Penguin Books Australia

Prosthetic Gods is a major contribution to Australian Studies informed by the recent concerns of postcolonial theory. Its main subject is the relationship between travel, representation and colonial governance, focusing on white Australia's involvement with Melanesia during the first half of the twentieth century. Its scope is interdisciplinary, dealing with the travel writing, cinema, and photography of Frank Hurley, Frank Clune, Ion L. Idriess and James McAuley in the context of colonial legislation and the policies of specific colonial administrations. While reflecting postcolonial theory's concern to connect colonialism with culture, Dixon's meticulously researched case studies reveal that colonialism is not a single or coherent project, and result in a nuanced account of how representation and rule are – or perhaps are not quite – connected.