Westerly+Vol.+32+No.+4

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Westerly+Vol.+32+No.+4 The Christmas gift that lasts a lifetime! A GOOD BOOK ~ Summer titles THE LYRE IN THE PAWNSHOP Essays on Literature and Survival 1974-1984 ¢# FAY ZWICKY $14.50, ISBN 085564 267 X A selection of the author's most incisive articles on many of the best-known contemporary Australian writers and critics, reappraising the parochial values of their writings and their readers in the light of international intellectual concerns. THE DREAM STORY DONALD BROADRIBB $15.00 (pb), ISBN 0855642637 Dreams have fascinated mankind for all of known hiStory. The goal of this book is to enable people to learn to understand the language of dreams and thereby encounter and comprehend the other half of themselves. This work will be of value to the ordinary individual who wants or needs to enlarge self-understanding and move toward emotional equilibrium. SWAN: THE HISTORY OF A BREWERY SUZANNE WELBORN Approx. $30.00 (eI), ISBN 085564 271 8 Approx. $20.00 (pb), ISBN 085564 272 6 This book is a history of one of Western Australia's oldest, biggest, and best-loved manufacturing industries, the Swan Brewery, and of its place in the lives of Western Australians. Far more than a chronicle of company development, it is a history of the State in microcosm; a faSCinating story of economic survival and fluctuating fortunes through 150 years of white settlement. CARNIVOROUS PLANTS OF AUSTRALIA: Volume I ALLEN LOWRIE $35.00 (eI), ISBN 085564 253 X $25.00 (pb), ISBN 0 85564 254 8 The first of three unique volumes, this book contains 46 western species of Drosera, an introduction. keys. glossary. maps. 133 full-colour plates and 51 botanical drawings UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA PRESS Nedlands, WA 6009 ORDER THROUGH YOUR BOOKSELLER WESTERLY Vol. 32, No.4, December 1987 CONTENTS Australian Expatriates Beyond the Turkey Gobblers 51 Glenda Adams Gifts of Passage 62 Bernard Hickey An Expatriate's Reaction 43 Peter Porter to his Condition Not One of the Jacks II Anna Rutherford Excerpt from a Letter 7 Geoffrey Smart Excerpt from a Letter 23 Harold Stewart Richard Kelly Tipping interviews 25 Harold Stewart Excerpt from a Letter 9 Randolph Stow Playing Scrabble Against 37 Anne Wienholt Yourself Theatre, Popular and Special 67 Peter Brook - The Mahabharata interviewed by David B.ritton STORIES India Song 89 Judith Fox POEMS Edwin Thumboo 74-78 Peter Porter 48 ARTICLES The Art of Compromise - 79 Noel Macainsh Christina Stead's For Love Alone REVIEWS V.K. Daniels, B.H. Bennett and 95 Veronica Brady H. McQueen, Windows Onto Worlds: Studying Australia at Tertiary Level Dorothy Hewett, Alice in 101 Gwen Harwood Wormland Notes on Contributors 104 Cover design by Susan Eve Ellvey using the painting 'At the Window of the Fattoria' by Jeffrey Smart, reproduced by courtesy of Jeffrey Smart and Gryphon Books. WESTERLY The National Quarterly from the West WESTERLY suscriptions may now be paid with Bankcard, MasterCard and Visa Card ~ by mail or telephone (09 380 2101). Please quote your card number and indicate which card you are using. WESTERLY is excellent value at $16 p.a. (4 issues, posted); students $14; $30 for 2 years (8 issues, posted); $5 single copies (posted); back copies and Indexes of past issues available. Subscriptions sent by mail should be addressed to: The Secretary, CSAL Department of English The University of Western Australia NEDLANDS, W A 6009 2 WESTERLY. Vol. 32. No.4, December 1987 WESTERLY a quarterly review ISSN 0043-342x EDITORS: Bruce Bennell. Peter Cowan. Dennis Haskell EDITORIAL ADVISORS: Margot ruke. Hilan' Fraser EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS: Diana Bndon (University of'British Columhia). John Hay (Monash Universitv). Dorothy Hewett (5)'dney). Brian Matthews (Flinders University), Vincent O'Sullivan (Victoria University. Wellington). Peter Porter (London). Anna Ruther/e)f(f (University of Aarhus). Edwin Thumho(} (National University of'Singapore). Alhert Wertheim (University of'lndiana) SECRETARY: Caroline Horohin TYPING: Janet King Westerly is published quarterly at the Centre for Studies in Australian Literature in the English Department. University of Western Australia with assistance from The Literary Arts Board of the Australia Council, the Federal Government's arts funding and advisory body, and the Western Australian Department for the Arts, The opinions expressed in Westerlr are those of individual contributors and not of the Editors or Editorial Advisors. Correspondence should be addressed to the Editors, Westerly. Department of English,. University of Western Australia. :\edlands, Western Australia 6009 (telephone (09) 380 3838). Unsolicited manuscripts not accompanied by a stamped self-addressed envelope will not be returned. All manuscripts must show the name and address of the sender and should be typed (double-spaced) on one side of the paper only, Whilst every care is taken of manuscripts. the editors can take no final responsibility for their return; contributors are consequently urged to retain copies of all work submitted. Minimum rates for contributors - poems $20.00; prose pieces $50.00; reviews. articles. $40.00. It is stressed that these are minimum rates. based on the fact that very brief contributions in any field are acceptable. In practice the editors aim to pay more. and will discuss payment where required. Recommended sale price: $5,00 per copy (W.A.) Subscriptions: $16.00 per annum (posted); $30.00 for 2 years (posted). Special student subscription rate: $14.00 per annum (posted). Single copies mailed: $5.00. Subscriptions should be made payable to Westerly and sent to The Secretary, CSAL, Department of English, liniversity of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia 6009. In other States Westerlr may be obtained from: New South Wales. Victoria. ACT and Tasmania: Hale & Iremonger Pty, Ltd" Tel: (02) 5604977 and (03) 537 1624. Queensland: Tema Agencies. Tel: (07) 37X 6190. Work published in Westerly is cited in: Ahstracts ol English Studies. Australian Literary Studies Annual Bibliography. Australian National Bihliographl·. Journal oj Commonwealth Literature Annual Bibliography, ArlS alld Humanities Citation Index. Current Contents/ Arts & Humanities. The Genuine Arlicle and Modern Language Association oj America Bihliography. Two Westerly Indexes. 1956-77 and 1978-83, are available at $8.00 from the above address. WESTERLY. No.4. DECEMBER. 19S7 3 AUSTRALIAN EXPATRIATES Recent years have seen a surge of interest in the issue of Australian expatriation -- on the choice of some Australians to live and work away from the country of their birth and nationality. Sometimes artists and others who have made this choice come to feel that they are looked on as betraying their Australian-ness. "Expatriate" can seem a dirty word. But some make the choice unself-consciously without reservation or fuss. Living outside the country does give expatriates a special perspective on Australia; perhaps they see the bush because of not being lost in the gum trees. On the other hand, expatriates are sometimes people whose Australia remains the Australia they left in 1970 or 60 or 50 .... What do these people think when they come into contact with the Australia of the 1980s? Early in 1987 Westerly asked a selection of expatriate Australian writers, artists, critics and teachers what they thought about these issues. The editors asked for personal responses to questions such as: What are your personal perceptions of Australian society and culture now? Do they differ greatly from your perceptions at the time you left Australia to live overseas? Some people, of course, did not reply. Some gave brief responses in letters because they lacked the time to write an article. Of these, two were sufficiently interesting to warrant publishing extracts: we begin this