Writing Australian History On-screen

Jo Parnell is Honorary Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Creative industries, and Social Sciences, College of Human and Social Futures at University of Newcastle.Julie Anne Taddeo is Research Professor in the Department of History at University of Maryland.

• Chapter 1. Kings in Grass Castles: The Duracks and Screened MythologyAndrew HoweChapter 2. “It’s a bastard of a place – takes a bastard to lick it”: Violence, Victimhood, and Nationalism on the Frontier in Luke’s Kingdom (1976), and Against the Wind (1978)James FindlayChapter 3. Love, Lust, and Land Rights in The Naked Country (1985)Chelsea BarnettChapter 4. Fisher Queens Versus the White Australia Policy: Challenging Orientalism in Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears, and Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries?Dirk GibbChapter 5. “It’s the War That Didn’t Suit Me”: Miss Fisher’s Jack Robinson as Emblematic First World War Ex-ServicemanJessica MeyerChapter 6. Beyond Changi: Australians, Singapore and World War Two FilmsDonna Brunero and Leong YewChapyer 7. Labor History in Australian Film and Television: Sunday Too Far Away (1975), and Bastard Boys (2007)Grace BrooksChapter 8. “I belong to me and no one else”: Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale (2018) Reimagines an Australian Frontier My

Parnell and Taddeo’s collection is a fascinating exploration of a subject that has provided much enjoyment for audiences, but has previously been neglected by academic scholarship: the history of Australia as represented on its screens. By exploring a number of important period dramas, the essays here uncover key questions about ethnicity, gender and national identity, reflecting on Australia’s past and present, and its diverse and complex population and culture. This book will be a highly valuable resource for students, scholars and interested viewers everywhere.