Monash University ARROW Repository | Judging a book by its cover: some reflexions on the portrayal of betrayal

Clear Session
Change Site View
Default Site

Monash University

Monash University Library

ARROW Repository

List of Titles

Judging a book by its cover: some reflexions on the portrayal of betrayal

Add to Quick Collection

Crinall, Karen. Judging a book by its cover: some reflexions on the portrayal of betrayal. 2006.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/7449

Title: Judging a book by its cover: some reflexions on the portrayal of betrayal
Creator: Crinall, Karen
Contributor: Monash University. Faculty of Arts. School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences.
Subject: Photography
Subject: Indigenous Australian children
Subject: Stolen Generation
Subject: Reflective research
Date: 2006
Description: This paper reflects on the process of viewing and constructing meaning about a book cover illustration which appears on a collection of Stolen Generation stories edited by Carmel Bird. The grainy black and white photograph, portraying six young girls of part Aboriginal descent, originally appeared under the heading “Homes are sought for these children” in a Darwin newspaper during the 1930s. It is an iconic representation of the betrayal of innocence, signifying the human suffering caused by the inherent racism of the then Australian government’s Aboriginal assimilation policies. It is also an ironic image, communicating the incongruence between the meaning of social justice at the beginning of the twentieth century and at its end. Guided by Michel Foucault’s oft-repeated caution that, “not everything is bad, but everything is dangerous” (Foucault 1991: 343), my intention is to share a subjective reflexion, and thereby raise some issues about the way we interact with, and invest truth in visual objects, such as photographs and the discourses which embed them in historical, social, political and cultural contexts.

Identifier: http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/7449
Identifier: monash:4727
Identifier: Crinall, K. Judging a book by its cover: some reflexions on the portrayal of betrayal. Practice Reflexions. 2006;1(1): 39-51.
RM Identifier: $rmid
Publication Category: $pubCat
Type: journal article
Type: Collection. Practice Reflexions
Type: Monash open access journal
Source: 1834-3635

File	Description	Size	Format
DOC	Research Publication	690 KB	Adobe Acrobat PDF	View Details	Download

17 Visitors

23 Hits

15 Downloads