Australian Identity in Film

Making an accurate representation of Australian identity will forever be a difficult task with the vast range of lifestyles its people live. However, this concept is challenged and has developed into an obsession. (ConvictCreations, 2000) This is because of the many age groups, class divisions, differences in location and cultural diversity. Since the introduction of television, producers have made humorous and witty shows, interpreting and critiquing the Australian Identity. This critique is referred to as ‘satire’ and is made apparent mostly in television shows such as Chris Lilley’s 2005, hit mockumentary series, We Can be Heroes. The internationally acclaimed show satirises the ‘faults’ in Australian identity while also providing humorous entertainment. In the short, six episode series, a variety of satirised elements are unmistakable. Characters have been developed to represent the many levels of class division in our society. Enhancing the definition of such classes is the differences in use of language and knowledge between the characters – an effective tool to categorise the differences in our society.

The concept of being a ‘nation of immigrants’ is at the center of Australian identity.

Australia is a young, modern country made up of a diverse and multicultural population, therefore, it’s difficult to say that it has a single national identity. This essay will examine what Australia’s identity may look like, specifically, through art.

There are many diverse interpretations of the words “Australian Identity”. The national anthem, as evidenced in Stand Up, is a primarily white interpretation of Australia and the Australian identity, with many of the lines ignoring the Indigenous people of Australia (Perkins et al, 2012). Another form of the “Australian Identity” was one presented by Prime Minister Paul Keating in his Redfern Address in 1992. He proclaimed that “Australia is a first-rate social democracy…truly the land of the fair go and the better chance”. This idea presented represents an egalitarian society, where every single human has an equal opportunity at life. Yet another, shown in the songs Paul Kelly sang, but especially in “this land is mine” is the difference between the identity of Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians (Kelly et al, 2001). Each of these texts addressed a major issue. Stand Up compared the relative value of tradition and the right to freedom of expression. Keating’s speech expressed the need for justice and recognition of both the stolen generation and the injustices done to the Indigenous people as a whole. Kelly’s songs represent the importance of the land to Indigenous people and why the “returning of the land” is so important. Although they each mentioned a major issue, the texts all gave solutions to these issues, from reiterating the importance of the basic human right of freedom of speech in Stand Up, to explaining the role and qualities of the Aboriginal

"Community, Identity, Stability" is the motto of the World State in the Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, a state intent on keeping itself intact. In the stable state, the people must be happy with the status quo; they must not be able to imagine a better world, and must not think of a worse one. In the stable state, a few people must be able to cope with unexpected change, but they should be unable to initiate it. In the stable state, the population must have certain proportions of satisfied citizens and innovators that can coexist.

Prompt- The power to of the group is often the cause of losing our individual identity.

In Chapter One and Two, Anderson begin to trace the rise of Nationalism in the late 18th century Europe. Anderson does so by examining the technological, political, and cultural conditions that are still prevalent in this modern era. Anderson suggested that one has to look at national identities that was formed over time to which it accounts for the reason why they are so significant today. Anderson’s definition of an imagined political community and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. The natural way for Anderson to organize political relations is through the de-authorization of monarchical centers. Aside from that, Anderson mentioned that the temporal delinked of cosmology and history enable humans to imagine themselves in a homogenous, calendrical time that connects people that we have never met. Time is through the development of

Anderson argued that sovereignty or nationalism is an imagined political community and its members are held together by shared ideas and values. It’s imagined because the members never know all the other members. There’s a limitedness to the length of the nation because it is limited by borders of other nations. This aspect of Anderson’s linking is expanded upon by Friedman’s travels. He remarks that the world has gotten even more connected now and so perhaps the imagined political community or even social community has expanded to immeasurable lengths. He used the example of how many countries are now

