Historical Representation and the Postcolonial Imaginary

Download or read book Historical Representation and the Postcolonial Imaginary written by John Hartnett and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2011-01-18 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical Representation and the Postcolonial Imaginary: Constructing Travellers and Aborigines endeavours to provide an overview of the role which oral history plays in the documentation, representation and subsequent empowerment of neglected and long-marginalised social groups, in this case: the cultural minorities that are the Irish Travellers and the Australian Aborigines. Oral history has proved paramount in enabling such groups to document their pasts, pasts which until recently had been occluded and often-ignored. This work explores the genre that is oral history through the prism that is the construction of the ‘Other’ in society and with particular reference to two minorities whose histories share a range of similar characteristics. In examining this process, it is possible to trace the transformation of folklore and storytelling into documented historical narrative.