Cultural Solypsism, National Identities and the Discourse of Multiculturalism in Australian Picture Books

7/29/2019 Cultural Solypsism, National Identities and the Discourse of Multiculturalism in Australian Picture Books

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Cultural Solipsism, National Identitiesand the Discourse of Multiculturalism

in Australian PictureBooksR O B Y N M C C A L L U M

"What am I?" it murmured. "What am I, What am I?"The bunyip jumped in delight. "You are a bunyip!" he shouted."A m I? Am I really?" asked the other bunyip; and then "What do Ilook like?""Y ou look just like me," said the bunyip happily.A nd he lent her his mirror to prove it.J E N N Y W A G N E R , The Bunyip ofBerkeley's Creek

O V E R I T S R E L A T I V E L Y short history, the picture book in A ustralia, l ike other popular texts, has played an important role inthe process of cultural production. As both cultural productsand cultural constructions, picture books reflect the culture thatproduces them, and they actively construct and canonize imagesof that culture. As Graeme Turner has argued, Australian textsare not simply "the natural and organic products of our emerging national character"; instead they are "cultural constructions"of that character, or "national fictions" ( 2 0 ) . For Turner, thenarratives produced by a culture are models by which a societyconceives of and articulates a view of itself. Narrative does notsimply reflect the culture; it has "a cultural function of makingsenseof experience, of filling absencesand of helping to explainthe culture to itself (9). These ideas are particularly pertinent topicture booksbecauseof the central place that thesetextshave inthe education and enculturation of children. The texts produced by a culture for children also have acritical role in mediating that culture to its young participants. Insofar as children'stextsseek to enculturate their readerswithinmainstream society,these textsare an index of the waysthat the dominant images ofthe culture are ideologically reshaped.

ARIEL: A ReviewofInternational EnglishLiterature, 2 8 : 1 , January 1 9 9 7


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102 R O B Y N M C C A L L U MAustralian picture books over the last 30 years have been

constructed out of a particular combination of images, symbols,myths, and ideologies that reflect shifting discourses about nationalism and multiculturalismwithin Australian society. Thesetextsalso have acrucial role in the process o f cultural productioni n that they seek to make an impact on social formation byspecifying preferred constructions of selfhood and social relations. These constructions constitute a meta-narrative of subjectformation which underlies the discourses of nationalism andmulticulturalism as they are manifest in children's texts. Australia, like many postcolonial societies, is preoccupied with notions of a national identity. Turner has noted that the study ofAustralian literature in general "has been dominated by thesearch for the definition of Australian literature" (2)that is,the essential features which constitute the "Australianness" of atext. Attempts to define an "Australian" literature are inextricably bound up on the one hand with the construction of a canon,and, on the other, with concepts of a cultural identity. Notions of"quality" and "Australianness" are both highly problematic. Bothare an aspect of the cultural construction of value and meaning.What is seen as "quality" and "Australian" in literature and inpicture books is indicative of the meanings, thematic structures,and formal strategies preferred by the culture, and, hence thedominant ideologies of the culture. Such a search for a nationalidentity is also tied up with concepts of place (both physical andsocial) and the relationships between place and the humansubject, wherein individual subjectivity as it is shaped within asocial and natural landscape functions allegorically for a national cultural identity. In picture books, the allegoric relationbetween individual and cultural identity is given a particularideological nuance and force through interaction with a centralpreoccupation of children's textsthe development out of solipsismand the formation of subjectivity. Meta-narratives underlying Australian picture books see the relationship between selfand other as mtonymie of wider social relationships, and thedevelopment of intersubjectivity within a specific social and natural setting enactsa search for identity narrative which is shapedby broader cultural and ideological conceptions of a preferrednational identity.


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Recent discussions of nationalism tend to take the form adialogue between an established A nglo -C el tic model (informedby a nostalgia for an idealized rural colonial past and stressinghomogeneity) and a newer multicultural model (emphasizingthe diversity, multiplicity, and heterogeneity that characterizecontemporary Australian society). This dialogue has shaped theways that the formation of intersubjectivity is depicted in A ustralian picture books over the last 30 years. It is almost acommonplace that the 1 9 7 0 s marks a "coming of age" for theAustralian picture book. An increase in the awarding of theAustralian Children's Book C o u n c i l Picture Book award from1 9 7 0 onwards is usually seen as an index of the higher quality ofbooks produced.1 Increased production and the "higher quality"of books are largely attributable to technical developments in thedesign, production, and printing techniques, aswell as the availability of cheapprinting (M u i r 1 2 5 ) . However, the emergenceofthe picture book in the 1 9 7 0 s and 1 9 8 0 s is also an aspect of thelarger cultural institutions, practices, and discourses, especiallythe discourses of nationalism and multiculturalism, throughwhich specific kinds of texts, meanings, and ideologies are produced and privileged.