Benedict Anderson laid out his definition for nationalism and made use of the phrase “imagined community,” not even he could envision how globalization would affect the globe. This essay is called Manhattan, NY 10036 because this is the physical address of Time Square in New York City. One would probably as the question why would someone put the address of an actual block of land as a title for an essay? The reason is the entire world is intertwined and essentially one giant imagined community thanks in large part to advanced technology and the phenomena of globalization. New York City is the media capital of the world and Time square is arguably one of the most popular media attractions to see. The worlds address should be Manhattan, NY 10036 because as a global community all roads go through New York City and has been for many years now. Globalization has been seen in the world through examples of economics, culture, technology and many other forms. People, whether they know it or not, will be connected to a person they don’t know in some sort of way. Anderson in his book on “Imagined Communities” says “It [Community] is imagined because if the members of the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion”(Anderson. 6). This statement can be exemplified with a wide multitude of things from as Anderson uses, the story of a married couple, the husband’s

A nation is said to exist when it could traced its origins through the state, in which it associate itself with, histories. Additionally, the cultural elites must be established and well-versed in writing and speaking the national language. There must also be a valid reason for its claim on a certain territory. It is only when these three requirements are fulfilled will the international community consider their claim for a nation (Hobsbawm, 1990: 37). Disagreements, however, tend to arise in the political community over the definition of a nation. This essay will try to list out the different approaches employed in defining a nation starting from a nation being a natural cultural entity to it being politically and

On the other hand, Anthony Smith, for example, illustrates that identities have clear deterministic characteristics that shape both small societies, nations and states. There are four major determinants that Smith illustrates in his work: distinguishable characteristics of national as opposed to other kinds of collective cultural identification; the role of ethnic bases in the formation of new nations; the nature and impact of different nationalist ideologies and symbolism of the formation of ethnic political identities; and last, the political consequences of different kinds of national identities (Smith, 1991, p viii). These four aspects are helpful in the explanation and determination whether communities are indeed “imaginary”. Anderson points out that "communities are to be distinguished by … the style in which they are imagined”, imagined because, “in fact, all communities larger than primordial villages of face-to-face contact (and perhaps even those) are imagined, (Anderson, 2006: 6). However, Smith suggests that it is not only the “style” of other communities that can be different. For example, Friedrich Meinecke (1919) made a distinction between “largely passive cultural communities”, from the “active, self-determining political nations”. Indeed, Ancient Greece, for example, was not a well-determined nation despite the cultural mutuality, it was a well-organized collection of city-states which had common external and internal threats that with the strong

Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA were distinguished as a political type. Ideas of nation and the corresponding type of nationalism, according to Kohn (1961), arose and were created within earlier existing government institutions promoting distribution of the process of cultural homogenization (that is relative uniformity of society). The Western model of nationalism borrowed ideas of freedom and equality, fight against dynastic board, equating of nationality with nation accessory when all nations, which are a part, are united by the equal political status and desire (will) of the individual to be part of the nation. Within the Western model, the state preceded (or process of its formation coincided) to development of the nation. Kohn (1961) wrote that “nationalism transcends localism and kinship; cosmopolitanism

Nations, despite their localization in certain geographical and geopolitical territories, are always imagined communities because national boundaries do not necessarily coincide with ethnic and cultural identities of all members of a nation. Due to nations’ artificial construction they are subject to constant formation and change. To ‘[foster] a sense of identification’ (Kaiser, 2012, p.52) within such a conglomerate of multiple identities of its inhabitants, often certain forms of dress are introduced and used to create and establish coherence and uniformity within the nation and difference to other nations (ibid p.52f).

Question 4: Benjamin Anderson talks of nations being ‘imagined communities’ created in and through the media. List and describe the three ways that nations can be considered ‘imagined’.

Human beings naturally are social creatures. In order to survive, humans have since been working together. People rely to each other in order to remain alive, whether it be with finding food, building houses, or with finding jobs. There is one famous quote by John Donne that says “No man is an island”. Humans have this need to belong in a group. This need for co-existing is what lead people into forming nations. Nations are groups of people who have a very strong bond of identity; may it be with having the same ethnicity or with having the same interests. One known description of a nation is Benedict Anderson’s (1983) conception of nations as imagined communities. They are imagined “because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (Anderson, 1983, p. 15). By belonging in a certain nation or growing up in a certain environment, one develops their own national identity. There are a lot of factors as to how you can identify to a certain nation. Certain factors would be your language, ethnicity, culture, relationship to your land, your religion, spirituality, views with politics, or your land’s geography. As social beings, having a group you identify with has a very great effect on you. However, there also are