|
|
Australian cultural identity as a symbolic construction
Šafaříková, Jana ; Soukup, Václav (advisor) ; Soukup, Martin (referee)
Despite its geographical position within the Asia-Pacific region, Australia puts a great deal of effort into recreating a cultural environment that would resemble the one of Europe and the United States, rather than the one of its neighbouring countries. Australia's cultural identity, however, due to the immigrant past of its very diverse population, have had to be invented from scratch during the past two centuries, and the process of its formation continues to these days. This gives us an exceptional opportunity to study the processes of cultural identity construction in an almost direct transmission. Based on the bibliographical research, the thesis assumes that the roots can be identified in the following areas: (1) cultural traditions of the Australian Aboriginal societies, (2) recent cultural stereotypes that emerged during the past two centuries, and (3) specific natural and climatic conditions coupled with the presence of unique animal and plant species. This thesis will focus on the broadest, yet most significant area: Aboriginal culture in both its past and present state, and on its existence within the context of contemporary Australian society. The area of contemporary cultural stereotypes, of which many are related to Aboriginal cultural tradition, will also be briefly discussed. Australian...
|
guest ::
RSS feed.