AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Notes
-
Featured by the BIG Book Club, an initiative supported by The Advertiser in partnership with Arts SA, The Australia Council for the Arts, Channel 7 and FIVEAA to promote a love of reading, discussion and literature, June 2003.
-
Fictional account of an honour killing in contemporary Amman, Jordan
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Books and Debate About the Australian Government's Policies Towards Asylum Seekers
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Republics of Letters : Literary Communities in Australia 2012; (p. 53-68) 'The power of book publishing on the wider Australian polity in the twenty-first century is the subject of Jan Zwar's chapter. She uses 'empirical mapping' - data from Nielsen BookScan, Factiva and parliamentary records - to examine the impact of books on the asylum-seeker debate of the 2000s. Patterns of reviews, media mentions, academic citations and references in parliament can indicate in what ways books, and those who write and publish them, remain 'actively part of the democratic process.'' (Kirkpatrick, Peter and Dixon, Robert: Introduction xiii-xvi) -
Remediating the Hoax
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Feminist Studies , September vol. 26 no. 69 2011; (p. 349-367) 'In 2004 Norma Khouri's bestselling story of honour killing, Forbidden Love (2003), was revealed to be a hoax. Unexpectedly, in the aftermath of the hoax the fate of Khouri and her book became the subject of a major feminist documentary film by Anna Broinowski, Forbidden Lie$ (2007). The film offers a rigorous consideration of the hoax and its importance in debates about the politics and ethics of transnational and cross-cultural feminist engagements with narratives of distant suffering now. The film reincarnates the hoaxer into a renewed vivid presence, that opens possibilities for thinking about (and with) the hoax and, at the same time, raises questions about the ethics of feminist campaigns against honour killing.' Source: Gillian Whitlock. -
y
Contesting Childhood : Autobiography, Trauma, and Memory
New Brunswick
:
Rutgers University Press
,
2010
Z1836606
2010
single work
criticism
'The late 1990s and early 2000s witnessed a surge in the publication and popularity of autobiographical writings about childhood. Linking literary and cultural studies, Contesting Childhood draws on a varied selection of works from a diverse range of authors - from first-time to experienced writers. Kate Douglas explores Australian accounts of the Stolen Generation, contemporary American and British narratives of abuse, the bestselling memoirs of Andrea Ashworth, Augusten Burroughs, Robert Drewe, Mary Karr, Frank McCourt, Dave Pelzer, and Lorna Sage, among many others." "Drawing on trauma and memory studies and theories of authorship and readership, Contesting Childhood offers commentary on the triumphs, trials, and tribulations that have shaped this genre. Douglas examines the content of the narratives and the limits of their representations, as well as some of the ways in which autobiographies of youth have become politically important and influential. This study enables readers to discover how stories configure childhood within cultural memory and the public sphere.' (Publisher's blurb)
-
y
Witnessing Australian Stories : History, Testimony and Memory in Contemporary Culture
Melbourne
:
2010
6037495
2010
single work
thesis
'This book is about how Australians have responded to stories about suffering and injustice in Australia, presented in a range of public media, including literature, history, films, and television. Those who have responded are both ordinary and prominent Australians–politicians, writers, and scholars. All have sought to come to terms with Australia's history by responding empathetically to stories of its marginalized citizens.
'Drawing upon international scholarship on collective memory, public history, testimony, and witnessing, this book represents a cultural history of contemporary Australia. It examines the forms of witnessing that dominated Australian public culture at the turn of the millennium. Since the late 1980s, witnessing has developed in Australia in response to the increasingly audible voices of indigenous peoples, migrants, and more recently, asylum seekers. As these voices became public, they posed a challenge not only to scholars and politicians, but also, most importantly, to ordinary citizens.
'When former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered his historic apology to Australia's indigenous peoples in February 2008, he performed an act of collective witnessing that affirmed the testimony and experiences of Aboriginal Australians. The phenomenon of witnessing became crucial, not only to the recognition and reparation of past injustices, but to efforts to create a more cosmopolitan Australia in the present. This is a vital addition to Transactions critically acclaimed Memory and Narrative series.' (Publisher's blurb)
-
Mistaking Multiculturalism : Culotta, Demidenko and Khouri
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: New Literatures Review , no. 45/46 2009; (p. 95-112) 'This analysis considers post-war Australian immigration and multiculturalism through the lens of mistaken literary identities and their corresponding texts. Nino Culotta's They're a Weird Mob, Helen Demidenko's The Hand that Signed the Paper (1994), and Norma Khouri's Forbidden Love were all ostensibly autobiographical texts that were very popular in Australia at their times of publication. I begin with a brief overview of the events surrounding each text before locating them within the history of Australian multiculturalism. The different receptions of these books and subsequent revelations concerning the identity of their authors offer us a way of thinking about the shifting landscape of Australian national identity and its relationship to multiculturalism. The chapter concludes with some tentative reflections on how we make sense of these events and what they might tell us about historical shifts in Australian multiculturalism and identity politics more generally.' (95)
-
The Blinkers of an Unspeakable Horror
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 1-2 March 2003; (p. 14)
— Review of Forbidden Love : A Harrowing True Story of Love and Revenge in Jordan 2003 single work novel -
Writing Wrongs
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane News , 26 March - 1 April no. 436 2003; (p. 9)
— Review of Forbidden Love : A Harrowing True Story of Love and Revenge in Jordan 2003 single work novel -
Honour Among Women
2003
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 1-2 February 2003; (p. 3) -
A Debt of Love
2003
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 9 February 2003; (p. 10) -
The Evil Men Do
2003
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 14 June 2003; (p. 3) -
Author Denies Fabrication
2004
single work
column
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 25 July 2004; (p. 13) -
The Lies Stripped Bare
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 24-25 July 2004; (p. 31) Knox exposes alleged inconsistencies in Khouri's story of honour killings in Jordan and of the details of her own personal life. Knox communicated with Amal al-Sabbagh of the Jordanian National Commission for Women. al-Sabbagh claimed that her investigations revealed 73 'errors and exaggerations' within the text of Forbidden Love. Knox, through the auspices of the Sydney Morning Herald, discovered significant inaccuracies in Khouri's claims in relation to country of residence and family relationships.
-
cJordan,cMiddle East, Asia,
- 1990s