotism and migration. This historical-cultural section is followed by a theoretical chapter where the concept of “identity” is explored. The final step is to analyse these notions in the literary texts chosen and compare the strategies used by the authors to make the characters confront (or not) certain specific situations.