feature on Australian expatriates with comments from Randolph Stow and Jeffrey Smart. What follows is interesting partly because of the varied nature of the responses. Glenda Adams provides detailed, sometimes intriguing, personal reminiscence. Peter Porter treads across the field of expatriation as across a minefield, armed with the detectors of erudition and wit. Sculptor Anne Wienholt, who prefers a question and answer format, ended up playing "scrabble" with herself. Anna Rutherford and Bernard Hickey, residents of Denmark and Italy respectively, offer sharp, and sharply personal, cultural essays. The result provides insights into the work of the individual writers and into the whole concept of expatriation, at least for Australians. Westerly welcomes further discussion of the ideas expressed. WESTERL Y, No.4, DECEMBER, 1987 5 JEFFREY SMART was born in Adelaide in 1921, and studied at the South Australian School of Art. He had his first solo exhibition in 1957, and has been exhibiting regularly ever since. He has lived in Italy since 1965. 6 WESTERLY, No.4, DECEMBER, 1987 JEFFREY SMART Excerpt from a Letter I'm afraid I haven't time to write a longish thing on why I prefer to live in Europe. My perceptions of Australian society and culture are those of someone who lived there well over twenty years ago. In those days the quality of life was certainly better here, but of course this could have changed. I think of myself as an Australian of course and, as you half suggest, I don't much like the word "expatriate". Maybe because, as Barry Humphries wrote, the word equals "traitor" in many Australian brains. It is a strong word, for some reason, and I think must often be used in Australia. Do you imagine that the Spanish would refer to Picasso as an expatriate? Or the Americans, referring to T.S. Eliot? Or the Irish, to James Joyce? The Greeks, to El Greco? Surely it's one big world and we can flow about and don't have to sit in compartments. Perhaps I prefer to live in Europe because I was brought here by my parents, as a young child: later on, growing up in Australia, my first memories were all of Europe, and they seemed beautiful, and more interesting than the life about me in suburban Adelaide.
Recommended publications
  • Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke HACHETTE
    2015 STELLA PRIZE SHORTLISTED TITLE Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke HACHETTE ‘Wondrous as she seemed, Shu Yi wasn’t a problem I wanted to take on. Besides, with her arrival my own life had become easier: Melinda and the others hadn’t come looking for me in months. At home, my thankful mother had finally taken the plastic undersheet off my bed.’ Maxine Beneba Clarke, Foreign Soil INTRODUCTION TO THE TEXT suitable for study. A short synopsis and series of This collection of short stories won the Victorian reading questions are allocated for each story, along Premier’s Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in with any themes that are not included in the general 2013, and was subsequently published by Hachette list of the book’s themes below. Following this Australia. It went on to be critically recognised and breakdown are activities that can be applied to the appear on the shortlists for numerous awards. book more broadly. Like all of Maxine Beneba Clarke’s work, this ABOUT THE AUTHOR collection reflects an awareness of voices that are often pushed to the fringes of society, and frequently MAXINE BENEBA CLARKE is speaks to the experiences of immigrants, refugees and an Australian writer and slam single mothers, in addition to lesbian, gay, bisexual, poetry champion of Afro-Caribbean transgender and intersex people. In Foreign Soil, descent. She is the author of the Clarke captures the anger, hope, despair, desperation, poetry collections Gil Scott Heron is strength and desire felt by members of these groups, on Parole (Picaro Press, 2009) and Nothing Here Needs and many others.
