Representing Others examines a diverse range of cultural forms in which white novelists, sculptors, diarists, photographers, ethnographers, travel writers and filmmakers have depicted Native American, African, Pacific and Australian Aboriginal peoples. As they were seen by incoming whites who were themselves strangers to the land, they most often appeared incomprehensible, threatening, 'Other'.
The analyses in this book go beyond simply asking questions about the 'accuracy' or otherwise of a work's representation of the culture under discussion. Although the seven authors conform to no single position and adopt a variety of critical approaches, they share a common concern. These essays all propose that if we are to use our own terms to speak of another culture, we must become aware of the problems involved in the act of representation itself.
Richard Maltby is Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor of Screen Studies at Flinders University, South Australia. He moved to Flinders from the UK, where he established the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture at the University of Exeter, before becoming Research Professor in Film Studies at Sheffield Hallam University.
His publications include Explorations in New Cinema History: Approaches and Case Studies (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) and Cinema, Audiences and Modernity: New Perspectives on European Cinema History (Routledge, 2011), Hollywood Cinema (Wiley-Blackwell), Dreams for Sale: Popular Culture in the Twentieth Century (Harrap). ‘Film Europe’ and ‘Film America’: Cinema, Commerce and Cultural Exchange, 1925-1939, co-edited with Andrew Higson (UEP 1999), was winner of the prestigious Prix Jean Mitry for cinema history in 2000.
He is a Series Editor of Exeter Studies in Film History.