The 'cultural design' of Indigenous Australian art: A cross-cultural perspective
SVH, Saarbruecken 2010 ISBN 978-3-8381-2086-7
The book is a cross-cultural analysis of Indigenous Australian art. It focuses on cross-culturally adequate research methods and investigates concepts of 'culture' and 'art'. Three paintings by Anmatyerre artists from Utopia (NT) serve as model cases for defining a cross-cultural art category. This leads to a discussion on exhibition concepts of three European museums in regard to cross-cultural codes of ethics. In conclusion, the author suggests that in cross-cultural exhibitions the 'cultural design' of an artwork, appropriately taken into account, may not only improve the visitors' cross-cultural sensitivity, but also increase their appreciation of (and enjoyment with) the artworks on display.
Politics, Power and Poetry: An Intercultural Analysis of Aboriginal Identity Formations in Black Australian Poetry
Stauffenburg, Tuebingen 2003 ISBN 3-86057-319-5
This book investigates a wide range of representations of Australian Indigenous identity formations and elaborates an interculturally appropriate research model, viewed from an anti-colonial perspective. Attention is focussed on colonial and anti-colonial power strategies within these formation processes, as well as on the socio-political power relevance of reception processes in reply to these representations. The concepts of 'difference' as to their relevance for identity formations within intercultural encounters and transformations are investigated. In this context, the tension between essentialist and non-essentialist perspectives on identity discourse are pointed out.
The broad spectrum of Indigenous identity formations is investigated within the discourse analysis of a selection of contemporary Black Australian poetry (L. Bellear, G. Dixon, E. Fesl, L. Fogarty, A. Heiss, E. Johnson, R. Sykes, M. Watson, E. West). The syncretic reading method interrogates the reader's experience as effects rather than methodologically determined acts of reception. Even though the main concern lies with anti-colonial reception processes, the analysis does not dismiss the relevance of literary aethetics for text interpretations. Yet the analysis exemplifies that the assessment criteria need to be grounded in the Aboriginality of the poems. The quintessence of this analysis lies in the author's firm conviction that the anti-colonial perspective on Indigenous identity constructions is metonymic in its visions of contemporary Aboriginality within equally balanced intercultural contact zones.
