Law controls our everyday. It regulates our lives. It tells us what is and is not acceptable behaviour, it confers and protects our rights, and it punishes us for our indiscretions. But law does much more than this. It creates normative standards which shape the way people are treated and the way that we relate to each other and to society generally. The law defines people. It constructs identity. And it creates the ‘other’. This is a legacy of positivism’s insistence on identifying that which is ‘inside’ law, and so accorded legitimacy, and that which is not. That which does not conform to law’s constructed standards and values is identified as ‘other’ and marginalised and silenced. In this thesis, I demonstrate the way that the law constructs ‘other’, in particular, the Aboriginal ‘other’. I consider the way that Aborigines have been defined by the law to show the consequences that this has had for Aboriginal people beyond the purely legal. I argue that law’s construction of Aboriginality has contributed to the marginalisation of Aboriginal people and their exclusion from many aspects of the legal and the social, and that it has silenced them within the dominant domain, denying them the ability to challenge the wrongs perpetrated against them. I examine these issues through the medium of literature. I argue that literature’s contribution to exposing, critiquing and challenging law’s construction of ‘other’ is invaluable. It informs the reader about the way that the law has treated Aboriginal people and, more generally, about the structures and limitations of our positivist legal system. It thereby contributes to the community’s perception and understanding of the way the law works, and the impact that it has on the lives of its subjects. Perhaps most importantly, it also educates towards social change and reform.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, August, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 268-276). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR19854

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anthropology, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 417-424).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.E.S.)--The Evergreen State College, 2007. / Title from title screen viewed (2/6/2008). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-73).

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2003. / "Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD" Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 567-588).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Michigan, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 436-464).