AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'It could almost have been their own country: these sections with the gums briefly framed like a traditional oil painting by the slowly passing window. The colours were as brown and parched; that chaff-coloured grass, Ah, this dun-coloured realism. Any minute now the cry of the crow or a cockatoo; but no.
'Thirteen men and women travel the world on a package tour but wherever they go nothing is as it seems.
'Challenged by the unexpected, by differences and subtleties, Bail’s tourists are in turn repelled and attracted—and all are altered.' (Publication summary)
Contents
- Introduction, essay
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Knowing the Name of Things : Inscribing the Tourist Gaze in Murray Bail’s Homesickness
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies of Australia , vol. 11 no. 1 2020;'In his postmodern novel Homesickness (1980), Australian novelist Murray Bail depicts a group of Australian tourists on a package tour through diverse countries—including an unnamed African country, the UK and Ecuador—and cities of London, New York and Moscow. In addressing the archetype of the tourist, for which the mobile Australian is judged suitably representative, Bail explores the various perspectives of his diverse group in their picaresque encounters with unfamiliar, Other landscapes and people. In particular he focusses on the nature of their descriptions of such encounters in an increasingly virtual or curated world of global tourism (its museums, guides, exhibitions). This is seen in the dialogic, arguably appropriating, acts of naming, identifying, epistolary accounts (notably in postcards) and also photography, including by the group’s tellingly blind photographer. From a postcolonial perspective, Bail’s tourist group can be considered akin to the settler, albeit in a global situation in which places visited and their people are viewed as Other. This article primarily addresses Bail’s examination of the nature of human apprehension of unfamiliar and familiar worlds through the binaries of distance/closeness, as well as though ratiocinative, visual, classifying, collecting impulses as distinct from a more chaotic, random indeterminate acceptance. A central anchoring, comparative reference point is the familiar (the Australian home, landscape, vegetation and its various stereotypes including in unfamiliar places) and the alternative counter viewpoints of non-travellers. Consideration is given to themes concerning consciousness and the visual, including perspectives of philosopher Maurice Blanchot and postmodern theorist Ihab Hassan.'
Source: Abstract.
-
Morality at Bay : The Lesson of the Americas in Murray Bail's Homesickness
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 28 no. 2 2014; (p. 275-288, 535.) 'For four decades Murray Bail's writing has been at the forefront of inventive and intellectual challenging Australian fiction, yet his preoccupations remain elusive, his works enigmatic. His first book, Contemporary Portraits and Other Stories, signalled the arrival of a major talent, an expectation matched by subsequent award-winning novels, such as Homesickness and Eucalyptus. His work, however, has been often accused of inventiveness for its own sake. Here, Ackland discusses Bail's Homesickness.' (Publication summary) -
'On All Fours Passing, Tintinnabulation' : Murray Bail's Creative Case against the Imperial Word
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Tapestry of the Creative Word in Anglophone Literatures 2013; (p. 231-240) -
Untitled
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Lifted Brow , no. 14 2012; (p. 23)
— Review of Homesickness 1980 single work novel -
Inside the Maze
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Experimental Fiction of Murray Bail 2012; (p. 37-102)
-
"Burbank Meditating..."
1981
single work
review
— Appears in: The CRNLE Reviews Journal , December no. 2 1981; (p. 13-15)
— Review of Homesickness 1980 single work novel -
Untitled
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Lifted Brow , no. 14 2012; (p. 23)
— Review of Homesickness 1980 single work novel -
Untitled
1980
single work
review
— Appears in: Westerly , December vol. 25 no. 4 1980; (p. 94-96)
— Review of Homesickness 1980 single work novel -
Untitled
1980
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian Magazine , 11-12 October 1980; (p. 16)
— Review of Homesickness 1980 single work novel -
[Untitled]
1980
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 11 October 1980; (p. 30)
— Review of Homesickness 1980 single work novel -
The World, the Text, and the Tourist : Murray Bail's Homesickness as a Guide to the Real
1991
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Narrative Technique , Winter vol. 21 no. 1 1991; (p. 1-13) -
Surveying a Novel Trend
2004
single work
column
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 11 July 2004; (p. 19) -
Detourism : Murray Bail's Photographic Fiction
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , vol. 39 no. 3 2004; (p. 69-91) The article draws parallels between Roland Barthes' theory of photography and Murray Bail's photographic techniques in Homesickness and Eucalyptus. -
Deceptive Construction : The Art of Building in Peter Carey's Illywhacker
2005
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Fabulating Beauty : Perspectives on the Fiction of Peter Carey 2005; (p. 149-170) A poststrucural reading of Carey's novel which considers the novel as 'an exercise in bricolage', and compares it with some of Murray Bail's texts. -
'No One Gives a Fuck about Australia' : Aussies Abroad in The Riders and Homesickness
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Bernard Hickey, a Roving Cultural Ambassador : Essays in His Memory. 2009; (p. 177-185)
Awards
- 1980 winner National Book Council Award for Australian Literature
- 1980 joint winner The Age Book of the Year Award — Book of the Year