Transported to Botany Bay : class, national identity, and the literary figure of the Australian convict

Resource Information

The work Transported to Botany Bay : class, national identity, and the literary figure of the Australian convict represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Missouri University of Science & Technology Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Transported to Botany Bay : class, national identity, and the literary figure of the Australian convict

Title remainder

class, national identity, and the literary figure of the Australian convict

Statement of responsibility

Dorice Williams Elliott

Creator

• Elliott, Dorice Williams, 1951-

Author

• Elliott, Dorice Williams, 1951-

Subject

• Australia -- In literature
• English fiction
• English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism
• Exiles in literature
• Exiles in literature
• Literature
• Penal colonies in literature
• Penal colonies in literature
• Prisoners in literature
• Prisoners in literature
• 1700-1799
• Australia

Language

eng

Summary

"Literary representations of British convicts exiled to Australia were the most likely way that the typical English reader would learn about the new colonies there. In Transported to Botany Bay, Dorice Williams Elliott examines how writers--from canonical ones such as Dickens and Trollope to others who were themselves convicts--used the figure of the felon exiled to Australia to construct class, race, and national identity as intertwined. Even as England's supposedly ancient social structure was preserved and venerated as the 'true' England, the transportation of some 168,000 convicts facilitated the birth of a new nation with more fluid class relations for those who didn't fit into the prevailing national image. In analyzing novels, broadsides, and first-person accounts, Elliott demonstrates how Britain linked class, race, and national identity at a key historical moment when it was still negotiating its relationship with its empire. The events and incidents depicted as taking place literally on the other side of the world, she argues, deeply affected people's sense of their place in their own society, with transnational implications that are still relevant today"--

Member of

• Series in Victorian Studies

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

LBSOR/DLC

Dewey number

823/.509

Index

index present

LC call number

PR858.E97

LC item number

E45 2019

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Series in Victorian studies