Three main shifts from the 1 9 7 0 s onward occur in the kinds ofpicture book that have been produced and acclaimed. First, isthe move away from the illustrated book to the "picture book,"that is, a text in which the visual and verbal textsare given equalemphasis and interact to produce meaning. A corollary of thishas been an impl ic i t privileging of literary and artistic valuesassociated with high culture. Second, is the move toward theproduction of textswhich are specifically"Australian" and moreor less overtly nationalistic in their ideologies. A nd third, morerecently, is the more overtly politically-driven move toward theproduction of textswhich reflect images of Australian society asmulticultural. These last two aspects, nationalism and multiculturalism, are not exclusive, though older established forms ofnationalism do present problems for the representation of A ustralia as a multicultural society. The move from an assimilationpolicy to a multicultural policy in the early 1 9 7 0 s and the establishment of the Australian Multicultural Children's Literature


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104 R O B Y N M C C A L L U MAwards by the Office for Multicultural A ffairs in 1991 haveclearly had an impact on the kinds of texts produced for children. However, this impact is discernible not just in the contentof the texts (for example the tokenist inclusion of non-Anglocharacters), but also in the way that the bank of images anddiscourses which picture books draw on is subtly re-shaped so asto construct a dialogue between concepts of a national and amulticultural identity which is played out metonymically viadepictions of the development of intersubjectivity.

A s with the Australian film industry, the picture book industryi n the 1 9 7 0 s was dominated by the older established forms ofnationalism. The picture books' "coming of age" necessitates aprivileging of texts which represent a landscape and culturewhich isspecifically "Australian" and which is constructed para-digmatically from a particular bundle of symbols, myths, andimages which are ideologically driven. We can apply Turner'scomments about the revived film industry at this time to thenewer picture book industry:

In defence of thefilms from the seventies, the preceding long hiatusin Australian film production must have made it seemthat therewassomething of a backlog of cultural iconography to work through.Given the demand to develop avisual mythology for the nation, inwhat wasvirtuallya new medium for Australianaudiences, it is littlewonder thatthe versionsof Australian identity offered for our recognition were nostalgically masculine, rural and colonial.(Making it National 127)

This nostalgia for a colonial rural past is clearly evident inthe abundance of picture book versions of bush ballads andtraditional verse published throughout the 1 9 7 0 s and 1 9 8 0 s ,where specific, and often clichd, markers of "Australianness"are privileged and serve to maintain an older, pastoral version ofnationalism originating in the work of nineteenth-century A ustralian impressionist painters such as Tom Roberts and FrederickM cC u bbi n , and of writers such as A . B. (Banjo) Paterson andHenry Lawson. Picture book versions of bush ballads and traditional verse articulate a convergence of nationalist ideologiesand high cultural forms through the pictorial modes whichillustrators use to represent landscape and character. As J ohnStephens notes ( 7 2 ) , this genre of picture book is dominated


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M U L T I C U L T U R A L I S M IN A U S T R A L I A N P I C T U R E BO OK S 105by a pictorial style which recalls andsometimes overtly quotesnineteenth-century Australian impressionist painting. For example, Desmond Digby's illustrations for Paterson's WaltzingMati lda ( 1 9 7 0 ) use a painterly technique and dark palettestrongly reminiscent of McCubbin's workseveral commentators describe this picture book as a "landmark" inAustralianpicture book publishing,2acomment which indicates theextentto which such stylistic choices and the ideologieswhich informthem are privileged and canonized. Roberts's "Shearing theRams" ( 1 8 9 0 ) hasalso become acanonical pretext for a numberof picture book versions ofballads, forexample, two versionsofClick go the Shears by Walter Cunningham ( 1 9 7 6 ) and RobertIngpen ( 1 9 8 4 ) and J ohn Anthony K ing's "The Shearing Shed"(in Henry Lawson's M a r y called him Mister, 1991). The occurrenceof the sameimage in K an Hannam's S u n d a y T o o F a r A w a y , afilm made in 1975,and a 1995 television advertisement for amedical benefits fund, suggests that this isanaspect of the widercultural production of textsandideologies. More recently, K i n ghas produced naturalistic andheavily romanticized versionsofbush ballads which arestylistically indebted to the naive realistconventions of early colonialist painting. Most of these picturebook versions of ballads andverse evince an unreflective nostalgiafor arural colonial past,which, combinedwith elementsofaromanticized tradition of resistance toauthority impl ic it inthefigure of theswagman and the "wi ld colonial boy" (forexample,K ing's The W i l d Colonial Boy 1 9 8 5 ) , is displaced through thehistorical setting.

