Reading Helen Koukoutsis : Cicada Chimes single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 Reading Helen Koukoutsis : Cicada Chimes
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'In her collection of poems Cicada Chimes, Helen Koukoutsis, an Australian poet of Greek Orthodox heritage explores the conflicting emotions produced by death and loss. The collection begins with her father’s funeral and ends with a dramatic manifesto that shows grief’s expressive power. The questions that frame this reading of Cicada Chimes are:  how does this modern Australian poet utilise cultural and religious traditions for elegy? What type of spirituality does Koukoutsis identify with? And how does her work both draw on, and critically distance itself from traditional Greek rituals of lament? I will argue that Koukoutsis’ speaker positions herself both inside and outside her Orthodox faith tradition. Her inherited Eastern Mediterranean beliefs and customs are a source of consolation for her, but they are also sites of alienation and oppression. This collection of poems negotiates this contradictory relationship to tradition.' (Publication abstract)

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    y separately published work icon JASAL Location and Re-locations vol. 19 no. 2 2019 18506393 2019 periodical issue 'This issue of JASAL consists of five new essays offering fresh perspectives on how we locate Australian literature both geographically and conceptually.' (Ellen Smith and Tony Simoes Da Silva, Editorial introduction) 2019
Last amended 9 Jan 2020 08:10:16
https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/JASAL/article/view/13324 Reading Helen Koukoutsis : Cicada Chimessmall AustLit logo JASAL
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