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Notes
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Dedication: To all the Aboriginal writers who made this book possible. To all my old students at Murdoch University and the University of Queensland who debated many of the points raised. I hope they learnt as much as I did. To Patrick White for his support in 1988.
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Epigraph: Ellen sat picking at her fringe of leaves. The corroboree was over, except the embers, the ashes, and the continued exchange of hoarsened voices. Patrick White, A Fringe of Leaves
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Untitled
single work
review
— Review of Writing from the Fringe : A Study of Modern Aboriginal Literature 1990 single work criticism -
The Study of Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Literature in China
2015
single work
— Appears in: Oceanic Literary Studies , no. 2 2015; (p. 236-247) 'Australian Aboriginal literature, a unique genre in Australian Literature, has greatly contributed to its diversity and colorfulness. Its status has improved because of the awaking of Aboriginal people and constant emerging of Aboriginal writers. This paper emphatically probes into three stages, reviews the Australian Aboriginal literature studies in China and discusses some of the major characteristics. Remarkable achievements have been made in the past thirty years, but there still exist some problems, including inadequate sense of Aboriginality, lack of diachronic and holistic study of a writer's thoughts, inadequate research on the works of Aboriginal writers born after the 1960s.' (236-237) -
The Absent-Presence of the Ghosts in Aboriginal Poetry
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: IJAS , no. 5 2012; (p. 70-83) -
Aboriginal Affair(s): Reflections on the Life of Mudrooroo
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: LINQ , December no. 39 2012; (p. 105-115)'The article reviews the controversial 'Mudrooroo Affair' with reference to unpublished work by Mudrooroo in which he comments on the public debate about his rights to define himself as Aboriginal and, by extension, have his work credited as Aboriginal. Such work makes it pertinent to review Mudrooroo's creative output since 1965 as literary experiments with life writing and to reconsider Mudrooroo's many literary 'performances' from this perspective. They are not only explorations of Aboriginal identity politics over,- the last five decades, but may also be seen as a far more personal investment in exploring Aboriginal identity through a progressively shifting but interrelated series of subjectivities that reflect the writer's own experience and inform his claim to Aboriginality.' (Publication summary)
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Mudrooroo : ‘Waiting to be Surprised’
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 11 no. 2 2011;
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Aboriginal Encounters
1993
single work
review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 20 August no. 4716 1993; (p. 4-5)
— Review of The Kadaitcha Sung 1990 single work novel ; The Kwinkan 1993 single work novel ; Paperbark : A Collection of Black Australian Writings 1990 anthology poetry drama short story criticism prose autobiography biography ; Writing from the Fringe : A Study of Modern Aboriginal Literature 1990 single work criticism -
Songliners
1991
single work
review
— Appears in: Webber's , March no. 3 1991; (p. 84-90)
— Review of Black Words, White Page : Aboriginal Literature 1929-1988 1989 single work criticism ; The Blackside: People are Legends and Other Poems 1990 selected work poetry ; Writing from the Fringe : A Study of Modern Aboriginal Literature 1990 single work criticism -
On the Threshold of a Renaissance - Recent Aboriginal Writing in Australia
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: Antipodes , Winter vol. 4 no. 2 1990; (p. 131-133)
— Review of Story About Feeling 1989 selected work poetry ; Wanamurraganya : The Story of Jack McPhee 1989 single work biography ; My Place 1987 single work autobiography ; Writing from the Fringe : A Study of Modern Aboriginal Literature 1990 single work criticism -
Contested Site
1997
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 195 1997; (p. 18-19)
— Review of Writing from the Fringe : A Study of Modern Aboriginal Literature 1990 single work criticism -
Indigenous Literature in Its Proper Contexts
1998
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 11 April 1998; (p. 22)
