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'The Mother of All Crimes'

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'The Mother of All Crimes' ‘The Mother of All Crimes’: Infanticide in the Antipodes Kathleen Clark, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Hons) School of Humanities and Creative Arts Faculty of Education, Humanities and Law Flinders University, South Australia February 2017 CONTENTS Summary ..................................................................................................................... 5 Declaration .................................................................................................................. 7 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... 8 Exegesis ........................................................................................................................ 9 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 10 2. Women in Historical Discourse .......................................................................... 15 Concerns of the present in historical novels ....................................................... 18 Characterisation and Historical Accuracy ........................................................... 19 Postmodern historical novels .............................................................................. 22 3. Murderous women: An analysis of three novels ................................................ 28 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 28 Narrative structure ............................................................................................... 29 Issues of authenticity ........................................................................................... 31 Postmodernist influences .................................................................................... 34 Historical fiction as a feminist reworking of history .......................................... 35 Privileging the female body ................................................................................ 39 Women’s work .................................................................................................... 42 Characterisation .................................................................................................. 44 Agency ................................................................................................................ 46 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 48 4. Representations of women in Australian historical writing ............................... 51 Women in colonial texts ..................................................................................... 53 Quintus Servinton – Henry Savery ..................................................................... 53 The Broad Arrow – Caroline Leakey .................................................................. 56 For the Term of his Natural Life – Marcus Clarke ............................................. 58 Women in contemporary historical fiction ......................................................... 60 Convict Girls series – Deborah Challinor ........................................................... 61 Sister Kate – Jean Bedford .................................................................................. 64 The Burial – Courtney Collins ............................................................................ 65 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 66 5. Mary McLachlan’s story ..................................................................................... 69 Background ......................................................................................................... 69 Mary’s birth and background .............................................................................. 72 Life in Glasgow ................................................................................................... 74 Conviction and transportation ............................................................................. 81 Assignment to Glen Nairne ................................................................................. 82 Pregnancy ............................................................................................................ 84 Infanticide trial .................................................................................................... 86 Public response ................................................................................................... 90 Creative work: ‘precious little’ ............................................................................... 94 1. ................................................................................................................................. 95 2. ................................................................................................................................. 98 3. ............................................................................................................................... 100 2 4. ............................................................................................................................... 110 5. ............................................................................................................................... 116 6. 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............................................................................................................................. 254 28. ............................................................................................................................. 261 29. ............................................................................................................................. 272 30. ............................................................................................................................. 275 31. ............................................................................................................................. 278 32. ............................................................................................................................. 279 References ............................................................................................................... 280 Books ................................................................................................................ 280 Journal Articles ................................................................................................. 283 Newspaper Articles ........................................................................................... 284 Archival
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