Strange Dance Days

Abstract

This work is impelled by a proposition that the Gothic trope of the imprisoned madwoman holds resonance and power as a narrative device for exploring Australia's difficult past. Adapted from 'Bluebeard's Wife', this trope has long held potency for women writers (Williams, 1995; Gilbert and Gubar, 1979), epitomised by the incarcerated Caribbean wife, of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. The setting, a Gothic Revival Lunatic Asylum, is both emblem of power and site of surveillance (Foucault, 2001, p.37), invoking fears of hybridisation and dissolution.