Ghosts of the Great South Land

Gerry Turcotte, University of Notre Dame Australia

Abstract

This essay attempts to trace a “hauntology” of deeds and discourse that underwrites Australian nationalism, as well as the concept of Australia as the “Great South Land.” The essay invokes the traces of “ghosts”—more specifically traces of subaltern histories and peoples— that haunt the official discourses of national sovereignty. It goes on to argue for a new reading of a global South that would allow for a “communing” with its historical and ontological ghosts, as part of a larger project of accountability, reconciliation, and resolution with the subaltern that haunts the nation.