— Review of Writing from the Fringe : A Study of Modern Aboriginal Literature 1990 single work criticism -
'Why, White Man, Why?' : White Australia as the Addressee of Apostrophe in Contemporary Aboriginal Writing
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Zeitschrift fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik , vol. 50 no. 2 2002; (p. 166-178)
— Appears in: Imaginary Antipodes : Essays on Contemporary Australian Literature and Culture 2011; (p. 23-36) 'Contemporary Australian indigenous literature is characterised by a remarkably prevalent use of apostrophic address directed at the white reader. This mode of direct address in black literary texts draws attention to the political dynamics moulding reader-writer relations in contemporary Australia. The article examines numerous examples of this direct mode of address in prose, poetry and drama, and argues that this direct mode of address is a central element in the message of black writers. The use of apostrophe implies the active 'positioning' of the white reader on the part of the indigenous speaker; only by virtue of this positioning is the reading process made possible. The direct mode of address in these texts thus demands that the reader take up a stance characterised by a readiness to listen attentively to black literary voices.' (Author's abstract) -
Reciprocal Bonds : Re-Thinking Orality and Literacy in Critical Perspectives on Indigenous Australian Life-Writing
2005
single work
essay
— Appears in: Script and Print , vol. 29 no. 1-4 2005; (p. 115-129) -
'Ein komplexes und wechselhaftes Spiel': Sprachliche Resignifikation in Kanak Sprak und Aboriginal English
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Polyculturalism and Discourse 2007; (p. 31-65) -
Magical Realism and Fakery : After Carpentier's 'Marvelous Real' and Mudrooroo's 'Maban Reality'
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 24 no. 2 2010; (p. 165-171) Discusses 'the link between magical realism and fakery in the light of the antipodean nationalist appropriations of magical realism by the Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier in 1949 and by the black Australian writer Mudrooroo in the 1990s.' (p. 165) -
Where Campfires Used to Gleam : A Collage of Bipolar Dreaming in Davis’ Aboriginal Theatre
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities , vol. 2 no. 2 2010; (p. 136-144) 'Jack Davis' preoccupation with an aboriginal sense of experience as symbolized through uncle Worru's characterization in The Dreamers, is thought to have been sparked off by a mysterious man named Jack Henry, whose nostalgia was embittered and angered by what he considered to be the end of the golden age. Davis' own experience at the Moore River Settlement and his angst at having been forced to overlook the Noongar culture and tradition are snowballed into a representation of wisdom bordered on the edge of eccentricity. Uncle Worru's strong evocation of a poetic, almost archaic, wish-fulfilling past is thus addressed in terms of his dream-time stories. This paper tries to locate the significance of the dream-time stories in consolidating the theme of protest. The question is: how far successful is uncle Worru in acting out the role of Davis' spokesman? Uncle Worru's scheme of looking back at his past endeavors and success needs to be weighed against the younger generation's instinctive habit of dreaming forward into the future. The sense of false securities embodied through uncle Worru's dreaming backward in time necessarily comes in clash with the later generation's habit of dreaming forward. The dilution of the theme of protest thus gets enmeshed in the whirlpool of cultural abnegation. Davis' "syncretic theatre" distils the elixir of dreams polarized on the chronological separation between past and present.' (Author's abstract).
Awards
- 1992 winner Stanner Award
- 1991 joint winner Western Australian Premier's Book Awards — Historical and Critical Studies Award
- Identity 1971 periodical (22 issues)
- Australian literature and writers
- Aboriginal writers
- Australian literary criticism
- Aboriginal literature & writers
- Aboriginal drama & theatre
- Aboriginal poets & poetry
- Aboriginal oral tradition
- Aboriginal women writers
- Aboriginal music
- Aboriginal Australians
- Use of language
- Poetic techniques
- Epic poetry
- Songs
- Aboriginality
- Autobiographies
- Life narratives
- Narrative techniques
- Australian publishers
- Music
- Aboriginal assimilation (Government policy)
- Aboriginal literature - Portrayal of White culture
- Australian fiction
- Aboriginal Australians - Literary portrayal
- English language
- Aboriginal song cycles
- 1900-1999