A nalyz ing the construction of national identities in picturebooks is not simply a matter of looking for Australian cultural icons, l ike the Harbour Bridge, kangaroos, and vegemitesandwiches. Such icons obviouslydo play an important role asmarkers of "Australianness," especially for overseas consumption, and canevoke a paradigm which particular texts engagewith and interrogate. AsTurner has suggested, "the culturalspecificity, theAustralian-ness, o f Australian texts" lies in "recurring principles of organisation andselection" (NationalFictions1 9 ) . Texts draw upon a bank of myths, symbols, connotations,and ideologies that have currency in the Australian culture.


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106 R O BY N M C C A L L U MClichd nationalist motifs and icons do play an important part inthe production of picture books. Butthere is also a bank or storeof pictorial and literary conventions and motifswhich constructand represent an "Australian" contextfor example the recognizably "Australian" impressionist and colonialistpictorial stylesused by Digby, Ingpen, and K i n g . These conventions and motifswill often appear ideologically "neutral" because the ideologiesinscribed in them are impl ic i t or because those motifs and conventions are part of a long cultural tradition. Furthermore, asconventions and images are reappropriated and recycled indifferent contexts they accrue other meanings and enter intodialoguewith contemporary and historical ideological constructions of the culture.

One way of examining ideological shifts in the representationof "Australianness" is for us to look at re-editions of picturebooks, such as L y d i a Pender's Dan M c D o u g a l l and the B ul ldozer(1963; 1987) and Sharpur the Carpet Snake (1967; 1982). Bothpicture books have been re-published with illustrations by adifferent illustrator (Tony Oliver) and there is an obvious contrast in the qualityof the production and the printing techniquesused for the 1 9 6 0 s and 1 9 8 0 s editions. However, a comparison ofthe earlier and later editions also demonstrates changes in thedominant modes of representation and ideologies that are privileged by Australian culture of the 1 9 6 0 s and the 1 9 8 0 s . DanM c D o u g a l l and the Bulldozer, on which I will focus my discussionhere, tells the story of the journey of a bushman (and his bul l dozer) from the bush to the cityand back to the bush. In the city,D an becomes confused by the traffic and crowds and, losingcontrol of the bulldozer, wreaks havoc in the middle of the city;D an and Dozer return home to the bush in disgrace. M i no rchanges to the text in the 1 9 8 7 edition of D a n M c D o u g a l l and theBulldozer indicate changingattitudes toward the natural environment. For example, the 1963edition reads, "Sometimes therewere treesto fell, and thatwasbestof all"; the 1 9 8 7 edition reads:"Sometimes therewere trees to fell. That was a pity, but it had tobe done. A nd wasn't it exciting!" In the 1 9 6 3 edition, the felledtree waves its "broken, foolish roots" at the sky; in the 1987edition, the roots are "torn and broken." In the 1963 edition,


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Dozer tears up the mulga and the wattle (native Australianspecies) ; in the 1 9 8 7 edition, Dozer tearsup the prickly pear andbracken (imported noxious weeds). These are overt reflectionsof changing environmental policies and attitudes.

