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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'This is the first book to apply new academic understandings of the convict transportation system to explore the lives of individual convicts. In searching for the convict voice, each chapter is a detective story in miniature, either an exercise in discovering the identity behind a particular account or a piecing together of a convict life from the scattered fragments of a tale. Many issues of great contemporary interest arise from these stories, including the multicultural nature of Australian colonial society and, above all, the importance of love and hope.' (Publication summary)
Contents
-
Run-A-Way Theodore: A Fictional Quest for Roots,
single work
prose
A narrative that includes short extracts from government and personal documents relating to the life of Theodore Krakouer.
- Lies, Damned Lies and Convict Narratives, single work criticism (p. 13-31)
-
In Search of 'Jack Bushman',
single work
criticism
'This chapter deals with five connected matters: the life and times of Thomas Brooks; the veracity or otherwise of Passages as a source in reconstructing this life; an attempt to find who the author of Passages was (or at the very least who he wasn't); and the contexts for the public emergence of this "convict voice" in the 1850s. Finally there is the question of analysing such a narrative, as "distinct from the empirical quarrying" of it.' p.32
- In Search of the Invisible Man, single work criticism (p. 49-63)
-
Seven Tales for a Man with Seven Sides,
single work
criticism
Maxwell-Stewart traces the life of convict author James Porter and the published versions of Porter's account of the mutiny on the Frederick. Maxwell-Stewart also examines the textual links betweens Porter's work and Marcus Clarke's His Natural Life.
-
Eliza Churchill Tells ...,
single work
criticism
Through the examination of early committee papers held by the Archives of Tasmania, particularly the first-person evidence of Eliza Churchill, Frost contends that 'Female convict narratives do exist, if we know where to look, or by chance happen upon them.' Citing low literacy rates among convict women as a major factor in the dearth of such narratives, Frost also questions whether the autobiographical style was 'foreign to the convict women' and whether they may have resisted the genre.
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A Spanish Convict, Her Clergyman Biographer, and the Amanuensis of Her Bastard Son,
single work
criticism
Ballyn and Frost examine Cameron's account of Adelaide de la Theroza's life. They find little evidence to support Cameron's story, but conclude 'Whatever may or may not be true about Adelaide's origins, we are satisfied now that this convict woman who became an Australian pioneer mother and grandmother began her improbable journey in Spain.'
-
'Your Unfortunate and Undutiful Wife',
single work
criticism
Casella and Frost each make separate contributions to this article. Casella explains her disovery of Ellen Cornwall's letter at the Lawrence House Museum in Launceston, Cornwall. Frost and Casella both muse on the circumstances that could have surrounded the writing of the letter and each imagines possible scenarios for Cornwall's life in England and Van Diemen's Land.
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Untitled,
single work
correspondence
A letter, dated February 25th 1848, written from Van Diemen's Land by the convict Ellen Cornwall to her husband Frederick who was living in Birmingham, England.Note: Text incorporated within 'Your Unfortunate and Undutiful Wife' by Eleanor Conlin Casella and Lucy Frost.
-
'Stated This Offence' : High-Density Convict Micro-Narratives,
single work
criticism
Duffield examines official records relating to the lives of four black convicts (all part of the African diaspora) who were transported to Van Diemen's Land in the 1820s and 1830s. He is particularly interested in the assertive first-person micro-narratives offered by the convicts to the Muster Masters at the time of their arrival in Hobart. Duffield concludes, 'Exciting prospects now open for extensive unpackaging of similar 'I' for an 'Eye' micro-narratives, thus enriching our understanding of the relationships of convict narrative to convict lived experience.'
-
These are but Items in the Sad Ledger of Despair,
single work
criticism
Phillipps traces the stories of three convicted men who sought to be re-united with their families.
- Raising Lazurus, single work criticism (p. 148-161)
- Wherever I Go I Whill Right To You, single work criticism (p. 165-176)
- Dr Martin and the Forty Thieves, single work criticism (p. 177-189)
- Alexander and the Mother of Invention, single work criticism (p. 190-198)
- At Large with the Run-a-Ways, single work criticism (p. 201-209)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
[Review] Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 21 no. 3 2004; (p. 404-406)
— Review of Convict Words : Language in Early Colonial Australia 2002 reference ; Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives 2001 anthology criticism correspondence -
New Issues, Old Issues : The Australian Tradition Revisited
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 170 2003; (p. 49-56)McLaren discusses a number of Australian novels (all recently re-issued) which have been central to developing the way in which Australians and foreigners think about white society in this continent. He distinguishes several trends and traditions in describing and characterising Australia's social and political system. Whereas Clarke and Richardson present Australia as a prison, Palmer and Waten present it as a land offering the promise of freedom. Furphy, on the other hand, is seen as a writer 'who shows us a country seeming to offer plentitude but finally withholding its promise' (54).
McLaren concludes that the 'past expressed in these fictions variously produced values of solidarity, egalitarianism, harmony with the land, but their values remain circumscribed by fear of the powerless and the dispossessed, by the arrogance of the powerful, and by distrust of the outsider. Our future will be secure only as we accept continuity with the past, enter into dialogue with the differences of the present, and accept a common responsibility towards the land that supports us' (56).
-
[Review] Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Folklore , November no. 17 2002; (p. 254-255)
— Review of Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives 2001 anthology criticism correspondence -
[Review] Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: JAS Review of Books , June no. 6 2002;
— Review of Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives 2001 anthology criticism correspondence -
[Review] Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 1 no. 2002; (p. 101-106)
— Review of Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives 2001 anthology criticism correspondence
-
[Review] Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 1 no. 2002; (p. 101-106)
— Review of Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives 2001 anthology criticism correspondence -
[Review] Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: JAS Review of Books , June no. 6 2002;
— Review of Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives 2001 anthology criticism correspondence -
[Review] Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Folklore , November no. 17 2002; (p. 254-255)
— Review of Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives 2001 anthology criticism correspondence -
[Review] Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 21 no. 3 2004; (p. 404-406)
— Review of Convict Words : Language in Early Colonial Australia 2002 reference ; Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives 2001 anthology criticism correspondence -
New Issues, Old Issues : The Australian Tradition Revisited
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 170 2003; (p. 49-56)McLaren discusses a number of Australian novels (all recently re-issued) which have been central to developing the way in which Australians and foreigners think about white society in this continent. He distinguishes several trends and traditions in describing and characterising Australia's social and political system. Whereas Clarke and Richardson present Australia as a prison, Palmer and Waten present it as a land offering the promise of freedom. Furphy, on the other hand, is seen as a writer 'who shows us a country seeming to offer plentitude but finally withholding its promise' (54).
McLaren concludes that the 'past expressed in these fictions variously produced values of solidarity, egalitarianism, harmony with the land, but their values remain circumscribed by fear of the powerless and the dispossessed, by the arrogance of the powerful, and by distrust of the outsider. Our future will be secure only as we accept continuity with the past, enter into dialogue with the differences of the present, and accept a common responsibility towards the land that supports us' (56).
-
At Large with the Run-a-Ways
2001
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Chain Letters : Narrating Convict Lives 2001; (p. 201-209)
Awards
- 2004 Inaugural winner The Australian Historical Association Awards — Kay Daniels Award