    [Show full text]
  • Appendices 2011–12
    Art GAllery of New South wAleS appendices 2011–12 Sponsorship 73 Philanthropy and bequests received 73 Art prizes, grants and scholarships 75 Gallery publications for sale 75 Visitor numbers 76 Exhibitions listing 77 Aged and disability access programs and services 78 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs and services 79 Multicultural policies and services plan 80 Electronic service delivery 81 Overseas travel 82 Collection – purchases 83 Collection – gifts 85 Collection – loans 88 Staff, volunteers and interns 94 Staff publications, presentations and related activities 96 Customer service delivery 101 Compliance reporting 101 Image details and credits 102 masterpieces from the Musée Grants received SPONSORSHIP National Picasso, Paris During 2011–12 the following funding was received: UBS Contemporary galleries program partner entity Project $ amount VisAsia Council of the Art Sponsors Gallery of New South Wales Nelson Meers foundation Barry Pearce curator emeritus project 75,000 as at 30 June 2012 Asian exhibition program partner CAf America Conservation work The flood in 44,292 the Darling 1890 by wC Piguenit ANZ Principal sponsor: Archibald, Japan foundation Contemporary Asia 2,273 wynne and Sulman Prizes 2012 President’s Council TOTAL 121,565 Avant Card Support sponsor: general Members of the President’s Council as at 30 June 2012 Bank of America Merill Lynch Conservation support for The flood Steven lowy AM, Westfield PHILANTHROPY AC; Kenneth r reed; Charles in the Darling 1890 by wC Piguenit Holdings, President & Denyse
    [Show full text]
  • Book History in Australia Since 1950 Katherine Bode Preprint: Chapter 1
    Book History in Australia since 1950 Katherine Bode Preprint: Chapter 1, Oxford History of the Novel in English: The Novel in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the South Pacific since 1950. Edited by Coral Howells, Paul Sharrad and Gerry Turcotte. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. Publication of Australian novels and discussion of this phenomenon have long been sites for the expression of wider tensions between national identity and overseas influence characteristic of postcolonial societies. Australian novel publishing since 1950 can be roughly divided into three periods, characterized by the specific, and changing, relationship between national and non-national influences. In the first, the 1950s and 1960s, British companies dominated the publication of Australian novels, and publishing decisions were predominantly made overseas. Yet a local industry also emerged, driven by often contradictory impulses of national sentiment, and demand for American-style pulp fiction. In the second period, the 1970s and 1980s, cultural nationalist policies and broad social changes supported the growth of a vibrant local publishing industry. At the same time, the significant economic and logistical challenges of local publishing led to closures and mergers, and—along with the increasing globalization of publishing—enabled the entry of large, multinational enterprises into the market. This latter trend, and the processes of globalization and deregulation, continued in the final period, since the 1990s. Nevertheless, these decades have also witnessed the ongoing development and consolidation of local publishing of Australian novels— including in new forms of e-publishing and self-publishing—as well as continued government and social support for this activity, and for Australian literature more broadly.
    [Show full text]
  • The Literary Studies Convention @ Wollongong University 7 – 11 July 2015
    1 The Literary Studies Convention @ Wollongong University 7 – 11 July 2015 with the support of AAL, the Australasian Association of Literature ASAL, the Association for the Study of Australian Literature AULLA, the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association The Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts School of the Arts, English and Media English and Writing Program University of Wollongong and Cengage Learning Maney Publishing The convention venues are Buildings 19, 20 and 24 of the University of Wollongong. The Barry Andrews Memorial Lecture and Prize-Giving will be in the Hope Lecture Theatre (Building 43) ** Please note that some books by delegates and keynote speakers will be for sale in the University of Wollongong’s Unishop in Building 11. Look for the special display for the Literary Networks Convention. 2 3 Barry Andrews Memorial Address: Tony Birch .......................................................................... 10 Keynote Address: Carolyn Dinshaw ............................................................................................. 11 Keynote Address: Rita Felski ......................................................................................................... 12 Dorothy Green Memorial Lecture: Susan K. Martin .................................................................. 13 Plenary Panel: Australia’s Literary Culture and the Australian Book Industry ....................... 14 Plenary Panel: Literary Studies in Australian Universities – Structures and Futures ........... 16 Stephen
    [Show full text]
  • Maps of Identity in the Novels of David
    2êt,t. "THE DARKNESS AT OUR BACK DOOR": MAPS OF TDENTITY IN THE NOVBLS OF DAVID MALOUF AND CHRISTOPHER KOCH by Amanda E. Nettelbeck, B. A. Hons. A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Adelaide February 1991 CONTENTS Absract I Statements ü Acknowledgements üi Abbreviations iv Foreword 1 1. Definition Through Difference: The Emergence of a National Tradition 8 2. "The Mapping of a World": Discourses of Power in David Maloufs Fly Away Peter 26 3. The Pattern of History: Discursive Conflict in David Malouf s Child's Play 51 4. Masculine Desire and the "Other": Intra-Discursive Conflict in Christopher Koch's The Boys in the Islønd and Across the SeaWall 72 5. Frustration of Desire: The Shifting Subject in David Malouf s Johnno and Other Texts 96 6. Ambivalence of Desire: The Split Subject in Christopher Koch's The Year of Living Dangerously t19 7. Negation of Desire: The Lacanian "Reversal" in David Malouf s An Imaginary Ltfe r39 8. Illusions of Desire: Admissions of Lack in Christopher Koch's The Doubleman 155 9. Invention of Narratives: The Identification of Self and World in David Maloufs The Great World r73 Afterword t94 Endnotes 199 Select Bibliography 201 ABSTRACT The intention of this thesis is to examine the novels of David Malouf and Christopher Koch from both a post-colonial and a psychoanalytic perspective. My argument is that the sense of displacement and preoccupation with "other" worlds which characterise these novels reflect a national tradition which positions Australian life at the "edge" of a culturally and politically dominant "centre." Such a perspective is not so much geographical as discursive; Australia was first defined, after all, through a European discourse which assumed its own centrality.