More impl ic i t ideological shifts are revealed by the pictorialstyles of the two editions of Dan M c D o u g a l l and the Bul ldozer inthe representation of the landscape, the architecture, and thecharacters. The pictorial style of the 1 9 6 0 s editions uses flatcolour and simplelinedrawing. There is littleattempt to suggestan illusionistic space and the figures are given a cartoon-liketreatment. Dan M c D o u g a l l and the Bul ldozer ( 1 9 6 3 ) also depictssome fairly obviousiconic markers of Australianness (kangaroos,koalas, and aborigines) in an otherwise non-specific landscape.T he threeA b o rig inal figures who greet Dan and Dozer on theirreturn to the bush are not mentioned in the text. In the picture,they receive stereotypical representation (naked and carryingspears), and they appear as a part of the landscape. (In the 1 9 8 7edition they are replaced by three dairy cowsa curious effect,whereby politically incorrect illustration is removed, but whichthen reminds us how Aborigines are effaced from such texts).These iconic features connote an image of "Australia" as a generalized conceptlacking in particularity. The pictorial style ofthe 1 9 8 7 edition is more naturalistic. The illustrator uses naturalistic perspective, animals and plants appear in detail, andthere is a wide range of types of plants, animals, and birds. The"Australian" features are a more integral part of the pictorialdesignand are more particularized. I am not suggesting that thepictorial style of the 1987 edition of Dan M c D o u g a l l and theBulldozer isdoing anything new, nor that the 1 9 6 3 edition is allthat outdated in its style. The tokenism of the 1963 text is ofcourse still prevalent in contemporary picture booksfor example vegemite sandwiches, pavlova, and lamingtons in PossumM a g i c ( 1 9 8 9 ) . A nd naturalism was also used in earlier textsstylistically, the 1 9 8 7 editionof D a n M c D o u g a l l issimilar to Shy thePlatypus ( 1 9 4 5 ) . However, the pictorial styles used in these re-editions of Pender's work do show how naturalism has become adominant and privileged mode for representing the country orbush landscape and for representing thepast. B y contrast, where


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108 R O B Y N M C C A L L U Mnaturalismwas used in earlier texts, such as Shy the Platypus, it wasgenerally associated with a pseudo-documentary approach toAustralian wildlife.

T he re-edition of Dan M cDougal l and the Bul ldozer also demonstrateswhat have become two archetypal icons in the Australianpicture book: the nineteenth-century cottage and the bushmanfigure. Stephens argues that "the humble, nineteenth-centurycottage a simple oblong, with a simple corrugated-iron hiproof and a separately roofed verandah running across the front,is the basis for the vast majority of domestic homes depicted inAustralian picture books" ( 7 3 ) . Architecturally, the cottage datesfrom about the 1 8 5 0 s , but in picture books it occurs in historicalrural settings and contemporary inner city settings alike and hasbeen occurringwith increased frequency over the last twenty-fiveyears ( 8 o n ) . As Stephens also notes, the cottage signals an idealization of colonial societywhich in contemporary urban settingshas the ideological function of transposing traditional communal values associatedwith an idyl l ic rural childhood onto a suburban landscape ( 6 g ) . What is interesting about the two editions ofDan M cDougal l and the Bul ldozer is that the classic features of thisarchetypal cottage present as a trace in the earlier edition havebeen emphasized in the later edition. In the 1 9 6 3 edition, Dan'shouse is a simple weatherboard constructionwith a corrugated-iron roof; in the 1 9 8 7 edition the hip roof, verandah, and rocking chair have been added.

T he image of theAustralian "bushman" has a more celebratedhistory than that of the tin-roofed cottage, but l ike the cottage,the bushman is an aspect of the Australian pastoral inwhich anidyl l ic rural past is implicit ly imposed on a contemporary urbanage. In the 1963 edition of Dan M c D o u g a l l and the Bulldozer,Rose depicts the characters using a cartoon-style illustrationhe sketches the male figures with black and white linedrawing,though their hats, sex, stance, and posture signal an Australianbush archetype. A g ai n this is emphasized in the 1987 editionthrough Oliver'sdetailed drawings, where although Dan and thefarmers appear in more detail, they conform to the Anglo-celticmythology of the "Australian male" wearing steel capped work-boots, Akubra hats, either pulled down over the eyes or pushed


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back "larrikin" style as in the caseof Dan, standing slouchedwithfolded arms or leaning on a shovel or a fence, chewing on a pieceof grass or stick.

