Reproducing the "Other": Eric Lambert's Representation of Chinese Woman in The Dark Backward

Abstract

In Eric Lambert's novel The Dark Backward, published in 1958, the woman character encounters two forms of Australian male power. However, sexual oppression is more noticeable in the novel than racial discrimination. The woman character Liu Sun is "assigned no position of enunciation" (Young 164), while the alienation and incomprehension felt by Tony, in his relationship with her dominates the narrative. Through analysing what the novel sees as their love story, this essay shows how male power is exercised and legitimated by marginalizing or excluding the interests of Liu Sun.