Playing with dolls: Masculinity and desire in Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

Abstract

Critics have always discussed Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in terms of the nationalist concerns of the 1950s, even if only to reject the idea that the play has anything to say about such concerns. Certainly, the play's institutional context, with the establishment of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust for example, helped to place it at the centre of debate about Australian identity and cultural maturity. The play emerged at a distinct historical moment of cultural formation and consolidation. At the same time, it situated itself in the contested gender relations of post-war urban Australia. This coincidence has meant that the play's negotiations of gender identity have become the site of its putative engagement with questions of cultural identity. I want to argue, though, that the quest for a more adult or mature expression of "Australianness" does not in itself drive the play. Rather, underlying this narrative, and determining the shape it takes, is the compulsion to define and fix masculinity, femininity and heterosexuality. Perhaps this is what makes the play seem peculiarly relevant to the cultural debate.