Together these two cultural icons indicate an underlying nationalist ideology inwhich an idyl l ic rural colonial past is implicitly opposed to and privi leged over a contemporary urban age.Both the nineteenth-century cottageand the bushman figure arecharacteristic features of an Australian pastoral, and the recurrence of pastoral images in picture books, and inAustralian textsi n general (as in the i g 7 o s revival films), expresses an underlyi ng nostalgia for an idealized rural past. In Australian literatureand art, the pastoral takes on culturally specific forms ideologically linkedwith the older and established version of nationalismto which romantic images of the bush are central. These imagesseem to have originated in representations of the bush from the1 8 9 0 s , in the verse and prose of Paterson and Lawson and in thework of such Impressionist painters as Roberts and M cC u bbi n though, as Richard White argues, these now "classic" visionsof the bush landscape were essentially an urban production,"the city-dweller's image of the bush" ( 8 5 ) . Turner also suggeststhat for writers such as Paterson and Lawson, "the bush was alsothe location for the romanticizing of an authentic 'natural'community, the invention of a social structure in which thepositioning of the individual in the network of loyalties andresponsibilities was valorized as the antithesis to the town" (Na-tionalFictions 34). As a representation, any landscape, image orideaof a place functions as a sign system. It is elaborately codedthrough its stylisticfeatures and techniques and by "its locationi n culture generally" (Gibson2 1 5 ) , and is hence always inscribedwith social values and meanings. Romantic constructions of thebush as opposed to the city are configurations of a primaryopposition which has remained central to established versions ofnationalism, that is, the opposition between nature (the bush)and culture (the city). Traditionally, nature (and the bush) is thevalorized term in this opposition, and the natural country bushsetting becomes the site upon which an authentic selfhood, andhence an authentic national identity, is formed. This valorizedopposition underlies the narrative structure of Dan M cDo u g a l l


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110 R O B Y N M C C A L L U Mand the Bulldozer,which plots the journey from the bush to the cityand back to the bush. The text closes with "'This is the place foryou,' said Dan M cD o u gal l ; 'and this is the place for me.'" Thus itnot only impl ic it ly valorizes the bush and Dan's affinity with thebush, it also implies a correlation between a subjectivity and asenseof belongingboth to aplace and with an (albeit inanimate)other and the rural bush landscape.

A s many cultural commentators have pointed out, there isa strong l i nk between the romantic bush myth and a traditional version of nationalism which circumscribes an authentic"Australian" identity within a rural and masculine paradigm. AsTurner argues, this older established version of nationalism isproblematic insofar as "itstill addresses a single national character and depends upon a singular version of history [and] isincapable of incorporating, and is therefore impl ic it ly hostileto, the multiplicity of identities and histories currently competing for representation within the discourses of nationality"(M a k ing it Na t io na l io). A major shift in the Australian picturebook industry in the 1 9 8 0 s and 1 9 9 0 s has been toward theproduction of textswhich reflect images of Australian society asmulticultural. However, as with many of the more traditionallynationalistic picture books that I have so far been discussing,"multicultural" picture books are typically unreflective aboutthe ideological implications of the multicultural agenda thatthey espouse, and "multicultural" elements, usually in the formof an apparent cultural diversity in characterization, are oftensimplistically imposed upon a pre-existing social and physicallandscape already loaded with nationalistic ideologies whichsubsume and exclude such cultural differences. The move toward multiculturalism is, at least in part, driven by a (looselydefined) political agenda. The Multicultural Children's LiteratureAwards aim "to foster books for Australian children whichtruly reflect our cultural diversity" and they are informed by anassumption "that all Australian children should see themselvesreflected in the stories they read" (Austin 2 0 3 ) . A fine line,however, exists between texts which "naturally" integrate multicultural issues into the plot, thereby representing "multiculturalsociety asjustafact of l i fe" (Austin 2 0 3 ) , and textswhich incor-


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M U L T I C U L T U R A L I S M IN A U S T R A L I A N P I C T U R E B O O K S 111

poratecultural diversity tokenistically into Anglocentric conceptions of the social landscapeas in Mr Plunkett's Pool ( 1 9 9 2 ) ,the winner of the 1 9 9 3 Multicultural Picture Book A ward. Thearchitectural styles of the houses and sense of community inthe street in Mr Plunkett's Pool evoke traditional cultural valuesusually associated with semi-rural communities and hence withthe older version of nationalism described by Turner. The opposition between the bush and the city is reconfigured in MrPlunkett's Pool so that the values conventionally associated withthe bush are transposed onto inner-city suburbia within whichthe two markers of cultural diversity,K i m and Lee, are subsumed,and which are in turn opposed to the values of capitalism,commercialism, and self-interest embodied by Mr Plunket's garishly renovated house.

