Written Thesis in Submission for the Candidature of Doctor of Philosophy RADICAL TASMANIA: Rebellion, Reaction and Resistance: A Thesis in Creative Nonfiction: Volume I: Exegesis by Robert Hodder School of Behavioural & Social Sciences & Humanities University of Ballarat PO Box 663 University Drive, Mount Helen Ballarat, Victoria 3353 Australia Submitted in September 2009 Copyright © Robert Hodder 2010 Robert Hodder Radical Tasmania – Exegesis Abstract Radical Tasmania is a political history of radicals in Tasmania theorised and narrated in creative nonfiction. The exegesis analyses radical history, politics and historiography in the context of the “Narrative Wars” (“History Wars” and “Story Wars”). History, it is argued, can be understood as moving through a process of “value” drawn from a play of its meaning in both the social sciences and the arts. This is theorised as a “figurational tension”. It suggests a poetics for the imaginative use of literary devices through creative nonfiction for a radical historiography. Such a narrative has considerable potential for academic research in the pursuit of a popular or “vulgar” readership in the urgency of the power struggles which emerged from the Narrative Wars and their implications for a democratic culture. Tasmania, as an island society which has experienced brutal oppression, widespread repression and later vigorous political activism, is a case study for a “storyscape” of radical geo-identity. This theory is then applied through creative nonfiction in selected histories of radicals in Tasmania. These histories are structured as a geographical “tour” of the island’s radicalism. “Gonzo historiography” and other devices narrate the experiences of Aboriginal guerrilla women in the so-called “Black War”, tenant farmer resistance in the northern midlands, modern and postmodern communism, sexual liberation, a black Chartist and agitation by Vandiemonian emancipists, recent agitation for penal reform, “accidental champions” of feminism on the east coast, revolutionary unionists on the west coast and a resolution of cultural parapatry between “locals” and “in-movers” in the “forest wars” of Tasmania’s north east. ii Robert Hodder Radical Tasmania – Exegesis Statement of Authorship Except where explicit reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. No other person’s work has been relied upon or used without due acknowledgement in the main text and bibliography of the thesis. Signed:___________________________ Signed:___________________________ Dated: ___________________________ Dated: ___________________________ Robert Hodder Associate Professor Meg Tasker Candidate Principal Supervisor iii Robert Hodder Radical Tasmania – Exegesis Final Project Report Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) ALL QUESTIONS MUST BE ANSWERED. Please type your responses into the boxes provided. Boxes will expand to fit your response. 1) Project Details: Project No: A05-163 Project Name: Radical Tasmania: Rebellion, Reaction and Resistance: A Thesis in Creative Nonfiction 2) Principal Researcher Details: Full Name: Associate Professor Meg Tasker School/Section: Behavioural and Social Sciences & Humanities Phone: 5327 9631 Email: [email protected] 3) Project Status: Please indicate the current status of the project: Abandoned X Data collection complete Please give reason: Completion date: 09/Dec/2008 4) Special Conditions: If this project was approved subject to conditions, were these met? X Yes No * NB: If ‘no’, please provide an explanation below: 5) Changes to project: Were any amendments made to the originally approved project? iv Robert Hodder Radical Tasmania – Exegesis Final Project Report Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) 6) Storage of Data: Please indicate where the data collected during the course of this project is stored: In a locked cabinet in the private premises of the student researcher: 6) Research Participants: Were there any events that had an adverse effect on the research participants? Yes * NB: Please provide details: X No 7) Summary of Results: Please provide a summary of the results of the project: Nine persons agreed to be interviewed for the project. Six interviewees were recorded on tape and with notes. Three interviewees were recorded by notes only because: one person refused to be taped, one person nominated a public area which had too much ambient noise for a tape recorder and on one occasion the tape recorder malfunctioned. All interviewees engaged enthusiastically with the project, offered constructive advice for the use of the material and/or requested amendments to the thesis draft and some offered further assistance. It was generally a positive and rewarding experience which provided crucial primary evidence for the project. Feedback: The HREC welcomes any feedback on: · difficulties experienced with carrying out the research project; or · appropriate suggestions which might lead to improvements in ethical clearance and monitoring of research. 9) Signature/s: Principal Researcher: Date: Print name: Assoc. Prof. Meg Tasker 3 Sep 2009 Other/Student Researchers: ……………………………. Date: 22 Apr 2009 Print name: Robert Hodder v Robert Hodder Radical Tasmania – Exegesis Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere thanks to my principal supervisor, Associate Professor Meg Tasker, School of Behavioural & Social Sciences & Humanities, for the enormous amount of time and patient support she has given me throughout this thesis. I also give sincere thanks to my associate supervisors, Dr Jeremy Smith and Dr Anne Beggs Sunter, who have offered me invaluable advice throughout the research and writing. I am grateful to the School for its support in my successful application for an Australian Postgraduate Award and for further financial assistance for interstate conferences on Australian literature, oral history and creative nonfiction. My special thanks goes to the interviewees for this project: Max Bound, Rodney Croome, Caroline Dean, Richard Flanagan, Ian Jamieson, Denise Power, Honourable Justice Pierre Slicer, Dr Jeff Sparrow and Julia Weston. My appreciation also extends to those who have supported me in this research: Dr Ian Syson of Victoria University and Vulgar Press for the idea, Dr Pete Hay of the University of Tasmania for radical conversation, Dr Tom Dunning and Dr Hamish Maxwell-Stewart of the University of Tasmania for their encouragement, Dr John Tully of Victoria University for his list of radical contacts, Kim Pearce for advice on the Tasmania Archives and for his World of Work and Brickfields manuscript, Annette Betheras for her William Cuffay thesis, Jim Haas, Una Camplin and Len Miles for their vernacular history of Tasmania’s “forgotten valley”, Paddy Gorman for inviting me into the archives of the CFMEU, Tim Aulich, Frank Giles, Stephen Bantik and Colin Smart for the St Marys “goss”, Tim McManus for showing me Miller’s Hill, Dr Frances Daily for her advice on the SOS campaign, Cr David Clement, Ross Quinn, Isa Witton, Di Field, Ashley Mason, Charles Trollope and Melanie Casey for giving me their support on the SOS history, Dr David Leaman for his oral history of SOS and a copy of his Water, Amelia and Dr Peter Wilkins for their humour, and Gail and Paul Roberts for putting me up (and putting up with me) so often in Hobart. Finally, I am forever grateful to my favourite Tasmanian, Maree Roberts, for supporting me in every way through years of research and for sharing in my passion for creative writing and things Vandiemonian. vi Robert Hodder Radical Tasmania – Exegesis To Maree and my parents, Colin and Moya. vii Robert Hodder Radical Tasmania – Exegesis Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 10 Part 1 ............................................................................................................................... 15 Radical History, Politics and Historiography ................................................................. 15 A): Radical History ..................................................................................................... 15 History as Struggle .......................................................................................................... 16 History as Praxis ............................................................................................................. 17 History as the Meaning in Praxis .................................................................................... 21 The Problem of Radicals in Tasmania ........................................................................ 22 Narrative Wars as Contextualised Force ......................................................................... 22 History Wars as Force ..................................................................................................... 25 History As Radical Struggle ........................................................................................... 37 Radical Tasmania? ...................................................................................................... 38 B): Radical Politics ..................................................................................................... 41 History “from below” as Politics ...................................................................................