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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Notes
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Epigraph: 'Tispela buk mi laik salim long wantok bilong mi.' - T.A.G. Hungerford
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Epigraph: 'be not afeard; the isle is full of noises... The Tempest.
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Epigraph: 'Oh, my lords, I but deceived your eyes with antic gesture, When one news staright came huddling on another, Of death, and death. Still I danced forward; But it struck home, and here, and in an instant. .... They are the silent griefs which cut the heart-strings...' - John Ford, The Broken Heart.
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Author's note: The incident described in the prologue is not fictitious, but was widely reported in the press in 1959. It is discussed by Jacques Vallee in his Anatomy of a Phenomenon (New York: Henry Regnery, 1965; London: Neville Spearman, 1966). As I was then out of any sort of contact witth the world beyond my own sub-district, I was in no position to connect that phenomenon with the one described to me at the time by the inhabitants of the island of Kitava, now with the disappearance, a few weeks earlier, of three men from the island of Tuma. Both incidents are incorporated in the novel without comment. Like William of Newburgh, recording a strange aerial apparition over Dunstable in 1189, "I design to be the simple narrator, not the prophetic interpreter; for what the Divinity wished to signify by this I do not know." ... R. S. (At end of novel).
Contents
- Introduction, single work criticism
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Telling Spaces: Reading Randolph Stow’s Expatriation
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019;'Randolph Stow’s expatriate novels, Visitants (1979), The Girl Green as Elderflower (1980) and The Suburbs of Hell (1984) are often read as emerging from specific experiences in Stow’s expatriate life, beyond Australia—the two former as his ‘fever’ novels, informed by his work and illness in the Trobriand Islands and subsequent recovery in England; and the latter carrying the experience of an event from Stow’s Australian past into the setting of Harwich, England, where he lived from the early 1980s until his death in 2010. I have discussed elsewhere the overt connection in The Suburbs of Hell to Australia (Noske, ‘Chatter’), but it is also possible to read in the earlier texts connections with Stow’s life in Australia, particularly in his representation of landscape. Reading The Girl Green as Elderflower in this context opens interesting possibilities in understanding the spaces constructed within. This article will argue that Stow’s writing in the novel presents a complex transnationalism, one which challenges extant critical responses to Stow’s expatriation. It reads Stow’s place-making as embracing a fluidity that allows him to actively respond to postcolonialism as a global phenomenon and in doing so, examine Australian spaces through the lens of expatriation.' (Publication abstract)
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The Randolph Stow Memorial Lecture
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , vol. 64 no. 1 2019; (p. 142-150) 'It’s a great honour for me to be asked to give this memorial lecture for Randolph Stow. Thanks to the Westerly Centre and the Festival for inviting me. Stow’s writing has been a part of my life since my early twenties, when I was given the Penguin To the Islands (1962) as a birthday present. I didn’t know then that when Stow wrote it he was the same age as me reading it, or that it was his third published novel. After that, I read The Merry-go-Round in the Sea (1965) and Tourmaline (1963). Then in my early years here at the University of Western Australia (UWA) I first read two more: Visitants (1979) and The Girl Green as Elderflower (1980). Quite a few years later, after many re-readings, I think of Stow as a great artist, a poet amongst the English-language novelists of his time.' (Introduction) -
Well Read
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 19 September 2015; (p. 28)
— Review of To the Islands 1958 single work novel ; The Girl Green as Elderflower 1980 single work novel ; Visitants 1979 single work novel ; The Suburbs of Hell : A Novel 1984 single work novel ; Tourmaline 1963 single work novel -
Gold, but Not Water
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22-23 August 2015; (p. 16-17)
— Review of The Girl Green as Elderflower 1980 single work novel ; The Suburbs of Hell : A Novel 1984 single work novel ; To the Islands 1958 single work novel ; Tourmaline 1963 single work novel ; Visitants 1979 single work novel -
They Bring Their Somethings
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , August 2015;
— Review of Visitants 1979 single work novel
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Stow's Flow Through Colour and Conflict
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 4 June 2006; (p. 14)
— Review of Visitants 1979 single work novel -
[Review] Visitants
1980
single work
review
— Appears in: 24 Hours , January vol. 4 no. 12 1980; (p. 67)
— Review of Visitants 1979 single work novel -
New Paperbacks
1991
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14 December 1991; (p. 40)
— Review of Selected Stories 1971 selected work short story ; Visitants 1979 single work novel ; Women and Horses 1990 single work novel -
[Review] The Girl Green as Elderflower [and] Visitants
1980
single work
review
— Appears in: Kunapipi , vol. 2 no. 1 1980; (p. 184-185)
— Review of The Girl Green as Elderflower 1980 single work novel ; Visitants 1979 single work novel -
[Review] Visitants
1979
single work
review
— Appears in: The Spectator , 1 December 1979; (p. 29)
— Review of Visitants 1979 single work novel -
Culture and Identity : Politics and Writing in Some Recent Post-Colonial Texts
1992
single work
criticism
— Appears in: From Commonwealth to Post-Colonial 1992; (p. 436-443) -
Messiahs and Millennia in Randolph Stow's Novels
1981
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Kunapipi , vol. 3 no. 2 1981; (p. 56-72)'The novels I shall concentrate on in discussing messiahs and millennia in Stow's work are To the Islands, Tourmaline, Visitants, and The Girl Green as Elderflower. Tourmaline and Visitants are the two which most clearly relate to millenarian themes. Tourmaline records the growth, and collapse, of a millenarian cult centred on the messianic or would-be messianic figure of the diviner Michael Random. Visitants is a structurally more complex exploration of three millenarian visions and their communal and personal repercussions, although the connotations of the title are not restricted to cargo or flying saucer cults.' (Publication abstract)
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Nationalism and Imperialism : Australia's Ambivalent Relationship to Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Complicities : Connections and Divisions : Perspectives on Literatures and Cultures of the Asia-Pacific Region 2003; (p. 53-63) -
Visitants : Randolph Stow (1935- )
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Classics : Fifty Great Writers and Their Celebrated Works 2007; (p. 260-264) -
The Mansren Myth in Randolph Stow's Visitants
1986
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The International Fiction Review , vol. 13 no. 2 1986; (p. 82-86)
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Trobriand Islands,
cPapua New Guinea,cPacific Region,
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cPapua New Guinea,cPacific Region,
- 1950s