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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'The Commandant (1975) evolves from the history of the early Moreton Bay penal settlement, now Brisbane. When prisoners escape from Moreton Bay to Sydney with their stories of harsh punishment, the fledgling press takes their side. Commandant Logan, convinced of the rectitude of his severe administration, is faced with an enemy he has never known before, but he ignores it. Logan is forced to face the reaction to his harsh discipline after the arrival of his young sister-in-law, Frances, who is unable to bear the brutality and whippings that are everyday life in Moreton Bay. The reader is left with the question, who is the prisoner: convict, or harsh commandant.' (Source: Sydney University Press)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Australia in Three Books : Kerryn Goldsworthy
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 76 no. 3 2017; (p. 16-20)'Charlotte Brontë was 12 and Charles Dickens 18 in October 1830 when Captain Patrick Logan, third commandant of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, was murdered by a person or persons unknown, his decomposing body discovered in hilly country behind Brisbane Town more than a week after his disappearance. All the signs were of ambush and desperate flight, and Logan’s body showed the marks of Aboriginal weapons.' (Introduction)
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The Case for The Commandant by Jessica Anderson
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 18 September 2014;
— Review of The Commandant 1975 single work novel -
[Review] The Commandant
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Lifted Brow , no. 14 2012; (p. 23)
— Review of The Commandant 1975 single work novel -
“Cranford at Moreton Bay”: Jessica Anderson’s The Commandant
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 72 no. 1 2012; (p. 121-135) 'The Commandant (1975) is an underrated work, not only in relation to Jessica Anderson's oeuvre but also in the wider context of Australian literature. This novel, set in the Moreton Bay penal station in 1830, appeared at a time when a number of significant historical novels, like Patrick White's A Fringe of Leaves, Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Thea Astley's A Kindness Cup were challenging central myths of white settlement in Australia (Sheridan, 7-20). Among convict novels it stands out on account of its focus on the gaolers as themselves prisoners of the penal system, and in particular on the middle-class women whose lives were defined by their involvement in that system, through their menfolk. (Author's abstract)
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The Tales of Strangers
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings , July no. 10 2012; (p. 61-66) 'Frances O'Beirne, the young heroine of The Commandant (1975), offers a key to the genius of Jessica Anderson: 'I am made up of hundreds of persons, and I never know which will come out.' Open Anderson's eight published works of fiction and you'll be presented with different worlds, all-encompassing, entirely absorbing, real.' (Author's introduction)
-
[Review] The Commandant
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Lifted Brow , no. 14 2012; (p. 23)
— Review of The Commandant 1975 single work novel -
The Enigma of Captain Logan
1978
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 38 no. 4 1978; (p. 477)
— Review of The Commandant 1975 single work novel -
Old Moreton Bay Brought to Life
1982
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 27 June 1982; (p. 8)
— Review of The Commandant 1975 single work novel -
[Review] The Commandant
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 7-8)
— Review of The Commandant 1975 single work novel -
[Review] The Commandant
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 8)
— Review of The Commandant 1975 single work novel - y Your Place or Mine : Marginalisation and Place in Three Novels by Jessica Anderson : A Dissertation Brisbane : 1989 Z1589582 1989 single work thesis
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The Wide Brown Land : Literary Readings of Space and the Australian Continent
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australia : Making Space Meaningful 2007; (p. 45-53) 'In his 1987 poem "Louvres" Les Murray speaks of journeys to 'the three quarters of our continent/set aside for mystic poetry" (2002, 239), a very different reading of Australia's inner space to A.D. Hope's 1939 vision of it as '[t]he Arabian desert of the human mind" (1966, 13) In this paper I review the opposed, contradictory ways in which the inner space of Australia has been perceived by Australian writers, and note changes in those literary perceptions, especially in the last fifty years. In that time what was routinely categerised, by Patrick White among others, as the "Dead heart" (1974, 94) - the disappointing desert encountered by nineteenth=century European explorers looking for another America -has been re-mythologised as the "Red Centre," the symbolic, living heart of the continent. What Barcroft Boake's 1897 poem hauntingly portrayed as out where the dead men lie" (140,-2) is now more commonly imagined as a site of spiritual exploration and psychic renewal, a place where Aboriginal identification with the land is respected and even shared. This change was powerfully symbolised in 1985 by the return to the traditional Anangu owners of the title deeds to the renamed Uluru, the great stone sited at the centre of the continent; but while this re-mythologising has been increasingly influential in literary readings, older, more negative constructions of that space as hostile and sterile have persisted, so that contradictory attitudes towards the inner space of Australia continue to be expressed. In reviewing a selection of those readings, I am conscious that they both distort and influence broader cultural perceptions. I am also aware that literary reconstructions of the past reflect both the attitudes of the time depicted and the current attitudes of the writer, and that separating the two is seldom simple. Finally, I am conscious of the connections between literary readings and those in art and film of the kind documented by Roslynn Hanes in her 1998 study Seeking the Centre: the Australian Desert in Literature, Art and Film, and those in television and advertising. I have however, with the exception of the Postscript, limited my paper to literary readings, with an emphasis on works published since Haynes's study.' (Author's abstract p. 45)
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Historical Novels Challenging the National Story
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: History Australia , vol. 8 no. 2 2011; 'Historical novels dealing with the colonial past have always played a key role in constructing popular understandings of the national story in Australia, whether by reinforcing its legends or challenging them. In recent debates historical fiction's claims to authority have been perceived as competing with the work of historical scholars. By considering two such novels of the 1970s, Jessica Anderson's The Commandant and Thea Astley's A Kindness Cup, this essay offers a historical perspective on some questions of the relationship between historical novels and historical scholarship.' (Editor's abstract) -
The Tales of Strangers
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings , July no. 10 2012; (p. 61-66) 'Frances O'Beirne, the young heroine of The Commandant (1975), offers a key to the genius of Jessica Anderson: 'I am made up of hundreds of persons, and I never know which will come out.' Open Anderson's eight published works of fiction and you'll be presented with different worlds, all-encompassing, entirely absorbing, real.' (Author's introduction) -
“Cranford at Moreton Bay”: Jessica Anderson’s The Commandant
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 72 no. 1 2012; (p. 121-135) 'The Commandant (1975) is an underrated work, not only in relation to Jessica Anderson's oeuvre but also in the wider context of Australian literature. This novel, set in the Moreton Bay penal station in 1830, appeared at a time when a number of significant historical novels, like Patrick White's A Fringe of Leaves, Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Thea Astley's A Kindness Cup were challenging central myths of white settlement in Australia (Sheridan, 7-20). Among convict novels it stands out on account of its focus on the gaolers as themselves prisoners of the penal system, and in particular on the middle-class women whose lives were defined by their involvement in that system, through their menfolk. (Author's abstract)
Last amended 9 Nov 2018 12:43:29
Subjects:
- Coast,
- Moreton Bay, Brisbane - South East, Brisbane, Queensland,
Settings:
- 1830s
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