Review of Re-presenting Otherness: Mapping the Colonial 'Self,' Mapping the Indigenous 'Other' in the Literatures of Australia and New Zealand, edited by Franrçoise Kral

Abstract

This little yellow publication looks like a relic from another age. The collection seems to belong in the eighties. Of course conference proceedings are a special kind of publication category and I would be the last person to argue that there is no place for cheaply produced paper covered conference proceedings, but it doesn't bode well when the cover seems to be reprising a debate that has long since moved on. The questions I was left with on finishing this collection of papers were about the project they describe—what is it? Who is it for? What is the trajectory? Re-presenting Otherness is a collection of papers by scholars based at French universities, mostly Paris, and Austrian, mostly Innsbruck. The papers have the air of a colloquium or a teaching workshop and include one by a doctoral student. They range over the work of Maori and Aboriginal writers as well as more generally, and are divided into four chapters which perhaps reflect the organisation of the conference: 'Mis-representing Otherness', 'Construing the Other', 'Re-presenting Otherness', and 'Deconstructing the Western Eye/I'.