AustLit
Latest Issues
Affiliation Notes
-
19th-Century Australian Travel Writing
Published under the pseudonym "An Emigrant Mechanic," Alexander Harris (1805-1874) also authored A Guide to Port Stephens in New South Wales, the Colony of the Australian Agricultural Company with a Map (1849) and The Emigrant Family: or, the Story of an Australian Settler (1849), and a travel narrative that was reprinted with the title Martin Beck: or the Story of an Australian Settler (1852). The Australian Dictionary of Biography notes that Alexander Harris was long thought to be the pen name of the author, but now it is believed to be his real name. In the advertisement to Settlers and Convicts Harris noted that this pseudonym was used to draw attention "to a system" rather than his private adventures. This first-person narrative provides an illustration of the author's life in the Australian colonies, combining personal anecdotes with a commentary on convict discipline, bush and station life, and interactions with Aboriginal peoples.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
A 19th-Century Literary Controversy
1995
single work
column
— Appears in: Margin , November no. 37 1995; (p. 34-35) -
y
Who are We? The Australian Quest for Literary Identity
Ann Arbor
:
University Microfilms International
,
1994
Z67137
1994
single work
thesis
'This full-fledged literary and critical history of Australian fiction specifies the governing themes of the fiction and its various schools; it analyzes the evolution of a canon of Australian fiction in literary history; and it demonstrates the way Australian writers and scholars have been forced to adjust their beliefs about authentic Australian literature since the emergence of Aboriginal imaginative writing in the 1960s. This study presents and analyzes the longstanding battle of Australian literature for academic and popular recognition in Australia, a struggle mirroring the larger national quest for a confident identity. The "Emigrant Mechanic," narrator of Alexander Harris' Settlers and Convicts, or Recollections of Sixteen Years Labour in the Australian Backwoods (1847), identifies themes that have persisted in Australian culture and literature--the fascination with the landscape, the rise of the New Australian, the mateship social dynamic.
'Those themes persist, for example, in the 'bush fiction' of Henry Lawson, Joseph Furphy, and their successors, fiction focusing on survival, as bush dwellers fight an environment bent on defeating human effort. Harris adds another major theme that resonates in Australia's canonical fiction when, despite his avowed aim to celebrate the Australian experience, he returns homesick to England. Much of Australian fiction is a story of leaving; the hero--the exceptional person--must escape Australia to find fulfillment.
'Those who stay, like Meg in Ethel Turner's Seven Little Australians, are best served by learning to become proper Imperial citizens. The emergence of Aboriginal fiction, poetry, and drama in the 1960s introduces a new story and theme into Australian literature, the search for the Aboriginal soul lost or disrupted with the arrival of the Europeans, when the narrator in Mudrooroo's (Colin Johnson's) landmark Wild Cat Falling (1965) breaks from the cycle of prison-release-recapture. Recognizing his heritage and recovering his Aboriginal self, he provides--in the Aboriginal journey to reclaim the soul--a potent literary counter to the cultural sense of displacement and inferiority evident throughout Australian canonical fiction. In recognizing and embracing the Aboriginal spirit of the continent, Australian writers and readers can hope to resolve their identity quest.' (National Library of Australia catalogue record)
-
News from Australia: Journalism, Fiction, and Criminality in the Early Australian Novel
1993
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 7 no. 1 1993; (p. 51-58) -
In Search of Alexander Harris
1992
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Push , no. 30 1992; (p. 46-69) -
The Road Not Taken?
1989
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , September vol. 49 no. 3 1989; (p. 288-299)
-
Untitled
1847
single work
review
— Appears in: The Atlas , 23 October vol. 3 no. 152 1847; (p. 513-515)
— Review of Settlers and Convicts : Or Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods 1847 single work novel -
Australian Adventure
1954
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 15 no. 2 1954; (p. 114-116)
— Review of Ralph Rashleigh, or, The Life of an Exile 1929 single work novel ; Settlers and Convicts : Or Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods 1847 single work novel -
A 'Romantic' Pioneer
1953
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 6 June 1953; (p. 10)
— Review of Settlers and Convicts : Or Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods 1847 single work novel -
Untitled
1953
single work
review
— Appears in: Twentieth Century , vol. 8 no. 1 1953; (p. 66-68)
— Review of Settlers and Convicts : Or Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods 1847 single work novel -
Untitled
1953
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Quarterly , vol. 5 no. 3 1953; (p. 111-118)
— Review of Settlers and Convicts : Or Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods 1847 single work novel -
In Search of Alexander Harris
1992
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Push , no. 30 1992; (p. 46-69) -
Alexander Harris 1805-74
1980
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: Australia's Writers 1980; (p. 8-10) -
The Road Not Taken?
1989
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , September vol. 49 no. 3 1989; (p. 288-299) -
y
Who are We? The Australian Quest for Literary Identity
Ann Arbor
:
University Microfilms International
,
1994
Z67137
1994
single work
thesis
'This full-fledged literary and critical history of Australian fiction specifies the governing themes of the fiction and its various schools; it analyzes the evolution of a canon of Australian fiction in literary history; and it demonstrates the way Australian writers and scholars have been forced to adjust their beliefs about authentic Australian literature since the emergence of Aboriginal imaginative writing in the 1960s. This study presents and analyzes the longstanding battle of Australian literature for academic and popular recognition in Australia, a struggle mirroring the larger national quest for a confident identity. The "Emigrant Mechanic," narrator of Alexander Harris' Settlers and Convicts, or Recollections of Sixteen Years Labour in the Australian Backwoods (1847), identifies themes that have persisted in Australian culture and literature--the fascination with the landscape, the rise of the New Australian, the mateship social dynamic.
'Those themes persist, for example, in the 'bush fiction' of Henry Lawson, Joseph Furphy, and their successors, fiction focusing on survival, as bush dwellers fight an environment bent on defeating human effort. Harris adds another major theme that resonates in Australia's canonical fiction when, despite his avowed aim to celebrate the Australian experience, he returns homesick to England. Much of Australian fiction is a story of leaving; the hero--the exceptional person--must escape Australia to find fulfillment.
'Those who stay, like Meg in Ethel Turner's Seven Little Australians, are best served by learning to become proper Imperial citizens. The emergence of Aboriginal fiction, poetry, and drama in the 1960s introduces a new story and theme into Australian literature, the search for the Aboriginal soul lost or disrupted with the arrival of the Europeans, when the narrator in Mudrooroo's (Colin Johnson's) landmark Wild Cat Falling (1965) breaks from the cycle of prison-release-recapture. Recognizing his heritage and recovering his Aboriginal self, he provides--in the Aboriginal journey to reclaim the soul--a potent literary counter to the cultural sense of displacement and inferiority evident throughout Australian canonical fiction. In recognizing and embracing the Aboriginal spirit of the continent, Australian writers and readers can hope to resolve their identity quest.' (National Library of Australia catalogue record)
-
Cornstalk Papers : No.8 : the Cedar Getters
1918
single work
prose
— Appears in: The Australian Town and Country Journal , 25 September vol. 98 no. 2543 1918; (p. 37)
- Bush,
- Sydney, New South Wales,
- Hawkesbury area, Northwest Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,
- 1820s
- 1830s