... a valuable addition to feminist literary studies. Margaret Harris, University of Sydney o -0 o.r) o.r) "­ co Constructing Gender: Feminism in Literary Studies is a collection of z essays, written from a range of theoretical perspectives, on works V)'" from the fourteenth century to the present day, examining the ways in which literature has played an integral part in constructing notions of gender - from medieval virgins to the 'modern woman', Lucy Dougan D. W. Collin Jane Southwell Andrew Lynch Hilary Fraser Amanda Netlelbeck Philippa Beckerling Tim Dolin Susan Midalia u'" 0<{ Ann Chance Carmel Macdonald­ Alex Segal '" R. S. White Grahame Veronica Brady '"LJ.J c- Christine Couche Ian Saunders c-o<{ ~ __~~ ______________________________________________~ ~ UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA PRESS TUART HOUSE NEDLANDS WESTERN AUSTRALIA 6009 TEL (09) 380 3670 FAX (09) 380 1027 CONTENTS WESTERLY VOLUME 39, No.4, SUMMER 1994 STORIES Arrival Pat Jacobs 23 In Yr Element Bronwen Morrison 25 Crossing Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon 76 The Flowering Broombush Antonio Casella 130 The Summer Man Rosanne Dingli 135 POEMS Alec Choate 5 Vasso Kalamaras 93 Diane Fahey 8 Philip Salom 105 Jeff Guess 10 Fay Zwicky 117 Jena Woodhouse 20 Hal Colebatch 120 Danny Gardner 48 Graeme Hetherington 121 Antigone Kefala 49 Peter Porter 139 ARTICLES Aphra Carolyn Polizzotto 11 Perth and Naples - Two "Corrupted" Mediterranean Cities Roberta Buffi 14 Olive Oil and Air-conditioned Culture Michael Symons 27 An Historical Geography of Mediterranean Cuisines John Fitzpatrick 37 Memory and Absence: The Poetry of Antigone Kefala Michelle Tsokos 51 Notes of a Neo-Neanderthal: Egypt and Israel Hal Colebatch 61 Mount Olympus in Australia Ken Searle 70 Two Centres of Excellence in the Mediterranean George Seddon 81 Some Australian Italies Ros Pesman 95 The Bush and the Outback Through Italian Eyes Gaetano Rando 109 The Mediterranean in Mind: Bert Pribac, a Slovene Poet in Australia Igor Maver 123 REVIEWS George Seddon, "Searching for The Snowy" Sam Pickering 141 K.K. Seet, "Death Rites, Tales From a Wake" Van Ikin 142 Amanda Nettelbeck, ed., "Provisional Maps: Critical Essays on David Malouf" Sally Scott 144 Osvaldo Bonutto, "A Migrant's Story" Antonio Casella 146 Simone Lazaroo, "The World Waiting to be Made" Kate Temby 148 CONTRIBUTORS 151 Cover design by Robyn Mundy of Mundy Design using the painting "Giardino Siciliano" ("Sicilian Garden"), by Italian artist Lino Marzulli. Printed by Lamb Printers Pty Ltd. WESTERLY, No.3, SPRING 1994 2 WESTERLY, No.3, SPRING 1994 WESTERLY a quarterly review ISSN 0043-342x EDITORS: Delys Bird, Dennis Haskell MEDITERRANEAN EDITOR: Sheila Downing Riboldi EASTERN STATES EDITOR: Bruce Bennett EDITORIAL ADVISORS: Margot Luke, Julie Lewis (prose), Brenda Walker (reviews) Fay Zwicky (poetry) EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS: Diana Brydon (University of Guelph), Giovanna Capone (Bologna University), Yasmine Gooneratne (Macquarie University), Brian Matthews (Flinders University), Vincent O'Sullivan (Victoria University, Wellington), Peter Porter (London), Robert Ross (University of Texas at Austin), Anna Rutherford (University of Aarhus), Andrew Taylor (Edith Cowan Univer­ sity), Edwin Thumboo (National University of Singapore) ADMINISTRATOR: Caroline Horobin ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: Deborah Fitzpatrick Westerly is published quarterly at the Centre for Studies in Australian Literature in the Eng­ lish Department, The University of Western Australia with assistance from the Common­ wealth Government through the Australia Council, and the State Government of W.A. through the Department for the Arts. The opinions expressed in Westerly are those of individ­ ual contributors and not of the Editors or Editorial Advisors. Correspondence should be addressed to the Editors, Westerly, Department of English, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia 6009 (telephone (09) 380 2101, fax (09) 380 1030), email [email protected]. Unsolicited manuscripts not accompa­ nied 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 responsi­ bility for their return; contributors are consequently urged to retain copies of all work submit­ ted. Minimum rates for contributors - poems $40.00; reviews $60.00; stories/ articles $90.00. Subscriptions: $24.00 per annum (posted); $42.00 for 2 years (posted). Special student sub­ scription rate: $18.00 per annum (posted). Single copies $5 (plus $1 postage). Email Subscrip­ tions $10.00. Subscriptions should be made payable to Westerly and sent to The Secretary, CSAL, Department of English, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia 6009. Work published in Westerly is cited in: Abstracts of English Studies, Australian Literary Studies Annual Bibliography, Australian National Bibliography, Journal of Commonwealth Literature Annual Bibliography, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Current Contents/Arts & Humanities, The Genuine Article, Modern Language Association of America