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Re-membering, (Re-) appropriation, and Polyphony: SBS Independent and White Australian Memory

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Abstract

This paper examines SBS Independent (SBSi) (1994–2007) as a cultural institution characterised by productive diversity and countermemory. As a cultural institution, SBSi was responsible for the administration of productive diversity, a federal policy harnessing cultural and linguistic diversity as a national economic resource. It argues that while the form and function of SBSi was broadly complicit with this state neoliberal agenda, staff successfully manoeuvred within a governmental logic to also generate a new countermemorial genre, and thereby challenge the reproduction of white racial hegemony in Australian media. This is demonstrated using a critical race and whiteness approach, and via the close textual analysis three SBSi productions: the comedy series Pizza (Paul Fenech 2007), the short film Jewboy (Tony Krawitz 2005), and the telemovie Call Me Mum (Margot Nash 2006). This analysis identifies and extrapolates three broad strategies that characterise the SBSi countermemorial genre—re-membering, (re-) appropriation, and polyphony—and demonstrates how these were mobilised to innovate formal and narrative conventions, creating new possibilities for cross-cultural debate and dialogue.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Amanda Malel Trevisanut

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  1. Amanda Malel Trevisanut
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia

    P. David Marshall

  2. Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia

    Glenn D'Cruz

  3. Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia

    Sharyn McDonald

  4. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

    Katja Lee

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Trevisanut, A.M. (2016). Re-membering, (Re-) appropriation, and Polyphony: SBS Independent and White Australian Memory. In: Marshall, P., D'Cruz, G., McDonald, S., Lee, K. (eds) Contemporary Publics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53324-1_4

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