The ‘Born‐Modern’ Self: Revisiting the real matilda: An exploration of women and identity in Australia

Abstract

Identity in Australia, a born‐modern country, is inevitably about identity and modernity. As a study of Woman and Identity in Australia, so too is The Real Matilda. Like the book itself, the following ‘reconsideration’ pays due regard to the role of the unconscious in structuring identity. The book's theory of modernity reflects a 1970s Frankfurt School negativity, which, in all, provides a valuable but one‐sided view. This reconsideration, set within the terms of Castoriadis's western ‘project of autonomy’, would similarly appraise The Real Matilda.