'In this passionate and electrifying short book, Christos Tsiolkas writes about his year spent reading Patrick White, of his ‘discovery and rediscovery of White as a writer.’ The result is a vivid introduction to and celebration of the Nobel prize-winning writer’s work that asks: what does it mean to us now?
'In the Writers on Writers series, leading writers reflect on another Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative, crisp and written from a practitioner’s perspective, the series starts a fresh conversation between past and present, and writer and reader. It sheds light on the craft of writing, and introduces some intriguing and talented authors and their work.' (Publication summary)
Author's note:
In memoriam and with gratitude to,
Jaroslav Havir
'This article takes up a specific feature of Christos Tsiolkas's writing, his style. Focusing on Tsiolkas's fourth novel, The Slap, this article argues that Tsiolkas’s style is an inarticulate style: a style that does not always use the right word at the right moment, that employs language for narrative utility rather than its own sake, and that sporadically departs from standard usage and correctness in ways that do not appear artistically motivated. My argument is that The Slap is notable among contemporary fiction in that what I consider to be Tsiolkas’s worst sentences are the most revealing of his inclinations as a novelist. Consequently, I depart from what has become a standard formula in Tsiolkas's reception, that where Tsiolkas succeeds as a writer he succeeds in spite of his style. Finally, this article also contributes to recent debates about the purpose and vocabulary of Australian literary discussion: how critics debate the work of a prize-winning author, how criticism and praise operate in critical judgements, and the significance of style in evaluations of literature.' (Publication abstract)
'Patrick White’s The Ham Funeral (written 1947, first performed in 1961) has not received much critical or dramaturgical interrogation, and yet this play provides insight into how the internationally renowned novelist translated and transformed language for the stage. The draw of the inevitable somatic embodiment of the play-text is central to White’s dramaturgical knack for creating characters for the stage. This chapter considers dramaturgy as an active literary critical method that renders a narrative ‘live’ and manifesting the playwright’s intentions. White’s The Ham Funeral can be seen as a case study for how he specifically defied traditional Australian dramatic conventions of the mid-twentieth century in order to propel new ways of writing plays for Australian audiences. His focus on the somatic rendering of language in The Ham Funeral specifically requires live bodies to realise crucial dramatic meaning occurring at the interface between language and liveness.'
Source: Abstract
'If one were to pool all the relevant evidence culled from his occasional excoriations of Australian academia, one would soon realise that Patrick White (1912-1990) was hardly ever generous with local researchers, despite the bountiful critical attention he received from them. Entrusting Christos Tsiolkas — a fellow writer outside of the scholarly arena — with the daunting task of reading and writing an appreciation of the entire opus of Australia’s sole Nobel-Prize for Literature therefore comes across as a rather shrewd editorial strategy.' (Introduction)
Christos Tsiolkas on Patrick White
Sean O’Beirne
(interviewer),
2018
23467724
2018
single work
podcast
interview
'Hear our bookseller Sean O’Beirne in conversation with author Christos Tsiolkas about the legacy of Nobel Prize winner Patrick White.' (Production summary)
'The blurb on the back of Christos Tsiolkas’ impassioned personal meditation on the work of Patrick White claims that White ‘…recognised, through his own alienation and his profound love for his partner, that we were a migrant, mongrel nation forging our own culture and our own language’.' (Introduction)
'Christos Tsiolkas's essay on Patrick White is a study in one writer's love for another and a mediation on the erotics of reading and writing.' (Introduction)
'If one were to pool all the relevant evidence culled from his occasional excoriations of Australian academia, one would soon realise that Patrick White (1912-1990) was hardly ever generous with local researchers, despite the bountiful critical attention he received from them. Entrusting Christos Tsiolkas — a fellow writer outside of the scholarly arena — with the daunting task of reading and writing an appreciation of the entire opus of Australia’s sole Nobel-Prize for Literature therefore comes across as a rather shrewd editorial strategy.' (Introduction)
'This short book, the third in Black Inc’s “Writers on Writers” series, sees Christos Tsiolkas reviving his love of Patrick White. Tsiolkas acknowledges David Marr’s thorough and acclaimed White biography early on – here he’s writing something between a personal–professional appreciation and a critical study.' (Introduction)
'The blurb on the back of Christos Tsiolkas’ impassioned personal meditation on the work of Patrick White claims that White ‘…recognised, through his own alienation and his profound love for his partner, that we were a migrant, mongrel nation forging our own culture and our own language’.' (Introduction)
'This article takes up a specific feature of Christos Tsiolkas's writing, his style. Focusing on Tsiolkas's fourth novel, The Slap, this article argues that Tsiolkas’s style is an inarticulate style: a style that does not always use the right word at the right moment, that employs language for narrative utility rather than its own sake, and that sporadically departs from standard usage and correctness in ways that do not appear artistically motivated. My argument is that The Slap is notable among contemporary fiction in that what I consider to be Tsiolkas’s worst sentences are the most revealing of his inclinations as a novelist. Consequently, I depart from what has become a standard formula in Tsiolkas's reception, that where Tsiolkas succeeds as a writer he succeeds in spite of his style. Finally, this article also contributes to recent debates about the purpose and vocabulary of Australian literary discussion: how critics debate the work of a prize-winning author, how criticism and praise operate in critical judgements, and the significance of style in evaluations of literature.' (Publication abstract)
Christos Tsiolkas on Patrick White
Sean O’Beirne
(interviewer),
2018
23467724
2018
single work
podcast
interview
'Hear our bookseller Sean O’Beirne in conversation with author Christos Tsiolkas about the legacy of Nobel Prize winner Patrick White.' (Production summary)
