Abstract

Totem-Pole-Dancing: Animality in Australian Electronic Media

According to George Bataille in Theory of Religion, 'Nothing . is more closed to us than this animal life from which we are descended' (p.20). This closure to our own animality (and animality more generally) has relegated much totemic knowledge to the category of idiot cousin in epistemology. However, electronic media is alive with represented animal life. Even though we may admire various acting techniques, the development of character in dramatic contexts or celebrity antics in the media of our choice, rarely do we fully comprehend the role of the animal in symbolic intercourse. Certainly, a cute and cuddly koala or a Skippy represent a myopic human self-representation rather than an animal of the kind that might urinate on you or rip the guts out of a perceived predator with its powerful jumping legs. It is the contention of this presentation then that electronic media, and particularly its Australian variations in radio, television, cinema and the WWW, re-present totemic knowledge with the vengeance of a repressed creature making its way home. As literate, national cultures have elevated the autonomous human self, might it be that more globalised, eco-centric and electrate forms of knowledge open the gates to the zoomorphic in our imagination and let the animal roam 'free'? Combining a historical, philosophical and a self-same case study approach looking at the crow, 'Totem-Pole-Dancing' will seek out a modicum of data in this matter and hopefully turn it into a little wisdom.

Terry Maybury
Charles Sturt University