Bush Legends and Pastoral Landscapes single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 Bush Legends and Pastoral Landscapes
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'From the mid-nineteenth century to the present, the bush has been among the most powerful ways of signifying Australia. The term has been used with reference to diverse landscapes and ways of life and has been given radically different political meanings - conservative, imperialist, republican, utopian, and socialist. The bush landscape has been populated by noble pioneers and rough-hewn bush workers and projected equally as the site of regeneration and degeneration. Beneath these divergent meanings lies the shared belief that it is in the bush that the authentic, distinctive, typical, or essential Australia will be found. In 1893 the journalist Francis Adams wrote that, despite the many harsh aspects of life in the bush, ‘not only all that is genuinely characteristic in Australia and the Australians spring[s] from this heart of the land, but also all that is noblest, kindliest, and best’ (154). The bushman was the ‘one powerful and unique national type yet produced in Australia’ (163). (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Teaching Australian and New Zealand Literature Nicholas Birns (editor), Nicole Moore (editor), Sarah Shieff (editor), New York (City) : Modern Language Association of America , 2016 9421541 2016 anthology criticism essay

    'Australia and New Zealand, united geographically by their location in the South Pacific and linguistically by their English-speaking inhabitants, share the strong bond of hope for cultural diversity and social equality—one often challenged by history, starting with the appropriation of land from their indigenous peoples. This volume explores significant themes and topics in Australian and New Zealand literature. In their introduction, the editors address both the commonalities and differences between the two nations’ literatures by considering literary and historical contexts and by making nuanced connections between the global and the local. Contributors share their experiences teaching literature on the iconic landscape and ecological fragility; stories and perspectives of convicts, migrants, and refugees; and Maori and Aboriginal texts, which add much to the transnational turn.' (Publication summary)

    New York (City) : Modern Language Association of America , 2016
    pg. 42-54
Last amended 17 Aug 2017 10:40:49
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