Moral Value of Australian Feminism in the Development of Buginese and Macassarese Women's Characters : Analysis on Helen Garner's Selected Works

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the idea of Australian feminism and how it is viewed from a Buginese perspective. In exploring this idea, the data are taken from selected short stories including “Postcards from Surfers”, “La Chance Existe”, “The Art of Life”, “All Young Bloody Catholics”, and “Civilization and Discontents” written by Australian woman writer, Helen Garner. By using Said's work on contrapuntal reading, Mohanty's feminist-asexplorer model, and Lazar's Critical Discourse Analysis, this research examines the potential dialogue between Australian culture and Buginese culture in terms of feminism. From this dialogue, it results cultural hybridity where some Australian feminist thoughts are applicable to Buginese culture but some are not. It is also found that both Australian women and Buginese women have their own sets of issues stemming from male domination. The way they empower themselves to resist are also different. Therefore, this research centers a Buginese standpoint while dialoguing with Australian feminism.