    [Show full text]
  • Making 18 01–20 05
    artonview art o n v i ew ISSUE No.49 I ssue A U n T U o.49 autumn 2007 M N 2007 N AT ION A L G A LLERY OF LLERY A US T R A LI A The 6th Australian print The story of Australian symposium printmaking 18 01–20 05 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra John Lewin Spotted grossbeak 1803–05 from Birds of New South Wales 1813 (detail) hand-coloured etching National Gallery of Australia, Canberra nga.gov.au InternatIonal GallerIes • australIan prIntmakInG • modern poster 29 June – 16 September 2007 23 December 2006 – 6 May 2007 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra National Gallery of Australia, Canberra George Lambert The white glove 1921 (detail) Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney purchased 1922 photograph: Jenni Carter for AGNSW Grace Crowley Painting 1951 oil on composition board National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1969 nga.gov.au nga.gov.au artonview contents 2 Director’s foreword Publisher National Gallery of Australia nga.gov.au 5 Development office Editor Jeanie Watson 6 Masterpieces for the Nation appeal 2007 Designer MA@D Communication 8 International Galleries Photography 14 The story of Australian printmaking 1801–2005 Eleni Kypridis Barry Le Lievre Brenton McGeachie 24 Conservation: print soup Steve Nebauer John Tassie 28 Birth of the modern poster Designed and produced in Australia by the National Gallery of Australia 34 George Lambert retrospective: heroes and icons Printed in Australia by Pirion Printers, Canberra 37 Travelling exhibitions artonview ISSN 1323-4552 38 New acquisitions Published quarterly: Issue no. 49, Autumn 2007 © National Gallery of Australia 50 Children’s gallery: Tools and techniques of printmaking Print Post Approved 53 Sculpture Garden Sunday pp255003/00078 All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • Dancing on Coral Glenda Adams Introduced by Susan Wyndham The
    Dancing on Coral Drylands Glenda Adams Thea Astley Introduced by Susan Wyndham Introduced by Emily Maguire The True Story of Spit MacPhee Homesickness James Aldridge Murray Bail Introduced by Phillip Gwynne Introduced by Peter Conrad The Commandant Sydney Bridge Upside Down Jessica Anderson David Ballantyne Introduced by Carmen Callil Introduced by Kate De Goldi A Kindness Cup Bush Studies Thea Astley Barbara Baynton Introduced by Kate Grenville Introduced by Helen Garner Reaching Tin River Between Sky & Sea Thea Astley Herz Bergner Introduced by Jennifer Down Introduced by Arnold Zable The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow The Cardboard Crown Thea Astley Martin Boyd Introduced by Chloe Hooper Introduced by Brenda Niall classics_endmatter_2018.indd 1 4/07/2018 5:20 PM A Difficult Young Man Diary of a Bad Year Martin Boyd J. M. Coetzee Introduced by Sonya Hartnett Introduced by Peter Goldsworthy Outbreak of Love Wake in Fright Martin Boyd Kenneth Cook Introduced by Chris Womersley Introduced by Peter Temple When Blackbirds Sing The Dying Trade Martin Boyd Peter Corris Introduced by Chris Wallace-Crabbe Introduced by Charles Waterstreet The Australian Ugliness They’re a Weird Mob Robin Boyd Nino Culotta Introduced by Christos Tsiolkas Introduced by Jacinta Tynan The Life and Adventures of Aunts Up the Cross William Buckley Robin Dalton Introduced by Tim Flannery Introduced by Clive James The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke The Dyehouse C. J. Dennis Mena Calthorpe Introduced by Jack Thompson Introduced by Fiona McFarlane Careful, He Might Hear
    [Show full text]
  • The Story of a (Post)Colonial Boy
