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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'This was life: no sooner had you built yourself your little raft and felt secure than it came to pieces under you and you were swimming again.
'Born into a world without welcome, Isobel observes it as warily as an alien trying to pass for a native. Her collection of imaginary friends includes the Virgin Mary and Sherlock Holmes. Later she meets Byron, W.H. Auden and T.S. Eliot. Isobel is not so much at ease with the flesh-and-blood people she meets, and least of all with herself, until a lucky encounter and a little detective work reveal her identity and her true situation in life.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Prequel to Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording, large print.
Works about this Work
- y I for Isobel, by Amy Witting Essendon North : Radiant Heart Publishing , 2015 8919438 2015 single work criticism
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Hard-Won Composure Under Fire
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 8-9 February 2014; (p. 20-21)
— Review of I for Isobel 1989 single work novel -
The Disempowerment of Women in the Domestic Sphere : The Fiction of Amy Witting (1918 – 2001)
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Crossroads : An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics , vol. 6 no. 2 2013; (p. 94-103)'This article examines ways in which the fiction of the acclaimed Australian writer Amy Witting, dubbed Australia’s Chekov and whom Helen Garner acknowledged as her ‘literary mother,’ interrogates the disempowerment of women in the domestic sphere, asserting that the home is a contested space and conflicted place for women. Witting subverts the notion that a ‘woman’s place is in the home’ by demonstrating that many
women are actually displaced and dispossessed in the inhibiting domestic spaces that are their ‘homes.’ In her fiction, women are isolated and excluded because of gender inequity
in regard to women’s rights and duties in the domestic sphere. Women are also marginalised in regard to inadequate financial rewards for domestic productivity and are affected by circumstances underpinned by discourses of poverty, class conflict and domestic violence. Witting asserts that the disempowerment of women in the home often leads to women appropriating masculinist attitudes and behaviours of oppression towards other women less powerful than themselves. In this article, these concepts are explored with close reference to five of Witting’s novels and interviews conducted with the author.' (Author's abstract)
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Museum Mentality
Who Killed Australian Literature?
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 October 2012; (p. 8-9) -
Isobel's Eyes Open
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 11 August 2003; (p. 10)
— Review of I for Isobel 1989 single work novel
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Isobel's Eyes Open
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 11 August 2003; (p. 10)
— Review of I for Isobel 1989 single work novel -
Amy Witting: I for Isobel
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: 24 Hours , December 2001; (p. 122)
— Review of I for Isobel 1989 single work novel -
Ethos Evocative of Kafka
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 18 November 1989; (p. B5)
— Review of The Mountain 1989 single work novel ; I for Isobel 1989 single work novel -
Rewriting Gender Scripts
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , April vol. 9 no. 1 1990; (p. 56-57)
— Review of Inner Cities : Australian Women's Memory of Place 1989 anthology poetry short story prose biography ; The Woman at the Window 1989 selected work short story ; Moments of Desire : Sex and Sensuality by Australian Feminist Writers 1989 anthology poetry short story ; I for Isobel 1989 single work novel ; Give Me Strength : Italian Australian Women Speak 1989 anthology essay biography autobiography ; Homecoming : Three Novellas 1989 selected work short story -
Davidson's Freefall
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 29 August 1989; (p. 112)
— Review of Ancestors 1989 single work novel ; I for Isobel 1989 single work novel -
Museum Mentality
Who Killed Australian Literature?
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 October 2012; (p. 8-9) -
An Unwitting Excellence
1990
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Sunday Herald , 25 March 1990; (p. 36) -
A Cuddly Kind of Power
1990
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 19 June vol. 112 no. 5723 1990; (p. 142-143) -
A Woman Not Made for Fame
1994
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 30 April-1 May 1994; (p. rev 6) -
Amy Witting Recalls a Moment of Literary Glory
1993
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 November 1993; (p. 3)
Awards
- 1990 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
- 1990 shortlisted NBC Banjo Awards — NBC Banjo Award for Fiction
- 1989 winner The Fellowship of Australian Writers Victoria Inc. National Literary Awards — Barbara Ramsden Award
- Sydney, New South Wales,