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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Robyn Davidson tells the story of her 1977 journey across the desert, from Alice Springs to Western Australia. She and a Pitjantjara elder completed their crossing on camels back. Tracks is the story of her adventure, not only across the desert, but also into self-discovery, and the discovery of the beauty, nobility, and history of the country and its people. (Source: Trove)
Adaptations
-
form
y
Tracks
( dir. John Curran
)
Australia
:
See Saw Films
,
2013
Z1910218
2013
single work
film/TV
(taught in 2 units)
'The inspirational true story of Robyn Davidson's solo camel trek through the harsh centre of Australia, aided only by her faithful canine companion Diggity and the National Geographic photographer who chronicled this epic modern adventure.' (Source: Screen Australia website)
Reading Australia
This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 10 (NSW Stage 5)
Themes
Australia, freedom, journey, love, Maturation/identity, quest, spirituality, travel
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Literacy
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also braille, sound recording.
- Also available as an eBook
Works about this Work
-
Animal Affinity
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Good Reading , May 2016; (p. 18-21)
— Review of Horses Who Heal 2016 single work autobiography ; Tracks 1980 single work autobiography'Dogs, cats, birds, horses, chimpanzees and even donkeys have played a huge role in the lives of many humans. Angus Dalton investigates memoirs that
celebrate the human–animal connection.'
-
Adaptation and Authorial Celebrity : Robyn Davidson and the Context of John Curran’s Tracks (2013)
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Adaptation , March vol. 9 no. 1 2016; (p. 12-21) 'This article explores the discursive context surrounding John Curran’s recent adaptation of Robyn Davidson’s Tracks (1980), suggesting that the mutual imbrication of the film and its source texts works against the grain of recent trends in adaptation studies that seek to distance them, and to consider screen adaptations as independent creations. At the centre of the red carpet at international film festival premiers as well as the broader publicity campaign promoting Tracks stands author Robyn Davidson, whose nuanced understanding of the adaptation process and savvy relationship to the media have enabled her to retain a firm grip on her original material, at the same time as establishing for herself a pivotal role in enunciating the film’s greater significance and authentic ‘Australianness’ for both local and global audiences. Davidson’s role impacts, ultimately, on the positioning of the film in terms of genre, character, nationality, history, race, and gender politics and ecology—as well as making the adaptation process an explicit subject for discussion in Tracks’ wider articulation and framing.' (Publication summary) -
y
Robyn Davidson's Tracks and Director Sean Penn's Into the Wild
Cheltenham
:
Insight Publications
,
2016
9590322
2016
single work
criticism
-
Traveling, Writing and Engagement in Robyn Davidson’s Tracks
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Ilha Do Desterro : A Journal of English Language , vol. 69 no. 2 2016; In 1980, Australian writer Robyn Davidson publishes her travel narrative Tracks, in which she describes her crossing of the central Australian deserts in the late 1970’s, on foot and by herself, being accompanied only by her dog and by four camels. The narrative became an immediate success after its publication, receiving the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and been widely read both in Australia and worldwide. It has also become an emblematic example of contemporary travel narratives, mainly due to the fact that it is not only a book about survival or about a woman crossing a desert alone, rather elaborating on the implications between genre and gender; it is also a narrative that recuperates the political and ideological background of an important moment in Australian history. Thus, taking into consideration Davidson’s ambivalence in relation to writing about her travel experiences, in this paper, I argue that Tracks, more than celebrating the process of self-transformation in travel, lingers on the tension between its narrator’s search for freedom and her awareness regarding the responsibilities involved in engaging with cultural difference and in representing geographical crossings. ' (Publication summary) -
Rare Prints Retell Story of Historic Journey
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 November 2015; (p. 19)
-
Queen of the Desert
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 1-2 March 2014; (p. 8-9) The Canberra Times , 1 March 2014; (p. 20)
— Review of Tracks 1980 single work autobiography 'A woman's trek across Australia inspired the world, but it took 40 years for the story to make it to the screen.' -
Animal Affinity
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Good Reading , May 2016; (p. 18-21)
— Review of Horses Who Heal 2016 single work autobiography ; Tracks 1980 single work autobiography'Dogs, cats, birds, horses, chimpanzees and even donkeys have played a huge role in the lives of many humans. Angus Dalton investigates memoirs that
celebrate the human–animal connection.'
-
Loosing and Following 'Tracks' in the Australian Desert
2001
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Travel Writing and the Female Imaginary 2001; (p. 109-118) -
Return of the Nomad
2005
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 30 April-1 May 2005; (p. R6) -
Making Places Out of Spaces: Reading the Spatial in Robyn Davidson's "Tracks"
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Sharing Spaces : Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Responses to Story, Country and Rights 2006; (p. 100-112) -
Literature in the Arid Zone
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Littoral Zone : Australian Contexts and Their Writers 2007; (p. 70-92) This chapter surveys and assesses from an ecocentric perspective some representative literary portrayals of the Australian deserts. Generally, it contrasts works that portray the desert as an alien, hostile, and undifferentiated void with works that recognise and value the biological particularities of specific desert places. It explores the literature of three dominant cultural orientations to the deserts: pastoralism, mining, and traversal. It concludes with a consideration of several multi-voiced and/or multi-genred bioregionally informed works that suggests fruitful directions for more ecocentric literary approaches. (abstract taken from The Littoral Zone) -
Cinematic Failures : Scene I, You've Seen Them All
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 22 May 2010; (p. 3) Robert Drewe, hopeful that his book The Drowner will be adapted for film, recalls three previous failed attempts (each with director Ray Lawrence) to bring books to the screen. The titles in question were Drewe's stories 'Sweetlips' and 'Machete' and Robyn Davidson's autobiograpy Tracks.
Last amended 23 May 2017 10:38:05
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