Jane Campion: Girlshine and the Local/Global Auteur

Jane Campion is the one of the most internationally significant and prominent writer-directors from Australasia and, she has become well known globally as a filmmaker whose oeuvre is characterized by female-centered stories, characters and perspectives (French 2017, 179). This chapter begins with a look at Jane Campion as a successful female transnational auteur, outlining her formative training and her emergence within the context of Australian cinema and feminist activism. It explores her unique and significant contribution to cinema and television in Australia and New Zealand, as well as further afield. It then proposes that Campion's distinctive vision of the subjectivity and experience of women and girls can be illuminated by the concept of 'girlshine' (French 2007, 180-210), traced here across her entire oeuvre. Girlshine is a concept I developed to describe a quality of feminine experience, explored in Campion's narratives of girlhood, nascent sexuality and the rigours of female experience. Further, it is argued that Campion's depictions of girlshine serve as counterpoints that reference, critique and comment upon representations of girls and women in Australian cinema.