Fitzpatrick, P. "Australian Drama : Images of Society." in Carrol, J. ed. Intruders in the Bush. Oxford University Press: Melbourne. 1982.157-167
Fitzpatrick looks to Australian plays as seeking to define the distinctiveness of the Australian character, and cultural self-definition, in which we create images in which we can recognise who we are.
However, Fitzpatrick identifies a lack of highly developed cultural myths which define or express recognisably Australian qualities, and as such the playwright is involved in the construction of making myths, such as the bushman and the ocker.
The Bush man, then, and standing for the figure of mateship, can be seen as a unifying myth, expressing the values and aspirations of what is Australian, and being transferable from rural to urban society. The ‘ocker’ emerged from a new wave of Australian writing, and was a ‘person who is aggressively Australian in speech and behaviour, usually for humorous effect.’ He notes that both of these characters are concerned almost exclusively with the male attitude.
Fitzpatrick sees the difficulty of expression characters who are typically Australian, as Australia’s lacking of a diverse regional type, in attempts to define an ‘Australian’ type, being caught between empires, which have eroded cultural distinctiveness.
Keywords: australian drama, bushman, ocker
