What did Australian modernity look like? Over the last two decades, Australia's entrenched reputation for ‘cultural belatedness’ has been displaced by the study of ‘colonial modernity’. No longer beholden to the idea that a singular modernity was disseminated from core to periphery, scholars now speak of many localised modernities that arose across colonial and provincial sites. According to this new ‘multiple modernities’ paradigm, Australia was home to its own home-grown incarnation of modern life. But what was distinctively ‘Australian’ about Australian modernity? Although widely discussed in recent historiography, scholars have yet to delineate its distinguishing features. This article posits mobility as a central component of the Australian modern. Drawing upon new scholarship in settler colonial studies and transnational history, it argues that early twentieth-century Australia was home to intense cultures of both domestic and global mobility that were entangled with the geographies and anxieties of the settler colonial project. It shows how the nation's ‘unsettled settlers’ also became its chief agents of modernity, and in doing so draws together several strands in recent historiography. Although mobility also signified modernity beyond Australia, it was within this settler colonial nation tyrannised by distance that the modern appetite for motion reached especial heights.

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阅读澳大利亚的现代性：动荡的定居者和流动文化

澳大利亚的现代性是什么样的？在过去的二十年中，澳大利亚对“文化迟来的”根深蒂固的声誉已被“殖民现代性”的研究所取代。不再拘泥于从核心向外围传播奇异的现代性的观点，学者们现在谈论的是在殖民地和省级地点出现的许多本地化现代性。根据这种新的“多元现代性”范式，澳大利亚是其自己种植的现代生活化身。但是，关于澳大利亚现代性的独特“澳大利亚人”是什么？尽管在最近的史学中得到了广泛的讨论，但学者们尚未描述其区别特征。本文将流动性假定为澳大利亚现代的核心组成部分。利用定居者殖民研究和跨国历史方面的新奖学金，它认为，二十世纪初，澳大利亚是国内和全球流动性浓厚的文化之乡，这些文化与定居者殖民计划的地域和忧虑交织在一起。它显示了该国的“动荡不安的定居者”也如何成为其现代性的主要推动者，并在此过程中汇集了近代史学中的几条线索。尽管流动性也象征着澳大利亚以外的现代性，但在这个定居的殖民国家中，现代人对运动的胃口达到了特殊的高度，而这个殖民地被距离遥远地统治着。这样一来，在最近的历史学中就汇集了几条线。尽管流动性也象征着澳大利亚以外的现代性，但在这个定居的殖民国家中，现代人对运动的胃口达到了特殊的高度，而这个殖民地被距离遥远地统治着。这样一来，在最近的史学中就汇集了几条线。尽管流动性也象征着澳大利亚以外的现代性，但在这个定居的殖民国家中，现代人对运动的胃口达到了特殊的高度，而这个殖民地被距离遥远地统治着。