"Once upon a time there was a little girl…": Colonialism, "illegitimacy", and speciesism in Scott Rankin's Beasty Girl: The Secret Life of Errol Flynn. (September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Smith, Karina
• Is Part Of: Journal of Commonwealth literature. Volume 54:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 413
• Page End: 428
• Publication Date: 2019-09
• Subjects: colonialism -- Errol Flynn -- illegitimacy -- Indigeneity -- Jamaican daughter -- speciesism; English literature -- Periodicals; Commonwealth literature (English) -- Periodicals; Littérature anglaise -- Périodiques; 820.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0021989417726106
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9894

Abstract

This article argues that Scott Rankin's play, Beasty Girl: The Secret Life of Errol Flynn, uses the life story of Errol Flynn as a metaphor for colonialism in order to contest colonial legal descriptors, such as terra, aqua, and filius nullius . The play focuses on the fictitious "illegitimate" Jamaican daughter of Flynn who travels to Tasmania to follow in her father's footsteps. The more Carly, Flynn's daughter, discovers about her father's life, the more she rejects his colonial values and, by extension, whiteness.