The thesis takes up the question of the representation of the migrant on the Australian screen in terms of a specific set of concerns around the notions of stereotype and self-reflexivity. The stereotype is read as a self-referential image: hence, as a question of film spectatorship and identity; in short as an unconscious reflex or self image.
The text of the thesis is in two parts: part one, comprises the production of the film Italians at home. It is the major component of research and text which, for this purpose, has been copied and submitted hereto on VHS video cassette. Part two, includes an analysis and discussion of the television documentary The migrant experience, and an exegesis, of the production, narrative and reception of the film Italians at home.
The migrant experience is read and discussed as an exemplary text of dominant, stereotyped discourse of cultural difference; while Italians at home is proposed as a parallel text and a self-reflexive reading and criticism of such a text.
Both the television documentary and the film, deal with the representation and problematic of homogenised representations of ethnicity. In the case of The migrant experience, it is argued, that the figure of the migrant as other and self-image, functions as an object of Australian culture and discourse of national identity within a logic of representation of binary structures; while the film Italians at home, the question of self-referentiality is seen in terms of the viewing subject and a problematic of film representation; thus, the film attempts to make such signifying structures, visual codes and agreed assumptions of otherness visible, while, at the same time, attempting to displace them or pose them as a problem of representation or reading for the viewer.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/217251 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Siracusa, Ettore, ettore.siracusa@deakin.edu.au |
| Publisher | Deakin University. School of Visual, Performing, and Media Arts |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.deakin.edu.au/disclaimer.html), Copyright Ettore Siracusa |
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