Picnic at Hanging Rock Flashcards
Intro
General
Throughout the 20th Century, authors and filmmakers have scrutinised Western civilisation for prioritising conformity/establishing cultural hegemony over individuality/the welfare of those it purports to benefit.
Intro Specific 1 (Lindsay)
Set on the cusp of federation, Joan Lindsay’s 1967 novella, Picnic at Hanging Rock, interrogates Australia’s colonial past and probes its impact on contemporary political concerns.
Intro Specific 2 (Weir)
Likewise, Peter Weir’s 1975 film adaptation of the same name challenges the Western tendency to construct often false and damaging narratives in an attempt to decipher the inscrutable mysteries of nature.
Conclusion
Specific
Creating their texts in a period of revived political activism and artistic experimentation, not only Lindsay but also Weir subvert the Western trope of the lost child and instead embrace the unknowable power of the Australian bush.
Conclusion
General
As such, all texts are both a response to the past and a reflection of the present time.
BP1
TS
Both Lindsay and Weir posit Western attempts to contain and rationalise the Australian landscape through its mimicry of British civilisation is an ultimately futile pursuit due to the superior delphic forces of nature.
BP1
VVS
Through their portrayal of the setting, both texts expose Western civilisation as fundamentally incompatible with the Australian bush and hence mock bastions of imperialism for their inability to dominate nature.
BP2
TS
Responding to contemporary debates around gender expectations, both Lindsay and Weir examine the theme of repression in Victorian society and its detrimental impact on the lives of women.
BP2
VVS
Therefore, both texts lambast the systemic repression of women’s desires and aspirations in Western civilisation and instead endorse a post-colonial view of foreign imperialism as a pernicious and destructive force that transcends class and age.
BP3
TS
Whereas Lindsay, a feminist of the second wave, is primarily politically motivated, Weir instead prioritises evoking an atmosphere of patriarchal repression.
BP3 VVS
Hence, while Lindsay’s political message castigates all enablers of the patriarchy, denouncing them as irredeemable perpetrators of harm, Weir is primarily concerned with the impact of repression on the individual psyche, a bitter condemnation of its pervasiveness within Victorian society.
