AustLit logo

AustLit

y separately published work icon Remember the Tarantella single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1987... 1987 Remember the Tarantella
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Remember The Tarantella is a remarkable work. It's learned and frivolous, female not feminine, silly and serious. Written in several strands of narrative, the many characters create a space as if reading were a dance party. Story is not the main objective. Private conversations and thoughts are always within earshot of the rhythm of others, like the stamping of feet and the beat of the music. This is concerto-like poetry; many instruments of different tones assist the reader to know who is who.

The tarantella of the title is the ruse of women who did not want to be burnt as witches. At the reputed bite of the spider, they dance themselves into the sea and disappear. Moorhead's Remember The Tarantella is truly a work of feminist fiction. A delight, to be read again and again, as one would listen to music over and over.' (Spinifex Press blurb)

Notes

  • Epigraph: If, going astray, a reader can enter the mosaic of chipped experiences, employing the wings of dream, then come...

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Leichhardt, Glebe - Leichhardt - Balmain area, Sydney Inner West, Sydney, New South Wales,: Primavera Press , 1987 .
      Extent: xiii, 350p.p.
      ISBN: 0958949441
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Women's Press ,
      1994 .
      Extent: 350p.
      ISBN: 0704343762 (pbk)
    • Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Spinifex Press , 2011 .
      Extent: 334p.
      Description: illus., facsims
      Note/s:
      • Also available in electronic version via the Internet.

        Includes:
        • Author's Note (viii-ix)
        • Alphabet of Characters (xi-xii)
        • Interview with Finola Moorhead.

      ISBN: 9781876756932

Works about this Work

To Whinge or Not to Whinge Susan Hawthorne , 2012 single work essay
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , May-July no. 4 2012;
Dance of the Emotional Void Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 119-138)

'In the literature of the last few decades depiction of sex have become commonplace. The old taboos which made any allusion to these matters something daring or transgressive have disappeared, to the extent that the reader is surprised, and perhaps a little disappointed, when he or she fails to find any sexual descriptions in the novel. It would appear that the characters have as few inhibitions when it comes to having sex as the writers when it comes to describing it.' (p. 119)

Imagining Activist Times in the Historical Novel Margaret Henderson , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Marking Feminist Times : Remembering the Longest Revolution in Australia 2006; (p. 95-129)
Feminist Experiment and Contemporary Women's Writing Susan Lever , 2000 single work criticism
— Appears in: Real Relations : The Feminist Politics of Form in Australian Fiction 2000; (p. 131-147, notes 160)
"A Mob of Bloody Women" - Utopia, Collectivity and Multiplicity in Some Recent Fiction by Australian Women Eleanor Hogan , 1996 single work criticism
— Appears in: Current Tensions : Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference : 6 - 11 July 1996 1996; (p. 236-242)
Untitled Judith Rodriguez , 1988 single work review
— Appears in: Fremantle Arts Review , May vol. 3 no. 5 1988; (p. 14-15)

— Review of Remember the Tarantella Finola Moorhead , 1987 single work novel
Untitled Julia Hancock , 1991 single work review
— Appears in: Lesbians on the Loose , March no. 15 1991; (p. 21)

— Review of Quilt : A Collection of Prose Finola Moorhead , 1985 selected work poetry short story prose criticism ; Remember the Tarantella Finola Moorhead , 1987 single work novel ; Still Murder Finola Moorhead , 1990 single work novel
New Paperbacks Miranda Harman , 1994 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11 June 1994; (p. 9A)

— Review of Chance Encounters A. D. Hope , Peter Ryan , 1992 single work autobiography ; Remember the Tarantella Finola Moorhead , 1987 single work novel ; Australia for Women : Travel and Culture 1994 anthology short story poetry prose criticism
Untitled Sasha Soldatow , 1987 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian Magazine , 26 December 1987;

— Review of Remember the Tarantella Finola Moorhead , 1987 single work novel
An Alphabet of Women Whirls About the World Helen Daniel , 1988 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 2 January 1988;

— Review of Remember the Tarantella Finola Moorhead , 1987 single work novel
Imagining Activist Times in the Historical Novel Margaret Henderson , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Marking Feminist Times : Remembering the Longest Revolution in Australia 2006; (p. 95-129)
Dance of the Emotional Void Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 119-138)

'In the literature of the last few decades depiction of sex have become commonplace. The old taboos which made any allusion to these matters something daring or transgressive have disappeared, to the extent that the reader is surprised, and perhaps a little disappointed, when he or she fails to find any sexual descriptions in the novel. It would appear that the characters have as few inhibitions when it comes to having sex as the writers when it comes to describing it.' (p. 119)

To Whinge or Not to Whinge Susan Hawthorne , 2012 single work essay
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , May-July no. 4 2012;
Finola Moorhead : "Remember the Tarantella" Sue Woolfe , Kate Grenville , 1993 single work criticism interview
— Appears in: Making Stories : How Ten Australian Novels Were Written 1993; (p. 206-231)
"A Mob of Bloody Women" - Utopia, Collectivity and Multiplicity in Some Recent Fiction by Australian Women Eleanor Hogan , 1996 single work criticism
— Appears in: Current Tensions : Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference : 6 - 11 July 1996 1996; (p. 236-242)
Last amended 10 Jan 2012 11:40:11
Settings:
  • 1980s
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X