Bibliography, The Year's Work in English Studies, and is indexed in APIAS: Australian Public Affairs Information Service (produced by the National Library of Australia) and AUSTLIT, the Australian Literary On-Line Database. Three Westerly Indexes 1956-77, 1978-83 and 1984-8, are available at $5.00 each from the above address. Department for theArts -A Government of Western Australia WESTERLY, No.3, SPRING 1994 Australia and the Mediterranean Editorial Comments In the current debates about Australian social and cultural identity, as the nation moves towards the magic date of 2001, the centenary of Federation, the emphasis sometimes seems to be largely on Australia as part of Asia. As we commented in the 1993 special issue of Westerly, "'Asia' ... has become a political and media obsession". Westerly has been more involved with representations of cultural connections between Australia and Asia than any other literary and cultural magazine. However, we believe that this valuable interest in Asia should obscure the multicul­ tural heritage Australia has derived from its European connections. This year's special issue, concerned with links between Australia and the Mediterranean, can be seen as a kind of righting the balance. Australia has traditionally had a sense of itself derived from Aboriginal, British, Irish and European sources as well as, of course, from local conditions of landscape, climate, flora and fauna. The importance of European culture increased markedly with extensive post-war migration. The greater number of those migrants came from southern Europe, from countries around the Mediterranean Sea. This issue of Westerly is concerned with explorations of cultural life in some of those countries and of Mediterranean elements in Australian life. The latter are particularly prevalent in parts of Western Australia and South Australia but the contributors to this issue come from a wide range of localities -- with reference to both their current residences and their places of birth. The issue includes poetry, fiction and articles which provide factual and imagi­ native renderings of tourism, migration and settled life in Australia, Italy, Greece, Malta, Egypt, Israel, Slovenia and other countries of the Mediterranean. The mate­ rial presents convergences, harmonies and conflicts, drawing on similarities and differences in matters such as climate, food and the quality of light. While only some deal with people's shifts of their lives between Australia and the Mediterranean region, each is concerned in some way with the transposition of ideas. Sometimes this is obvious, as in George Seddon's factual accounts of Ionia and Venice or artist Ken Searle's re-presentations of Greek myths; sometimes it is embedded in biographical or autobiographical experience, as in the pieces by Carolyn Polizzotto and Hal Colebatch; sometimes it is imaginatively, and perhaps incidentally, rendered, as in the lyrical, satiric and reflective poetry and fiction from diverse poets and short fiction writers included here. This is the largest issue of Westerly ever published, a sign of the wealth of mate­ rial received. We are delighted with the interest the theme has raised and wish to thank all contributors, including a number of people for whose work we simply couldn't find space. In particular, the editors would like to thank Sheila Downing Riboldi, who acted as an editor from within the Mediterranean region. 4 WESTERLY, No.3, SPRING 1994 ALEC CHOATE Mediterranean Child We left behind the last snow on the grass, sunlight in promise and a lace-frail rain that seemed a pet's touch on the window glass, and sailed from England's springtime, mother, me, my elder brother, coasting sun-browned Spain to reach Gibraltar, high and browed with warning with captain father waiting on the quay while heaven's only Mediterranean smile was there to light us in with its good morning. Soldiers and sailors, Spanish townsfolk, Moors, jostled the seafront in a bright life-style, a splash about of pageantry and pace that shouted at me from a huge outdoors and put its paint at random on its face. Gibraltar, and my childhood muscled out beyond the five years of its infancy towards a boyhood with new worlds to scout. I started school there, but was quick to learn this world itself would school me, this silk sea, this Rock, this Spain, Morocco. In Tangier my mother, baring my heart to the stem side of this world, put money in my hand to give a beggar girl whose eyes looked queer, or rather were not eyes but sockets, skinned across and blank. The sleek palm trees that fanned her ageing face and shaded them with grey were much more handsome, graceful in the wind, perfumed with sun and Mediterranean spray. WESTERLY, No.4, SUMMER 1994 5 I saw such beggar children often in Morocco, men and women too, the shock of non-eyes, body bones near bare of skin which ragged clothes and dirt refused to hide, and though we lived in comfort on the Rock, secure within its fortress atmosphere, this world cried me to face its crueller side, and I was easily hurt when I saw wrong.