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

Joy Damousi (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521587239 | ISBN-13: 978-0521587235 | Publication Date: May 28, 1997

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.

Editorial Reviews

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

Book 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 analysing 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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (May 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521587239
• ISBN-13: 978-0521587235
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,556,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

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

By A Customer

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.

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

By 

P. Bechtel (Phila, PA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

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.