AustLit logo

AustLit

image of person or book cover 2532047670084946900.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon Wild Cat Falling single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1965... 1965 Wild Cat Falling
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Latest Issues

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Wild Cat Falling is the story of an Aboriginal youth, a 'bodgie' of the early sixties who grows up on the ragged outskirts of a country town, falls into petty crime, goes to gaol, and comes out to do battle once more with the society who put him there. Its publication in 1965 marked a unique literary event, for this was the first novel by any writer of Aboriginal blood to be published in Australia. As well, it is a remarkable piece of literature in its own right, expressing the dilemmas and conflicts of the young Aboriginal in modern Australian society with its memorable insight and stylishness.' (Publication summary)

Adaptations

Wild Cat Falling Mudrooroo , 1992 single work drama

'Nineteen-year old anti-hero Wildcat has been released from Fremantle Jail after serving an eighteen-month sentence for juvenile offences. The play shifts from real time to memory as Wildcat re-experiences growing up in a small country town, being sent to Swanview Boys' Home and being a member of a bodgie gang in Perth in the late 1950s.' (Source: Australian Plays website)

Notes

  • A stage production, adapted and directed by Alan Becher with music by David Milroy, was performed in 1992. Reviews of that production are attached to this record.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: Gatto Selvaggio Cade
Language: Italian
    • Florence,
      c
      Italy,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Le Lettere ,
      2003 .
      image of person or book cover 7374095195697444018.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 143p.
      ISBN: 8871667077

Other Formats

  • Braille.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon Wild Cat Falling, Mudrooroo : In the Context of Identity and Belonging Angie Barillaro , Essendon North : Radiant Heart Publishing , 2015 8919410 2015 single work criticism
The Postcolonial Autobiography : Force Majeure? Aurélia Mouzet , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Autobiography as a Writing Strategy in Postcolonial Literature 2015; (p. 161-178)
y separately published work icon Exploring Issues of Identity and Belonging Bruce Pattinson , Seven Hills : Five Senses Education , 2014 9010570 2014 selected work criticism

'Study notes and a workshop approach to Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Patti Miller's The Mind of the Thief, Mudrooroo's Wild Cat Falling, Anthony Fabian's Skin.' (Publication summary)

The Yellow House Mudrooroo , 2014 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 74 no. 3 2014; (p. 62-76)
A Study of the Australian Aboriginal Novel Wild Cat Falling from the Perspective of Postcolonialism Wu Qinghong , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of University of Science and Technology of Suzhou (Social Science) , vol. [2013] no. 6 2013; (p. 35-39)
The Long and the Short R. G. Geering , 1965 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 25 no. 2 1965; (p. 141-143)

— Review of Harry's Child Suzanne Holly Jones , 1964 single work novel ; No Saddles for Kangaroos : A Novel Ralph De Boissiere , 1964 single work novel ; Wild Cat Falling Colin Johnson , 1965 single work novel
New Novels John McLaren , 1965 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 32 1965; (p. 43-45)

— Review of Harry's Child Suzanne Holly Jones , 1964 single work novel ; Across the Sea Wall Christopher Koch , 1965 single work novel ; Mayor's Nest Tony Morphett , 1964 single work novel ; Wild Cat Falling Colin Johnson , 1965 single work novel
[Review] Wild Cat Falling Adam Shoemaker , 1992 single work review
— Appears in: Imago : New Writing , November vol. 4 no. 3 1992; (p. 91-92)

— Review of Real Deadly Ruby Langford Ginibi , 1992 selected work poetry prose extract ; Wild Cat Falling Colin Johnson , 1965 single work novel
[Review] Wild Cat Falling F. M. (fl. 1955-1970) , 1965 single work review
— Appears in: Advocate: A Weekly Catholic Journal , 1 April 1965; (p. 18)

— Review of Wild Cat Falling Colin Johnson , 1965 single work novel
[Review] Wild Cat Falling Alec King , 1965 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , May no. 1 1965; (p. 70-71)

— Review of Wild Cat Falling Colin Johnson , 1965 single work novel
y separately published work icon Aboriginal Experience Lloyd Cameron , Glebe : Pascal Press , 1994 Z1019180 1994 single work criticism
form y separately published work icon Aboriginal Experience Martin Didsbury , 1994 Z1019197 1994 single work film/TV

'The stories told by Ruby Langford Ginibi in Don't Take Your Love to Town, Sally Morgan My Place, and Mudrooroo in Wild Cat Falling provide the starting point for discussions on some of the key events and issues that have affected Aboriginal people.

Part 1: 'Aboriginal Experience' looks at the practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families, and denial of Aboriginality and equal rights. Part 2: 'Reclaiming Identity' looks at the importance of the family and the land to Aboriginal people and their quest to reclaim their identity.'

From 'Black' Caesar to Mudrooroo : The African Diaspora in Australia Cassandra Pybus , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Mongrel Signatures : Reflections on the Work of Mudrooroo 2003; (p. 25-41)
Reality Rights in the Wildcat Trilogy Maureen Clark , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Mongrel Signatures : Reflections on the Work of Mudrooroo 2003; (p. 43-64)
Voice of Australia: Who Speaks for the Aborigine? Anjali Gera Roy , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cultural Interfaces 2004; (p. 18-29)
Roy examines the 'legitimacy of the speaking subject' and concludes that 'If the speaking status of the aboriginal writer is legitimised merely by identity markers like whiteness and blackness, non-aboriginal writers like Wositzky would naturally be denied entry. However, they could claim speaking rights by speaking space of writing. Mudrooroo or Morgan are no more privileged than Wositzky in articulating primordial aboriginal identities. On the other hand, finding a vantage point in the discursive space of orality can help them archive, if not recover, aboriginal voice.'
Last amended 3 Jul 2020 09:02:47
Settings:
  • Perth, Western Australia,
  • Fremantle, Fremantle area, South West Perth, Perth, Western Australia,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X