131-455 Gender and the Colonial Experience: Polynesia, Melanesia and Australia

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The subject examines contestations surrounding European and American representations of women and gender in Melanesia, Polynesia and Australia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On completion of this subject students will be able: to understand contestations surrounding European and American representations of women and gender in Melanesia, Polynesia and Australia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; engage with theoretical debates on concepts of gender, culture, race and class during a time of marked social change in the region, including theories of gender, representation, discourse analysis and postmodernist cultural critique; gain insight into the ways in which representations of femininity and masculinity, both among white settlers and indigenous peoples, informed social and political interaction in cross-cultural encounters, and shaped the political outcomes of Pacific Island communities, Australia and New Zealand.

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