Depraved and Disorderly: Female Convicts, Sexuality and Gender in Colonial Australia [Paperback]

Joy Damousi (Author)

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Product Details

Paperback: 232 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (May 28 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0521587239
ISBN-13: 978-0521587235
Product Dimensions: 2.3 x 1.5 x 0.2 cm
Shipping Weight: 381 g

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Review

"Scholarly and well documented, with complete bibliography and index, the study will be useful for upper-division undergraduates and above." Choice

"...this is a compelling study that makes an important contribution to knowledge about Australia's colonial past." Kay Schaffer, American Historical Review

"...Damousi is quite successful with a study that is based on thorough going research in archival and published sources, that is full of engrossing detail, that reads extremely well, and that does indeed move the historiography of convicts into the realm of cultural studies in a convincing manner. ...Depraved and Disorderly makes fascinating reading..." William H. Worger, American Journal of Sociology

"...Damousi's analysis of convict childhood and the ways that orphans could register their dissent from controls through gossiping and sulking is excellent. Damousi is most interested in reading cultural symbols and signs as a way of understanding various representations and relationships in the convict period: masculinity and femininity, the body and sexuality, anrenthood and childhood, cleanliness and order, play and resistance, space and race. These representations and relationships form the unifying ideas of Depraved and Disorderly..." Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol.9

"[Damousi] explores the psychological meanings of masculinity and femininity and, throughout the book, probes the images of pollution that female sexuality raised in many minds--not just pollution of the body but of family and society as well. It is Damousi's ability to make clear the broad nature of her themes that is the underlying strength of this work." Law and History Review

"Depraved and Disorderly, as a penal and colonial history of gender and sexuality. challenges new generations of historians of Australia to explore illuminating terrain in productive, often intriguing terms." Victorian Studies

Product Description

This innovative book tells the powerful stories of convict women, while drawing out broader themes of gender and sexual disorder and race and class dynamics. It looks at the cultural meanings of aspects of life in the colony: on ships, in the factories and in orphanages. Damousi considers such topics as headshaving as punishment in the prisons, as well as analyzing the language of pollution, purity and abandonment. The book shows how understanding about sexual and racial difference became a focus for cultural anxiety in colonial society.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
In May 1820, the convict ship Janus-a whaling vessel-sailed into Port Jackson from Cork, after a voyage of 150 days. Read the first page

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Amazon.com: 2.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but a bit dry, Oct 7 1998

By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Depraved and Disorderly: Female Convicts, Sexuality and Gender in Colonial Australia (Paperback)

If you really enjoy reading Australian history, and have a bit of a background in academic history, you will probably like this book. Lots of references and research, with connections to current theories in feminist theory and Australian history. Avoid it if you aren't willing to slog through a certain amount of academicese to get to the interesting stuff.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Interesting topic poorly written, Jun 14 2010

By P. Bechtel - Published on Amazon.com

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This review is from: Depraved and Disorderly: Female Convicts, Sexuality and Gender in Colonial Australia (Hardcover)

The title is (after reading) obviously over-hyped since I failed to find anything "depraved" in the book. The topic of telling the life styles of early female "transportees" is fascinating but this appears to be some sort of a graduate thesis which was attempted to be expanded into book to sell (with a catchy title). The "book" is massively repetitive, shallow, and refers to the same people/incidents over and over. Even as a thesis, it is very disorganized.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews 2.0 out of 5 stars