y separately published work icon Overland periodical issue   peer reviewed assertion
Issue Details: First known date: 2020... no. 241 Summer 2020 of Overland est. 1954 Overland
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.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The idea of a public or collective space is inherently fluid and perhaps contradictory: a matter of constantly sham; definitions. What we witnessed on the sixth of January - at the US Capitol building was, among other things. a dispute about what a public institution is, and what it owes to which citizens. Scenes of white police officers calmly allowing Trump supporters to infiltrate the senate floor and some of the reported remarks: 'This is not America ... they're supposed to shoot BLM' nakedly displayed the inequity of some of these definitions. A number of the essays in this edition engage with our previous edition's focus on global Indigenous activism. others explore the complexity of inter-subjective space in other contexts. Writing and publishing are their own kinds of public space, structured by the conflicting definitions of race, class, and gender. In 'White Mythology* Derrida argued that western metaphysics. in attempting to erase its own historical specificity, misrepresents itself as abstract, universal, and infinitely plastic. In Australian writing the myth is more precise. William Stanner described Australian history as a window carefully placed to allow only one view of the landscape, and Australian literature is still marked by this myopia. Michael R Griffiths writes that the expression of settler nationalism is built upon a pathology of melancholia: a colonial logic of elimination which fetishises that which it destroys. This logic is palpable in much canonical Australian writing, from Lawson and Patterson, to Patrick White and Eleanor Dark, to the Jindyworobaks and Les Murray. To articulate an effective ethics of reading, writing, and publishing in this continent we must properly frame Aboriginality as an agentic subject, rather than a nationalist prop. Jeanine Leane's essay in this edition is a singular step towards better definitions. 

Solidarity. ' (Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk, Editorial)

Contents

* Contents derived from the 2020 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
300 Words for Truth, Mammad Aidani , single work essay
'We live in the age of new catastrophes. An exile's life is about fighting against oppression in the country of birth, gaining knowledge, demanding justice and freedom for all the world's people. Being an exile has taught me the true meaning of commitment, resoluteness and resistance of oppression and injustice.' (Introduction) 
 
(p. 3-10)
No Longer Malleable Stuff, Jeanine Leane , single work essay

'Within the white imagination there is an invisible charter of rights that I hear frequently quoted, touted, lauded: It is my right to imagine whatever I want! My imagination is free! So encoded is this invisible charter of rights that insists that the white imagination has no limits that all peoples and places deemed as 'other' become carte blanche - a blank white page for their imaginations to write.' (Introduction)

(p. 11-17)
Resistance, Stephen Muecke , single work essay
'With such a voltage difference, the electrical energy passing through the resistor is transformed into heat. If there is too much potential difference, the resistor can burn out. It's an inefficiency in a circuit. You know how your laptop gets hot? That kind of inefficiency. The more efficient a system becomes, the less resistance there is, the less wasted heat energy. At least in theory. And in yet another cosmos, the State would like its politics to run with this kind of efficiency, without resistance. Power surging through the system untrammelled. But this kind of absolute system is impossible, for all systems have in-built inefficiencies for power to work against: It would not be possible,' Michel Foucault said, 'for power relations to exist without points of insubordination which, by definition, are means of escape'. ' (Introduction)
(p. 19-23)
Prepare for Collapse, Sam Altman , single work essay
'Wholesale collapse of Earth's planetary systems that sustain life as we know it is happening unevenly across the world. The poorest populations are already experiencing this. As the basic prerequisites of life — water, food and energy are becoming more contested. Political violence is on the rise. There will be no peace! The scientific evidence for climate and ecological collapse is very strong. However, it has been much too meekly expressed. ' (Introduction)
 
(p. 24-26)
The Australian Government Is Not Listening : Education Justice and Remote Indigenous Futures, Lisa Stefanoff , single work essay
'It's nighttime in the desert, moments before the opening credits of the acclaimed feature documentary In My Blood It Runs. We're in a dusty yard enclosed in cyclone-wire fencing with 10-year-old multi-lingual Arrernte/ Garrwa healer Dujuan Hoosan. He's running joyfully, a firework in one hand. The danger and beauty of marking presence in the darkness with explosive devices is captivating. The hand-held camera tracking his exuberance is enchanted and enchanting. Giggles bubble into the open night.' (Introduction) 
 
(p. 27-36)
Underfoot : History from Below, Liz Crash , Jinghua Qian , single work essay
'Underfoot is a series of virtual multimedia tours uncovering the secret histories of Footscray. Two old friends, both long-time Footscray residents, bring an intimate lens to local history as they travel through the archives looking for people like them : Queers, migrants, radicals, and artists.' (Introduction)
(p. 37-47)
On the Fantasy Work That Makes Life Bearable, Angelita Biscotti , single work essay
'Ray Filar writes that sex work is service work, that capitalism dangles money and celebrity as gains one can make in the field of 'erotic professionalism'. This illusory and elusive promise of autonomy, wealth and desirability elides the precarity and complexity of how race, gender, ability, class, and technological advances facilitate disparities in sex workers' experiences and expectations.' (Introduction)
 
(p. 49-56)
Great Dividing Rangei"I would like to try to find it again,", William Fox , single work poetry (p. 57)
Opacities, Royal Parki"out on the circle", Emily Barber , single work poetry (p. 58)
Seami"Down by the carousel", Cameron Lowe , single work poetry (p. 59)
Bonzai"Citation (use of) as a form of resettlement", Ann Vickery , single work poetry (p. 59)
Seek Orchards, Shelteri"they sailed into some savage country in 1926 on the ss victoria, incarcerated by a map of ideal drawings, dim in the hold", Grace Yee , single work poetry (p. 60-61)
Ice Skateri"She loved to look like lovers and to be dressed all in", Monique Lyle , single work poetry (p. 62)
The Rosei"He held up her portrait, close, noticing things about", Monique Lyle , single work poetry (p. 62)
Lake Eucumbenei"Eucumbene has fallen below the stump", Rico Craig , single work poetry (p. 63)
Mnemonic 2020i"Uncle takes us walking on Yuin Country", Yeena Kirkbright , single work poetry (p. 64-66)
River : Contra/Indicationsi"Even if I see and don't see the river's writhing", Jill Jones , single work poetry (p. 67)
Squad Assemblyi"Insidious threat containment along nativist drywall,", Ann Vickery , single work poetry (p. 68)
Frog Song, Magdalena McGuire , single work short story (p. 69-74)
Smoke and Mirrors, Samuel Wagan Watson , single work short story (p. 75-78)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 5 May 2021 13:48:46
X