The recognition of cultural differences is integral with thedevelopment of intersubjectivity, and may be represented literally and symbolically as a process of exploring and engagingwith the outside world. Thus Bridgit was Bored ( i g g 2 ) , anotherinner-city multicultural picture book, constructs a l i nk betweenplace, cultural diversity, and intersubjectivity. The main character, Bridgit, is bored at the opening of the book, and the storytells of her walk around the block, a ourney in which she meetsarange of other people. On the last page, she meets a young boywho is movingi n just around the corner; it isimplied thathe andBridgit wil l become friends, though she has had to walk thewhole way round the block to meet him. The layout of each pageemphasizes the implications of thisjourney for Bridgit's progresstoward intersubjectivity. The four streets along which Bridgitwalks are illustrated, initially as black and white line drawings,around the border of the page. The picture in the centre of thepage details where Bridgit is and who she is meeting. As shewalks around the block, the line drawings around the borderare gradually coloured in. In this way, the layout constructsa constantly shifting viewing path which moves from centreand margin and from the inside and the outside. Symbolically,the layout schematizes the pattern of behaviour necessary forBridgit's move toward intersubjectivity. Furthermore, insofar as


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112 R O B Y N M C C A L L U Mcultural diversities, in the form of ethnic, age and sub-cultures,are mapped onto the social landscape which Bridgit explores,the move out of solipsism isrepresented as mtonymie of widersocial and cultural interrelationships.

A picture book which thematizes the interrelationships between individual and cultural identity more overtly is T h e Bunyipo f Berkeley's Creek ( 1 9 7 3 ) . This is in part a parody of the bushballad genre, as well as a more serious examination of the relations between individual and cultural identity. The story concerns the Bunyip'squest for identity and for a friend (someonel ike himself), and parodie references to bush ballads and othercultural icons construct a cultural background against which theBunyip's individual quest for inter-subjectivity is set. The titleis an impl ic it reference to the eighteenth-century philosopherGeorge Berkeley, who maintained that physical objects cannotexist unperceived, and hence that to exist is to be perceived. Thisidea intersects with contemporary thought about subjectivity:namely that concepts of selfhood are formed intersubjectively,that is, through a relationship with an other and through aprocess of mutual recognition. A sense of personal identity isdependent on another's recognition and acknowledgment ofone's self.

The Bunyip'squest occurs within a cultural and a social context. The cultural context, which is specifically Australian, isconstructed parodically, in features l ike the quotation of theAustralian coat of arms on the front cover in which the Bunyipis placed at the centre between the Emu and the Kangaroo(Bunbury and Tabbert 103), and the impl ic i t references to"Waltzing M ati l da" in the Bunyip's carrying a "swag,"3 campingby a billabong, and putting his "bi l ly on to b o i l " ( 2 0 - 2 1 ) . TheBunyip character is a borrowing from A b o rig inal Dreamtimenarratives, though it has been romanticized by Wagner andBrooks through its appropriation into an Anglo-Australian cultural tradition. The placement of the Bunyip, a mythical creature, at the centreof the Australian coat of armssuggestsa rangeof meanings: the centrality of myth to the construction of anAustralian identity, the ambivalent positiono f A b o rig inal culture


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in relation to non-aboriginal Australian culture, or the mythicstatus of an "Australian" identity or culture.

The Bunyip's quest also occurs within a social context, andthe narrative shape of this quest and the manner of its resolution impinge on questions about an Australian culturalidentity. During his quest the Bunyip meets a Wallaby, anEmu, and a man; he askseach of thesecharacterswhat Bunyipslook l ike. The Wallaby and the Emu both describe Bunyips inantithesis to themselves: the Wallaby describes them as having"horrible feathers" ( 1 1 - 1 2 ) ; the Emu describes them as having"horrible fur" and "horrible tails" ( 15). Thus both see the Bunyipas not l ike themselves. The stance adopted by both the Wallabyand the Emu represents a form of solipsism which denies theselfhood of the other (the bunyip). The response of the mangoes a step further than this. He replies that "Bunyips don'tlook l ike anything" because "Bunyipsdon't exist" ( 1 9 ) . By denying the Bunyip's existence, he refuses the Bunyip a subjectposition at all. This episode also inverts the logic of Berkeley'sconundrum: to not be perceived is to not exist. Both of thesepositions have negative social implications because both denythe possibility of social interaction between radically differentsocial groups and individuals.

The Bunyip'squest is resolved when he meetsanother bunyipwhom he recognizes as being l ike himself. The illustration depicting the Bunyip gazing in the mirror implicit ly affirms aLacanian view of subjectivity: by first recognizing himself in themirror he is then able to recognize the other as another self l ikehimself. However, while this implies that personal identity isformed intersubjectively, it also has rather ambivalent implications for the possibilityof cultural interaction within a society. Wemight read the relationships between the Bunyip, the Wallaby,the Emu, and the man as representing relationships betweendifferent social groups. On a larger social scale, the idea thatpersonal identity is possible only through a relationship with another l ike oneself implies that subjectivity (and by analogy cultural identity) is possible only within a homogenous social context. This position clearly poses problems for the notion of anational identity within a multicultural society.


