Issue Details: First known date: 2014... 2014 Alert, but not Alarmed : Emotion, Place and Anticipated Disaster in John Kinsella’s ‘Bushfire Approaching’
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'This essay examines John Kinsella’s prize-winning poem “Bushfire Approaching.” Drawing on Brian Massumi’s work on anticipated disaster—in particular his attention to trauma-survivors haunted by “the smoke of future fires”—we analyze Kinsella’s treatment of debates surrounding climate change in Australia. Fire in ‘Bushfire Approaching’ is both symbolic and real, representing burning in the past, present and future. The poem’s articulation of place, space and time captures oppositions between the willed amnesia attributed to many fire survivors, along with a vision of a future punctuated by repeated climatic catastrophes. Deploying affect theory and close reading through an ecocritical lens, we interpret the bushfire as a signifier of the complex relationship between climate change and custodianship of the land. This approach situates Kinsella’s poetry within a broader discussion of the bushfire as a natural phenomenon, while we also consider the poet’s deep respect for fire and its role in Australian ecology.'

Source: Abstract.

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Last amended 18 May 2022 10:46:52
343-359 Alert, but not Alarmed : Emotion, Place and Anticipated Disaster in John Kinsella’s ‘Bushfire Approaching’small AustLit logo Philological Quarterly
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