Description
Book Synopsis'A Cultural History of the Bushranger Legend in Theatres and Cinemas, 1828–2017' is a multidisciplinary investigation into the history of cultural representations of the bushranger legend on the stage and screen, charting that history from its origins in colonial theatre works performed while bushrangers still roamed Australia’s bush to contemporary Australian cinema. It considers the influences of industrial, political and social disruptions on these representations as well as their contributions to those disruptions. The cultural history recounted in this book provides not only an insight into the role of popular narrative representations of bushrangers in the development and reflection of Australian character, but also a detailed case study of the specific mechanisms at work in the symbiosis between a nation’s values and its creative production.
Table of ContentsList of Figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: Defining the Bushranger Legend; Part 1: Establishing the Legend; 1. The First Bushranger Melodrama; 2. Alfred Dampier and the Nationalistic Melodrama; 3. Wild West Shows and Wild Australia; 4. Hippodramas and Edward Irham Cole; Part 2: Developing the Legend; 5. The Bushranger Genre from Stage to Screen; 6. The Bushranger Ban; 7. British and American Interventions in the Bushranger Legend; 8. Radical Nationalism and the Bushranger Legend; Part 3: Fragmenting the Legend; 9. Historical Revisionism and the Bushranger Legend; 10. Diversification and Inclusiveness of the Bushranger Legend; 11. Globalization of the Bushranger Legend in Outlaw Road Movies; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