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114 R O B Y N M C C A L L U M

The conception of a cultural identity that is both multiculturaland nationalistic isdependenton the ways inwhich relationshipsbetween place and subjectivity are represented. Any construction of a national identity is going to be grounded by specificimages of place and of the interrelationships between place andthe human subject. Traditional versions of nationalism in A ustralia have tended to depict individual subjectivity as shapedwithin a physical landscapethe social landscape is importantbut it is conceived of in limited and culturally homogeneoustermsas an essentially rural,colonial, and masculineworld that isan extension of the "natural" physical landscape. However, insofar as the recognition of cultural diversity is dependent on thedevelopment of intersubjectivity, contemporary "multicultural"versions of nationalismstress the intersubjective construction ofselfhood. In this sense, older forms of nationalism construct acultural identity, inherently solipsistic, centred in on itselfasthe image of the mythical Bunyipgazing at his own reflection inthe centre of the Australian coat-of-arms on the cover of TheBunyip o f Berkeley's Creek implies. The recurring images, symbols,myths, and ideologies that constitute the picture book genre inAustralia intersect with larger cultural forces and reflect shiftingdiscourses about nationalism and multiculturalism. The picturebook genre also has an important role in the process of culturalproduction in that it also represents a nexus inwhich the issuesof nationalism and multiculturalism are given a particular ideological nuance and focus as these issues interact with concernsspecific to literature for children namely the development outof solipsism and the formation of subjectivity. These concernsshape the particular images of nationalism and multiculturationdepicted in picture bookschildren's texts always at least implicitly seek to educate their readers, so thematic concerns withsubjectivity always have an enculturating function. At the sametime, however, the ways in which subjectivity is conceived of inpicture books are shaped by a continuing dialogue betweendifferent conceptions of multicultural and nationalist identities.The extent to which Australian picture books engagepositivelyi n this dialogue isdependenton the impl ic i t ideological shapingof images of place and subjectivity.


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M U L T I C U L T U R A L I S M I N A U ST R A L I A N P I C T U R E BOOKS 115N O T E S

1 T h e separate p i c t u r e b o o k a w a r d w a s e s t a b l i s h e d i n 1 9 5 2 , b u t w a s a w a r d e d o n l yf o u r t i m e s p r i o r t o 1 9 7 0 .

2 S e e , f o r e x a m p l e , C o t t o n 2 4 7 ; S a x b y , T h e P r o o f ofthe P u d d i n ' 7 7 , 1 0 4 - 0 5 ; a n d M u i r1 2 8 .

3 T h e "swag" c a r r i e d by t h e B u n y i p i n th e i l l u s t r a t i o n s i s , h o w e v e r , a n E n g l i s h /A m e r i c a n swag ( a b u n d l e o n a s t ic k ) r a t h e r t h a n a n A u s t r a l i a n swag ( a r o l l e db l a n k e t w o r n across t h e b a c k ) .

W O R K S C I T E DA u s t i n , M e r e d i t h . " T h e A u s t r a l i a n M u l t i c u l t u r a l C h i l d r e n ' s L i t e r a t u r e A w a r d s . " Aus

tral ian Child ren 's Literature: Find ing a Voice ( P r o c e e d i n g s o f t h e S e c o n d C h i l d r e n ' sL i t e r a t u r e C o n f e r e n c e , 2 7 M a r . 1993). E d . M i c h a e l S t o n e . W o l l o n g o n g , N S W :N e w L i t e r a t u r e s R e s e a r c h C e n t r e , U o f W o l l o n g o n g , 1 9 9 3 . 2 0 3 - 0 6 .

B u n b u r y , R h o n d a , a n d R e i n b e r t T a b b e r t . " T h e M a n y F a c e d B u n y i p a n d T e a c h i n gC h i l d r e n ' s L i t e r a t u r e . " P a p e r s : E x p l o r a t i o n s into Children 's Literature 2 (1991):99-107.