    The Story of a (Post)Colonial Boy Roger Averill n many ways Randolph Stow was a solitary figure, someone I content with his own company, happier in silence than in small talk. The fact that he published five novels and two volumes of poetry and had won the Miles Franklin Award before he was 30, and that after turning 50 he more or less maintained a writerly silence, means his life was also strikingly singular. While acknowledging the obvious importance of these intensely individual elements to Stow’s character, in writing his biography I am aware that these are only part of the story, that his life must also be understood in the context of a collective, a clan. What follows is a discussion of Stow’s colonial heritage, how this influenced his sense of self, framed key experiences in his early life, and is reflected in his representation of indigenous- settler relations in two of his most widely read novels, To the Islands and The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea. When, over ten years ago, Stow and I first corresponded about the possible shape his authorised biography might take, he admitted to being ‘a bit of a genealogy-nerd’ and suggested the book include ‘a short introductory section on family history; not everyone’s cup-of-tea these days, of course, but I think, in the case of colonial 126 Roger Averill families, it’s interesting to know where people came from…’ 1 I was not surprised by this suggestion, because by then I had already come to understand the importance of Stow’s colonial heritage to his sense of self.
    [Show full text]
  • Book Reviews
    Kunapipi Volume 3 Issue 2 Article 15 1981 Book Reviews Anna Rutherford University of Aarhus, Denmark Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Rutherford, Anna, Book Reviews, Kunapipi, 3(2), 1981. Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol3/iss2/15 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Book Reviews Abstract Book Reviews This journal article is available in Kunapipi: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol3/iss2/15 Book Reviews CURRENCY'S DECADE: A TRIBUTE In March this· year Currency Press celebrated ten years of publishing Australian plays by launching Contemporary Australian Drama, a collection of essays which deals with 1 historical as well as critical perspectives since 1955. In tracing and bringing into focus the main currents of thought and critical studies of twenty-five years of dramatic writings, the book demonstrates not only the consistently high quality of Currency publications, but also the debt of Australian drama to the determined efforts of Curren­ cy's directors, Katharine Brisbane and Philip Parsons. Publishing does not create good literature, but it influences it in several ways. Availability of play texts means critical studies and research, and a continuous debate; it means teaching of the texts in secondary schools and tertiary institutions, and an increased awareness on the part of the general public. Currency Press published about ninety Australian plays in the last decade, a remark­ able achievement considering the financial uncertainties of publishing exclusively in an art form which is still considered the step-child of Australian literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Randolph Stow: a Memoir
    Randolph Stow: A Memoir Tony Hassall first encountered the work of Randolph Stow in 1965. I had I arrived at Monash University to tutor in English after an Honours degree that included a wide range of English and American literature, but no Australian works. Dennis Douglas was teaching a pioneering subject in Australian Literature and The Bystander was on the reading list. I bought a copy — for 11 shillings and threepence — and was immediately taken by its evocative power. Some years later I found The Merry-go-Round in the Sea remaindered for $2.14 in a Newcastle bookshop and, recognising the author, bought a copy. It was love at first reading. I was captivated to an extent that very few books, Australian or otherwise, have engaged me in a lifetime of reading. Set in the West, on the other side of the continent, it resonated in an unforgettably rich and poetic manner with my own childhood. Having written about it at length elsewhere, I will only say here that after a quarter of a century of teaching The Merry-go-Round in the Sea to undergraduate students in subjects from first year to fourth year Honours, I don’t recall a single one who didn’t enjoy it, and I have never tired of revisiting its graceful construction, familiar images freighted with poetic significance, and emotional poignancy. 120 Tony Hassal Not long after it was published, The Merry-go-Round in the Sea was prescribed for study for the NSW Higher School Certificate, and I gave talks on it to teachers and students for the English Teachers’ Association.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Rupture and Rapture All at Once': Queer Australian Fiction 2000-2014
