ANZAC and Relationship Between Australians and New Zealanders

In the “Anzac Peacekeepers: The Relationship Between Australians and New Zealanders in Truce Monitoring Group, Bougainville” Baird discusses the significance of Anzac for the direct descendants particularly those Australians and New Zealanders who participated in the joint mission of Peace Monitoring Group (PMG) in Bougainville. The author highlights the rivalry relations among the soldiers and variance in operational styles between Australia and New Zealand. However, the author asserts the existence of competitiveness in the relationship, she posits that each time within a joint army mission, the Anzac has restarted the sense of cooperation.

Following the joint mission of Australia and New Zealand corps in Gallipoli in World War I, the national identities and history of both countries have been significantly impacted by the Anzac. Baird explores that the perception of rivalry developed a coldness relationship between the two forces prior to the Anzac, but the pressure of engaging with the reality of war in Gallipoli, led Australian and New Zealander soldiers to collaborate. Some pieces of evidence are brought to prove the idea of this double-sided relationship including the Australian war historian Charles Bean, who affirms the existence of coolness relationship in Cairo at the commencement days of the campaign in Gallipoli.

The author claims that in coalitions, military operations are generally led by major partners who are normally wealthier nations, but in Bougainville, the TMG was led by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF).  Furthermore, the author identifies dissimilarities in approaches between the two forces in Bougainville and brings the example that Australian Defence Force (ADF) had a rather safety oriented approach including the exigence of 24 hours’ communication and reliable transport facilities more than their New Zealander counterparts.

The perception that New Zealander’s were thought to be more disciplined and obtained a higher cultural understanding of the Pacific region is also assessed in details. The author paraphrases the academic work about New Zealand history by Philippa Mein Smith, in which the New Zealanders are mentioned to consider themselves inheriting more British discipline than those of undisciplined and violent Australians. Baird mentions that there has been a long history of an unexamined belief that New Zealanders’ have superiority in cultural sensitivity which could be interrelated to New Zealanders less involvement in re-colonising and dense population of Māori and Polynesians in that country. The author urges that the New Zealand’s Pacific advantage was taken for granted by many people except few considerate individuals from both nations, therefore, she contends that the notion of Australians having a lack of culturally sensitive and thus New Zealanders Pacific advantage is a wrong label.

As a peer-reviewed essay, the points of this work is clear and it is well-argued. The thesis is reinforced with a relatively comprehensive relevant shred of evidence and examples. The author concludes that the Australia and New Zealand mission in TMG evidenced that one cannot take the Anzac relationship for granted but it is also emphasised that foreign pressure on combating moments always led soldiers from both nations to renew the overall achievements of solidarity and pride of Anzac on the ground. 

Although this essay is sufficiently argued and the conclusion seems quite reasonable but one can hardly ground Anzac’s continuation, to such a large extent, on mere foreign pressure during the wars. The legitimacy of Anzac tradition demands a rather comprehensive historical consideration as its renewal may not be limited to only extrinsic factor such as foreign pressure during the wars. The ANZAC tradition may have rooted deep in history and its concomitant aspects include a long history of British supervision on soldiers of both nations, English language, and the neighborhood of both countries. 

Reference:

Baird, Rosemary (2012). Anzac Peacekeepers: The Relationship Between Australians and New Zealanders in the Truce Monitoring Group, Bougainville, History Australia,
9:3, 199–221.

How literature creates its own reality

The relationship between literature and reality is a critical aspect of literary studies and can be discussed in various ways. This essay explores the ways in which literature reflects and affects life. With reference to the Greek’s ancient play the Medea and the contemporary short story the Night Watchman’s Occurrence Book, this essay posits that literature does not only present the reality but it also affects it. Therefore, by affecting real life, literature, in its unique way, shapes our understanding and creates its own reality as well.