C o t t o n , M a r j o r i e . " B o o k s f o r th e V e r y Y o u n g C h i l d . " S a x b y 2 2 5 - 5 2 .C u n n i n g h a m , W a l t e r . C l i c k C o t h e Shears a n d Other A u s t r a l i a n Bush B a l l a d s . S y d n e y :

C o l l i n s , 1 9 7 6F o x , M e m . Possum M a g i c . I l l u s . J u l i e V i v a s . A d e l a i d e : O m n i b u s , 1 9 8 9 .G i b s o n , R o s s . T h e D i m i n i s h i n g P a r a d i s e: C h a n g i n g L i t er a r y P e r c e p t io n s 0 / A u s t r a l i a . S y d

n e y: A n g u s a n d R o b e r t s o n , 1 9 8 4 .I n g p e n , R o b e r t . C l i c k G o t h e Shears. S y d n e y : W i l l i a m C o l l i n s , 1 9 8 4 .K i n g , J o h n A n t h o n y . T h e W i l d C o l o n i a l B o y . S y d n e y : W i l l i a m C o l l i n s , 1 9 8 5 .L a w s o n , H e n r y . M a r y C a l l ed h i m M i st e r. I ll u s . J o h n A n t h o n y K i n g . S o u t h M e l b o u r n e :

M a c m i l l a n , 1 9 9 1 .M o o r h e a d , A n n , a n d P e t e r H i l l a r y . B r i d g i t w a s Bored. I l l u s . R a c h e l T o n k i n . S y d n e y :

H o d d e r a n d S t o u g h t o n , 1 9 9 2 .M u i r , M a r c i e . A H i s to r y o f A u s t r a l i a n C h i l d r e n ' s Book Il lustrat ion, M e l b o u r n e : O x f o r dU P , 1 9 8 2 .

P a t e r s o n , A . B . ( B a n j o ) . W a l t zi n g M a t il d a . I l l u s . D e s m o n d D i g b y . S y d n e y : C o l l i n s ,1 9 7 0 .

P e n d e r , L y d i a . D a n M c D o u g a l l a n d th e B u l l d o z er . I l l u s . G e r a l d R o s e . L o n d o n , N e w Y o r k ,T o r o n t o : A b e l a r d - S c h u m a n , 1 9 6 3 .

. D a n M c D o u g a l l a n d t h e B u l l d o z er . I l l u s . T o n y O l i v e r . S y d n e y : H o d d e r a n dS t o u g h t o n , 1 9 8 7 .

. S h a r f m r t h e C a r p e t Snake. I l l u s . V i r g i n i a S m i t h . L o n d o n : A b e l a r d - S c h u m a n ,1 9 6 7 .

. S h a r p u r t h e C a r p e l Snake. I l l u s . T o n y O l i v e r . S y d n e y : H o d d e r a n d S t o u g h t o n ,1 9 8 2 .

R e e s , L e s l i e . Shy the P latypus. N o r t h R y d e , N S W : A n g u s a n d R o b e r t s o n , 1 9 4 5 .R u b e n s t e i n , G i l l i a n . M r P l u n k e t t' s Pool. I l l u s . T e r r y D e n t o n . M i l s o n ' s P o i n t , N S W :

R a n d o m H o u s e , 1 9 9 2 .


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v vo r th B o o k s , 1 9 7 1 .. The Proo f of the Pud din ': Au stral ian Chi ld ren 's Literature 1970-1 Q Q O . S v d n e v :A s h t o n S c h o l a s t i c , 1 9 9 3 .

S t e p h e n s , J o h n . " I l l u s t r a t i n g t h e L a n d s c a p e i n A u s t r a l i a n C h i l d r e n ' s P i c t u r e B o o k s . "L a n d s c a p e a n d I d e n t i t y: Perspectives f r o m A u s t r a l i a ( P r o c e e d i n g s f r o m t h e 1 9 9 4C o n f e r e n c e o f t h e C e n t r e f o r C h i l d r e n ' s L i t e r a t u r e ) . A d e l a i d e , A u s l i b P r e s s ,994- D 9"83-

T u r n e r , G r a e m e . N a t i o n a l F i c t i o n s . 1 9 8 6 . S y d n e y : A l l e n a n d U n w i n , 1 9 9 3 .. M a k i n g i t N a t i o n a l : N a t i o n a l i sm a n d A u s t r a l i a n P o p u l a r C u l t u r e . S y d n e y : A l l e n

a n d U n w i n , 1 9 9 4 .W a g n e r , J e n n y . T h e B u n y i p o f Berkeley's Creek. 1 9 7 3 . I l l u s . R o n B r o o k s . R i n g w o o d , V i c :

P e n g u i n , 1 9 7 5 .W h i t e , R i c h a r d . I n v e n t i n g A u s t r a l i a : Images a n d Identity 1688-1980. N o r t h S y d n e y :

A l l e n a n d U n w i n , 1 9 8 1 .

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