    Barlow Queer Australian fiction 2000-20014 La Trobe University Damien Barlow ‘Rupture and rapture all at once’: Queer Australian fiction 2000-2014 Abstract: This article provides a critical survey of queer Australian fiction spanning fifteen years from 2000 to 2014. Forty works of fiction in the forms of novels and short story collections are discussed. The survey is organised by a series of modes that I argue are prevalent within queer Australian fiction: contemporary realism, surrealism, historical novels and cosmopolitanism. Biographical note: Damien Barlow is a lecturer in the English Program at La Trobe University, Bundoora Campus (Melbourne). He has published widely on Australian literature, including essays on Marcus Clarke, Joseph Furphy, David Malouf, Frank Moorhouse, Rosa Praed, Jessica Anderson and Brian Castro. Keywords: Creative Writing – Queer writing – Queer Australian fiction TEXT Special Issue 31: Beyond Australia Queer 1 eds Jay Daniel Thompson and Dallas J Baker, October 2015 Barlow Queer Australian fiction 2000-20014 Introduction Queer Australian fiction of the twenty-first century is alive, inventive, challenging and nuanced. It can perhaps best be summed up by a phrase from Marion May Campbell’s novel Shadow Thief (2006): ‘Rupture and rapture all at once’ (283). This richness persists even without many of the avenues that existed for writers in the 1980s and 1990s. Support once offered by gay magazines such as Outrage and Campaign and, importantly, Australia’s first gay and lesbian publisher Black Wattle Press, has ceased now that these publications no longer exist. Established queer writers such as Christos Tsiolkas, Dorothy Porter and Fiona McGregor may have cemented their literary reputations by the 2000s, but ways for new voices to be heard have been fraught despite the emergence of new e-publishing platforms and the continual (although always conditional) willingness of the local publishing industry to support new works of queer fiction.
    [Show full text]
  • A Thousand Encores: the Ballets Russes in Australia
    PUBLICITY MATERIAL A Thousand Encores: The Ballets Russes in Australia CONTACT PRODUCTION COMPANY flaming star films 7/32 George Street East Melbourne 3002 Tel: +61 3 9419 8097 Mob: +61 (0)417 107 516 Email: [email protected] EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Sharyn Prentice WRITER / DIRECTOR Mandy Chang PRODUCERS Marianne Latham / Lavinia Riachi EDITOR Karin Steininger Ballets Russes dancer Anna Volkova as the Golden Cockerel in Fokine's Le Coq d'Or A Thousand Encores: The Ballets Russes in Australia SHORT SYNOPSIS A Thousand Encores is the story of how the greatest ballet company of the 20th Century - the celebrated Ballets Russes, came to Australia and awoke a nation, transforming the cultural landscape of conservative 30’s Australia, leaving a rich legacy that lasts to this day. EXTENDED SYNOPSIS A Thousand Encores tells the surprising and little known story of how, over 70 years ago, an extraordinary company of dancers made a deep impact on our cultural heritage. In 1936, the celebrated Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo stepped off a boat into the bright Australian sunlight. With exotic sets and costumes designed by cutting edge-artists and avant-garde music by great composers like Stravinsky, the Ballets Russes inspired a nation and transformed our cultural landscape. Over five years from 1936 to 1940 they came to Australia three times, winning the hearts and minds of Australian audiences, inspiring a generation of our greatest artists - Grace Cossington Smith, Jeffrey Smart and Sidney Nolan - and ultimately sowing the seeds for Australian ballet today. The story is bought alive using a rich archival resource. Australia has the biggest collection of Ballets Russes footage in the world and an impressive photographic record - the most famous pictures taken by a young Max Dupain.
    [Show full text]