The reality is the state of things and thoughts as they actually exist and happen. Literature expresses the meaning of these existences to our mind. In other words, literature is a conveyer of the meaning of the whole things that are surrounding us. According to Derrida and his post-modernism interpretation, mentioned in Lecture Presentation on (12/10/2016) meaning cannot exist by itself, “meaning is […] conventional, arbitrary, and not innate in nature. […] therefore no inherent truth in nature/the world.” (slide. 12). So, in the case of reality, it should not have existed prior to its emergence in the text, and it cannot have occurred unless it is understood. As for literature, a conveyor cannot be separate to what it is conveying, and therefore, by its very first function, literature as the conveyor of reality is reality itself.

Literature uses the language as the main contrivance in order to achieve such conveyance. On the other hand, a language consists of conventional signs, words, and structure, which are adequate means for communicating and transferring meanings. But, when it comes to literature in relation to reality, it establishes further elements of concepts through its own constituents such as tone, setting, theme, plot, characters, imagery, metaphor, irony, and symbolism.  Therefore, in literature, the reality is rather given through a system that is coextensive with the language.  A literary text does not just consist of the essence of meaning and knowledge, but of humour. Naipaul’s short story the Night Watchman’s Occurrence Book gives a perfect instance, “God is my Witness I never find a night watchman work like this, so much writing […] I don’t have four hands and six eyes […] I am a poor man and you could abuse me” (p. 213). One can easily observe that, in fact, it is to literature that the state of life as it actually exists can be understood. 

Literature affects the way we think. As it has articulated by Foucault, that is the episteme that the artistic knowledge is bounded on, which is the social and cultural institutions and structures in its particular time and the specific place (Lecture 28/09/2016). But literature also interacts with the episteme to which it belongs to. Thus, the prospect of knowledge at each time, to some extent, has been affected by literature. However, a large number of factors may involve with any epoch, the dramatic changes from ancient Greek plays to post-modern theatre shows a significant proportion of pursuits on the episteme of each time in history has happened within the literature. That was in the theatre that “the cause of events slipped from being in the hands of the Gods to being in the hands of man” (slide. 3. Week 12).  During the ancient Greek, the drama enabled knowledge, which has coincided with the development of that era. In Euripides’ drama the Medea, the protagonist think she is on the right track and the Gods are supporting her, “Medea: What heavenly power lends an ear to a breaker of oaths, a deceiver?” (p .107). This is not just placing the art into public speaking, and expanding the rhetoric, but also paving the way of the argument with all its consequences which affect the way people think.   

Literature reflects the reality of life and makes a sense of it. Life is very complex and the reality, to a large extent, consists of conflicts, and therefore, it may seem pointless on many occasions. On contrary, every individual literary writer, in fact, is mirroring the experience of reality in life, because of the explanations on aspects of reality that one can encounter within his or her daily life. It is only in literature that the reflection of life may consist the overall capacity of text. Because it is to literature that educates, while make us laugh, or inspire at the same time horrifying us. Therefore, the literary reflection of reality is always accompanied with extra meaning which affects us. “Medea: Of all things which are living and can make a judgement, we women are the most unfortunate creatures” (p. 66-67). That is the reflection of reality in literature, depicted so vividly, that the women were treated like a property.

Reference:

Euripides. “The Medea” in Introduction to Literary Studies Spring 2016. Ed. Achilles S. Western Sydney University. Print.

Naipaul, V, S. “The Night Watchman’s Occurrence Book” in Introduction to Literary Studies Spring 2016. Ed. Achilles S. Western Sydney University. Print.

GENOCIDE IN TASMANIA?

In the “GENOCIDE IN TASMANIA?”, Reynolds writes about the Black War and its controversy of genocide in Australian history. Collecting a set of detailed stories from those of historical documentation, Reynolds depicts a vivid image of the colonial ruling in Tasmania during the 1920s and 1930s. In his work, Reynolds discusses the numerous letters and accounts related to the conflicts and concludes that the reality has overwhelmed by the assumption of brutal acts by settlers. The author states that this is a false assertion to generalise settlers as total patronisers and the Aborigines as just helpless victims.

