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  1. Home
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  3. Depraved and Disorderly
  • Cited by 96
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
September 2009
Print publication year:
1997
Online ISBN:
9780511470172
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511470172
Subjects:
History, Regional History after 1500
Information

Book description

This innovative book marks a new way of looking at convict women. It tells their stories in a powerful and evocative way, drawing out broader themes of gender and sexual disorder and race and class dynamics in a colonial context. It considers the convict past in light of contemporary concerns, looking at the cultural meanings of aspects of life in the colony: on ships, in the factories and in orphanages. Using startlingly original research, Joy Damousi considers such varied topics as headshaving as punishment in the prisons and the subversive nature of laughter and play, as well as analysing the language of pollution, purity and abandonment. She also dicusses the nature of sexual relationships, including evidence of lesbianism. The book shows how understanding about sexual and racial difference was crucial for both the maintenance and disturbance of colonial society, and became a focus for cultural anxiety.

Reviews

‘Depraved and Disorderly is history at its best - thoroughly researched and crisply written, underpinned by cultural theory yet fascinating for its attention to individual human fates.’

Source: West Australian

‘This is an excitingly formulated, ambitiously researched and, in its writing and careful editing, an elegantly evocative reading experience.’

Source: Australian Historical Studies

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