littératures insulaires

parutions 1999

DESCRIPTION : Taking as its departure point Bernard Smith's classic study, « European vision and the south Pacific » (1960), « Double vision » explores the ambivalences of european perceptions of the Pacific and juxtaposes them with the indigenous visual cultures that challenge western assumptions about art and representation.

« Double vision » addresses these larger interpretive questions through case studies of the cultures of voyages, colonial art, and indigenous affirmations of identity. It suggests that images and texts can be combined through a new practice of innovative, visually oriented cultural history.

This approach yields a fresh understanding of history, colonialism and culture in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. « Double vision » is a challenging combination of visual and textual inquiry, and its outstanding list of contributors offer a fresh perspective on art and history in the Pacific.

CONTENT

Introduction : Nicholas Thomas; Part I. Voyages : 1. Reimagining Juan Fernandez : probability, possibility and pretence in the South Seas (Jonathan Lamb) ; 2. Images of monarchy : Kamehameha I and the art of (Harry Liebersohn) ; 3. Art as ethnohistorical text : science, representation and indigenous presence in 18th and 19th century oceanic voyage (Bronwen Douglas) ; Part II. Colonies : 4. The penitentiary as paradise (Michael Rosenthal) ; 5. Under Saturn : melancholy and the colonial imagination (Ian McLean) ; 6. Looking at : face to face with 'All 'e Same t'e Pakeha' (Leonard Bell) ; Part III. Imaginings Beyond Colonialism : 7. Voices beyond the Pae (Robert Jahnke) ; 8. The importance of birds : or, the relationship between art and anthropology reconsidered (Diane Losche) ; Part IV. Counter-Colonial Imaginings : 9. Past present : the local art of colonial quotation (Joan Kerr) ; 10. Australian icons : notes on perception (Gordon Bennett) ; Afterword : clumsy Utopians (Peter Brunt).