Reynolds references an egalitarian policy by colonial government at the initial steps and notes that following his arrival in 1824, Governor George Arthur’s declaration was “aglow with good intentions” (p.130). In his very first proclamation, Arthur announced, “the Natives of this island being under the protection of the same laws which protect the settlers” (p.130). Reynolds chronicles the conflicts related to Aboriginal resistance which was started in 1826, and gradually intensified the situation and jeopardised the ideal harmony between the settlers and Aboriginals. Following a series of attacks, officially endorsed as "black savage” (p.134), “a number of settlers killed in the spring” of 1827.  Governor Arthur wrote to his senior officials in London and suggested the “decision to force the tribes out of the settled districts” (p.134).

Some other historians listed the Tasmania killings as genocide equal to those of Armenian by Turks. Reynolds brings in his work at least one of those claims and quotes Robert Hughes as an acclaimed convicts’ historian who wrote that Aboriginals were “shot like kangaroos and poisoned like dogs” and called Tasmania killings as “the only true genocide in English colonial history” (p.127).

Nevertheless, as it has pointed out by Reynolds, the killing of Aboriginals was not officially declared and was not the government policy either, it happened beyond the written law, but the rapid reduction in Aboriginal populations within just a few years causes a reasonable question and highlights the possibility of mass extermination. Although the evidence which has used by the author is largely based on government documentation which was left by those from the colonial period and despite the fact that the utter conflict led to the extreme measure, Reynolds acknowledges, that in 1831 from two aboriginal tribes “only twenty-six of them left” (p.145).

Reference:

Reynolds, H. (2004). Genocide in Tasmania? In A. D. Moses (Ed.), Genocide and settler society: Frontier violence and stolen Indigenous children in Australian history (pp. 127-149). New York, NY: Berghahn Books.

Form of the poem affects the way we encounter its meaning

A particular set of punctuations along with the everyday language is reorganised in the poem “Broken Back Blues” by the American poet Robert Creeley. This essay identifies a few instances of punctuation and language usage and highlights some poetry techniques by which this poem is formed to obtain its particular expressive force.

The poet used abbreviation and punctuation in a creative way to convey this poem more vividly. The very beginning verse starts with a short exclamation which brings the reader’s attention to the poem “O yr facing reality now-” (Creeley 48). This verse ended with a dash. Although a dash normally marks a pause or a break in sense or represent omitted letters or words, here, it perpetuates a sort of continuation of “reality” because the second verse explains further “& yr in the same beat groove-” (Creeley 48).  When it comes to the artistic usage of punctuation, a dash may function in quite an opposite way which could be an escape for its own sake with no destination.

The function of dots is also used in an unconventional way. On the one hand, ellipses and dots are used to show something not being said, on the other hand, and in this poem, it is a kind of gesture to convey those hidden things. “I got them things in my head-” is placed exactly after the three double-spaced dots from the previous verse “we can play all nite long . . .” (Creeley 48).  The function of these dots is more than just punctuation because they are visually on the page and their existence is felt the same way as they are read and heard. The reader can imagine and may try to reveal the un-tolled parts, but the dots are lined to direct one in a subtle way towards the second verse.

Although a bracket is normally used to keep explaining something more, in this poem brackets can be articulated further as they may show that there is more than one voice in this poem.

There is powerful imagery which illustrates some particular scene in this poem. The combination of the words such as “bent […] middle” followed by “face on the floor” gives a perfect depiction of someone with the broken back.

The poet benefits from using rhythm to turn the verses easily sing-able. Putting the artificially extended-syllable helps the poem to sound more attractive. The reader can easily enjoy reading the word “moo-oove” while it is paired with “groove”. Furthermore, the repetition of the undefined word of “heh” provides sufficient musical potential for this poem. However, it is not clear whether it is laughter or weeping, one can easily understand that in a melancholic blues poem, such as it is, sometimes human may sound relatively loud “(heh heh heh, heh heh heh . . .)” (Creeley 49).

In conclusion, the poet has used a variety of language properties such as abbreviation, punctuating and poetry techniques to form the poem. These creative arrangements have resulted in the poem to achieve an expressive form and affect the meaning. 

Reference:

Creeley, Robert. “Broken Back Blues”. The Jazz Poetry Anthology. 1975: 48-49. Print.