Issue Details: First known date: 2024... 2024 Neo-Victorian Approaches to the Colonial Past in Ruth Park’s Playing Beatie Bow
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Fantasy narratives for young people that represented Australia’s history, prior to, and after white settlement, initially depicted alternative pasts in which the land was populated by familiar European and British magical beings such as fairies and giants. Ruth Park’s Playing Beatie Bow (1980) marked the beginning of Australian children’s fantasy that sought to depict the country’s urban colonial history and reconcile its development into a modern nation. The time-slip novel, in which 14-year-old protagonist Abigail Kirk unwittingly travels from Sydney in the late-1970s to 1873, nevertheless engages in a similar process of importing British mythology to fill a presumed cultural vacancy in which First Nations people are erased. In Park’s novel, the folklore of the Orkney Islands, from which the family she encounters in the past has emigrated, provides the explanation for Abigail’s time travel and her place in contemporary Australia. Abigail’s time travel experience uncovers direct genealogical links between contemporary Australians and colonial settlers and the supernatural connections between Abigail and the colonial family counteract the absence of local mythical traditions.'  (Publication abstract)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Literary Studies Special Issue: Ruth Park vol. 39 no. 2 3 October 2024 28925405 2024 periodical issue criticism 2024
Last amended 8 Oct 2024 09:30:46
https://www.australianliterarystudies.com.au/articles/neo-victorian-approaches-to-the-colonial-past-in-ruth-parks-playing-beatie-bow Neo-Victorian Approaches to the Colonial Past in Ruth Park’s Playing Beatie Bowsmall AustLit logo Australian Literary Studies
Subjects:
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
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